138 TURKEY CULTURE. 



from your gaze. When she has set twenty-eight days, the 

 young turkeys are mostly out, but don't be impatient! 

 About twenty-four hours after the first one is hatched, the 

 hen will leave the nest. She does this early in the morn- 

 ing. You may throw in her accustomed food, but the lit- 

 tle ones will eat nothing, in all probability. In the after- 

 noon go again, with a boiled egg chopped fine, which the 

 little turkeys will pick at in a lazy, wondering way. Af- 

 ter this go twice each day, and always be sure to feed the 

 mother with plenty of grain, as then she will not eat so 

 much of the food you have been at so much trouble to 

 prepare for the young, and having a full crop, she will not 

 wander so far. Keep her from undesirable localities, but 

 otherwise do not restrain her. After a few meals of boiled 

 eggs, bread crumbs and curd, prepare a daily bill of fare, 

 by baking a bread, made of one part corn meal, one part 

 oat meal, two parts wheat shorts or middlings. Add a lit- 

 tle salt and a little bone meal. Feed this dry in crumbs, 

 except the crust, which should be soaked in milk. This 

 dough must be mixed with either sweet or sour milk. 

 Curd, or pot cheese, is always in order, and it should be 

 seen to that the hen has, or can get, access to water. 



Lice never trouble poultry that has a wide range. 

 Roup is very dangerous to young turkeys. It usually comes 

 in wet weather, and as prevention is better than cure, it 

 is a good plan to drive the brood up on high ground over 

 night, and give plenty of food, with a little pepper. If 

 you could drive them under a shed or other shelter, it 

 would be best, but this is not always possible. The only 

 way, in such cases, is to feed so as to keep from wander- 

 ing. If any chicks show signs of roup, separate from the 

 flock, and put in a warm, dry place, and treat as you 

 would a fowl chick with the roup. 'Diarrhoea is another 

 fatal disease, and although a turkey hatched under proper 

 conditions will usually escape both of these diseases, yet it 

 is better to be on guard. Green corn usually causes the 



