PRIZE ESSAYS ON TURKEY CULTURE. 123 



taking orders, noting size and sex wished, as some prefer 

 a hen x some a torn. Do not try to sell your turkeys al\ 

 in one week, if you have many. To kill turkeys, drive 

 two posts in the ground ten feet apart, and have the posts 

 about six feet high. On top nail a scantling. To the 

 scantling, or pole, tie a tarred cord with a slip noose at 

 lower end. Catch your turkey and slip its legs through 

 the noose and let it hang head downward. Catch the head 

 in your left hand and with a sharp knife in right hand, 

 open the turkey's mouth and run the knife blade down 

 the throat, cutting toward top of the head on both sides 

 of the throat. Let hang until perfectly bled. This, done 

 deftly and quickly, is the neatest and most humane method 

 of killing. You can hang three or four up at once and 

 they will not bruise themselves flopping about. Find out 

 whether your market demands the head on or not. 



Whether you pick dry or scald, plump them by dipping, 

 after being picked, first in clear, scalding water, and then 

 in cold. Wipe the inside carefully with a clean cloth. 

 Cut as neat a vent as possible and pull the crop out through 

 that, never cutting over the crop. Be sure the windpipe 

 is removed, and for private families, who usually wish the 

 head removed, bring the skin up over the top of the neck 

 and tie neatly with white cord. The turkeys should have 

 no feed the night before killing. Be sure to infuse new 

 blood in your flock each year, either by changing toms or 

 hens, or get a dozen eggs to raise your own "new blood." 

 The secrets of turkey raising are, freedom from lice, clean, 

 dry feed, and dry, clean quarters, and do not try to con- 

 vert them to your habits, but try to conform to theirs. 



THJED PRIZE ESSAY. 



BY MISS B. J. PINE, BERKSHIRE COUNTY, MASS. 



My experience in raising turkeys has been a very suc- 

 cessful one, extending over quite a number of years. I 

 think the time when I first became the proud possessor of 



