68 TURKEY CULTURE. 



The young chicks must have green food. If they can- 

 not obtain plenty of grass, give chopped lettuce, dande- 

 lions, onion tops (these last sparingly), turnip tops, e c. 

 Buckwheat, cracked corn, and wheat may be given at 

 night, after they get large enough. Do not leave food 

 around. Feed each time only so much as will be eaten 

 up clean. After the first two weeks give sour milk 

 freely. After they can get insects, no other meat than 

 the milk will be necessary. The particular enemies of 

 the young turkeys are lice and diarrhea, but both may 

 be conquered. These will be treated in the chapter 

 on Hindrances. 



During the feathering period, the chicks must have 

 plenty of bone- and feather-forming material. This is 

 supplied best in the form of finely chopped meat and 

 green bones. A good bone mill or cutter is indispensable 

 when much poultry are kept. See that they have grit, in 

 the form of pounded crockery, oyster shells and clean 

 gravel. The best thing I ever used was small sea shells 

 from the sea coast of Connecticut. They cost about a dol- 

 lar per barrel. 



In addition to the foregoing, the following hints 

 brought out by the most careful inquiry by the Khode 

 Island Experiment Station, of the methods pursued by the 

 best turkey specialists in that State, are of interest : Little 

 turkeys do best if kept and fed separate from fowls and 

 chickens. They are weak and tender creatures, and as they 

 grow very fast, require an abundance of nutritive and 

 easily digested food, but it must not be too concentrated. 

 Too rich food, too much food that is hard to digest, or a 

 lack of green food, will cause bowel trouble. Little tur- 

 keys require food oftener than little chickens. Feed little 

 and often. Give cooked food until they grow enough to 

 develop the red about the head, or green food, like chopped 

 onions and lettuce, if they are confined to a pen. Remem- 

 ber that little chickens thrive under confinement that 



