ESSEX SOCIETY. 105 



removed in a few days, when the hahit of strolling in the 

 wrong direction is cured. But ramble they must, if they are 

 to get their living by foraging in the pastures. If you have a 

 bed of cabbages, be sure to protect them from your turkeys, or 

 you will have only the stumps left for yourself. Early in the 

 fall they should be fed night and morning with dry corn. 

 When the weather becomes colder, they may be supplied at 

 frequent intervals with a mash of boiled potatoes, Indian meal 

 and skim milk, given to them warm. Of this they will eat 

 most voraciously. They now ramble but little, preferring 

 rather to hang about the sunny side of buildings and walls, 

 from which they will hasten when called to their food, and 

 having devoured it, repair thither again. Thus plentifully fed, 

 they thrive most rapidly, increasing in size, in the short space 

 of six months, from the wee chick that was hatched in the 

 spring, to the plump and tempting roaster, if a male, of twelve 

 and fifteen pounds weight, and if a female, eight and ten 

 pounds, at Thanksgiving. 



Now, it may fairly be asked, will the price at which turkeys 

 usually sell in the market at that time, pay a profit for the rear- 

 ing of them ? It is difficult to tell the precise quantity of food 

 consumed by a turkey from first to last, so as to estimate the 

 cost of it. But when they bring fifteen cents a pound, I be- 

 lieve those that raise them are generally satisfied with the pro- 

 fits, taking corn at an average price. At any rate, I have been, 

 from an experience of the past ten years; having during that 

 time reared about fifty turkeys a year, and in one year eighty- 

 six young turkeys from six old ones. In the rearing of turkeys 

 care and attention are all important. Ill luck will sometimes 

 happen, but here, as in most other pursuits, ill luck is often only 

 another name for a want of attention. It is a pleasant work to 

 have the care of turkeys. They are company for you at all 

 times ; first to salute you with their jovial gobbling in the 

 morning, and ready at any moment to run to you at your call. 

 And the interest we take in them is all the greater, from the 

 care and solicitude with which we have watched over them. 

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