52 TURKEY CULTURE. 



Do not overfeed or starve your flock. The natural 

 food of the turkey, in its wild state, consists of insects, 

 worms, grass, berries and seeds. You can approximate that 

 diet with your domesticated birds by the use of meat 

 scraps, grain and soft feed. After fasting through a long, 

 cold winter's night, such as we have from Maine to Idaho, 

 the birds' crops are empty. The best breakfast then is a 

 hot mush, made of wheat screenings, corn meal, cropped 

 onions or other vegetable matter, as turnip tops, which 

 grow on the turnips in the cellar, or mashed potatoes, all 

 mixed with boiling water. Two or three times a week 

 season this with cayenne or black pepper. A little salt now 

 and then may not be objectionable, but that is less essen- 

 tial. Turkeys are not horned cattle, which need much 

 salt. Here is my mixture for the birds' breakfast : One 

 part by measure of corn meal, two parts wheat screenings, 

 one part chopped onions (or two parts mashed boiled pota- 

 toes, or two parts raw chopped sweet apples), and one part 

 meat scraps, mixed with boiling water to the consistency 

 of thick dough. Let it stand, covered, until the meal is 

 thoroughly swelled. Fifteen minutes is long enough. Feed 

 what they can eat up clean. Don't let them surfeit them- 

 selves. Then throw a little grain broadcast over the litter 

 on the floor, and let them scratch for it. Keep clean water 

 in clean vessels before them all the time, also pounded 

 crockery. No need of having an unsightly pile of broken 

 dishes behind your barn or outhouse if you keep poultry. 

 The avidity with which fowls devour this material is 

 astonishing. I have found, by experience, that in the 

 winter time it is better than gravel. Feed chopped rowen 

 or clover occasionally. Keep crushed or granulated oyster 

 shells before them always. 



In the short days of our northern winters, not much 

 need be fed at noon. Remember, you are not fattening 

 your turkeys for market. Keep them too fat and the 

 eggs are in danger of proving sterile. Many 



