PRIZE ESSAYS ON TURKEY CULTURE. 119 



compact in size. Select young hens, as they are prolific 

 layers and not so prone to wander. Each fancier has his 

 favorite breed ; mine is the Bronze, as they are so quiet 

 and take on flesh rapidly and attain a large size. We sold 

 in January toms hatched in June, which weighed eighteen 

 pounds dressed. 



Be careful, in buying turkeys or eggs, not to buy from 

 yards where there has been cholera or other contagious 

 disease. It is much better to buy breeding stock in the 

 fall or early winter, as the stock to select from is larger 

 and prices are lower. The diet, which is of much 

 importance, can also be more carefully attended to as the 

 breeding season approaches. Corn, oats, wheat and buck- 

 wheat, with an occasional warm mash until Feb. 1, is good 

 feed. After that date but little corn should be fed, but 

 plenty of oats, bone meal, wheat and milk, as they are 

 muscle- and bone-forming foods. Provide access to pure, 

 clean water at all times, as well as to the dust bath, gravel, 

 oyster shells and lime. Lime insures hard-shelled eggs, 

 which is of great importance. An occasional feed of 

 chopped clover or cabbage leaves is much relished until 

 grass comes. At least once a week give Sheridan's condition 

 powder in their warm feed, one tablespoonful to six tur- 

 keys. Also give a teaspoonful of the Douglas mixture in a 

 gallon of drinking water twice a week. My turkeys have 

 access to a shed, and to roosts out of doors, but unless the 

 night is very cold or stormy they do not go into the shed. 

 When new turkeys are taken from the crates, look them 

 over thoroughly for lice, especially in the large hollows 

 between the quill feathers on top of the wings. Dust them 

 plentifully with insect powder. 



To insure fertile eggs, mating must occur ten days before 

 laying. A peculiar call, we'l known to the turkey raiser, 

 announces that the hen is hunting a nest, and now comes 

 the tug of war, for nine out of ten will persist in laying just 

 where they should not, either in the woods, a mile away, 



