TURKEY RAISING 



reason that the northern raised turkey is in better repute 

 on the market. 



While the turkeys in the best condition for marketing 

 should be selected to send to the Thanksgiving and Christ- 

 mas markets, it is necessary here for the turkey raiser to 

 use judgment in not selecting all of the best birds of the 

 flock for this purpose. In other words, he should pick 

 out the strongest, most vigorous, best grown, early ma- 

 turing birds to reserve as breeders. Failure to do this and 

 to send all such birds to the market simply because they 

 are in condition will result in his having a lot of small, 

 less thrifty, late maturing birds left for breeders, and this 

 will of course lead to deterioration in his flock. 



Sometimes the effort is made to fatten the turkeys by 

 penning them in a relatively small enclosure and feeding 

 them there with the idea that by preventing their ranging 

 they will not use up so much of their energy in this way 

 and more of the feed will go to flesh. While turkeys 

 penned in this manner usually eat well for a day or two, 

 after a few days they are likely to go off their feed, lose 

 their appetites and lose flesh rather than gain it. For 

 this reason it is not well as a rule to attempt to pen the 

 turkeys when fattening them, but they should rather be 

 allowed to continue on free range where they will keep 

 in better condition and will be eager for their feed and, 

 therefore, more inclined to fatten to good advantage. 



Where turkeys have free range under conditions where 

 there are large quantities of nuts such as beech nuts, chest- 

 nuts, pecans and acorns, little attention need be given to 



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