MARKETING 



on it quite heavily without bad results, but to feed it 

 in considerable quantities at the start is very likely to 

 cause scours. 



A better practice in fattening is to begin feeding for 

 this purpose at night and morning about October i. At 

 first the feeds should be light so that the birds will go 

 away feeling a little hungry. As they become used to 

 being fed the amount can be gradually increased until dur- 

 ing the week previous to sending them to the market they 

 can be given all they will eat up three times a day. Corn 

 is the grain which is most commonly used for this purpose 

 and is excellent especially during the latter part of the 

 feeding when the weather is cooler. Some turkey raisers 

 feed wheat and oats during the first part of the fattening 

 period and gradually change to corn with the cooler 

 weather. It will be found that not all turkeys are fat- 

 tened with equal facility and the usual practice is to pick 

 out the birds which have fattened and are in pretty good 

 shape for sending to the Thanksgiving market and to con- 

 tinue to feed the others in order to get them in better 

 shape for the Christmas market. Sometimes also it is 

 good policy for the turkey raisers if they have lots of 

 feed on hand and if their turkeys are a little late or not 

 in prime condition, to hold them over past the Thanks- 

 giving market so as to have a longer fattening period to 

 put them in better condition. As a rule more attention 

 is paid to fattening and finishing the turkeys by the rais- 

 ers in the North. As a result of this the southern turkeys 

 are inclined to run poorer in quality and it is for this 



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