174 ESSAY ON REARING TURKEYS. 



length, so as to allow her just to hobble. The fetter can be 

 removed in a few days, when the habit 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 vora- 

 ciously. 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 a six month, 

 from the wes 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 of the prof- 

 its, 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. 



