CHAPTER V. 



SELECTION OF PARENT STOCK. 



In reserving or selecting parent stock from which to 

 raise turkeys for the market, do not overlook a most im- 

 portant matter, the age of the parents. Ten- or twelve- 

 months-old turkeys are not sufficiently mature to produce 

 the strongest progeny. Old turkeys lay larger eggs, and 

 the young are larger and stronger when hatched. If neces- 

 sity forces you to breed from stock of your own raising, 

 keep the hens three, four, five or six years, if necessary. 

 No judicious farmer will kill off his good heifers after they 

 have dropped their first calves. He knows the progeny 

 will become better and better, until age enfeebles the 

 parent. So with turkeys. The same breeding stock may 

 be kept, after they have proved their value, for some 

 time. When you wish to replenish or renew the parent 

 stock, select the best of your young hens and get a first-class 

 torn not related to them ; then you have your new stock 

 to take the place of the others, whenever it may be 

 deemed proper to dispose of the old ones. As Mrs. A. J. 

 Sexson, who took the first Farm, and Home prize for 

 essays on turkey culture, says: "The future stock depends 

 very much upon the parent birds, or their ancestry. Be- 

 peated breeding from inferior birds makes inferiority 

 hereditary." When grown for exhibition purposes, pure 

 strains only should be kept, but for marketing, cross 

 breeds are not objectionable. 



One essayist produced the best results by mating two- 

 year-old toms to four-year-old hens. A four- or five-year- 

 old torn is apt to attain a great weight if kept well fed, 



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