1090 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part 111. 



or nourishing, M those rattened upon more simple and substantial rood . aa, lot example, meal and milk, 

 wit in nit the addition of either treacle or sugar, w nh retpect to grease • >i any kind, its chief effect must 

 be in render the Seen looae and of Indelicate Savour, Nor is any advantage gained, excluding the com- 

 mercial one. 



7 i.s t, ill,- metkodt qf cramming t<>i confining fn a tot the size of the body of the fowl, and allowing iti 

 head and sent to project for Intromission and ejection ; of blinding the bird tor this purpose ; or of nail- 

 ing it to the board : and also the mode of Inning down li<|iiiil food by a particular kind of pump, worked hy 

 the fool of the feeder ; all these and other cruel practices we wish we could abolish in practice, and obli- 

 terate from the printed page. 



7isk Caitration i- performed on cocks and hens only in some districts, and chiefly in Berkshire and 

 Su--r\. The u^iial time is when the) have left the hen, or when the cocks begin to crow, but the earlier 

 the better It is a barbarous practice and better omitted. Capons are shunned both by hens and cocks, 

 which, it is said, will not roost on the same perch with them. The Chinese mode of making capons is fully 

 described and illustrated with cuts in the Farmer'* Magazine, vol. vi. p. 46. 



7485. Pinioning qfjowtt is often practised to restrain them from roosting too high, or from flying over 

 fence-, &C ; and is much more convenient than the cutting their wing feathers only. Hut in the ordinary 

 method- "i merely excising the pinion, it is frequently fatal ; and almost always so to full-grown birds or 

 fowls, by their bleeding to death. To prevent this in the long. winged tribes, as ducks, geese, &C, pass a 



threaded needle through their wing, close by the inside of the 

 smaller bone ( fg. 93.7. a), and making a ligature with the thread 

 across the larger bone, and returning it on the outside of all, the 

 principal blood-vessels are secured, which could not be accom- 

 plished by a ligature confined to the surface only. After the 

 blood-vessels have been thus secured, cut off the portion of wing 

 beyond the ligature with seissars or shears. In the Gallinacea or 

 short-winged tribes, as cocks, hens, &c, the operation is rendered 

 safer by being performed on the beginning of the next joint (6), 

 making the ligature embrace all the vessels between these two hones bypassing it twice through, and 

 securing each bone individually, and passing the ligature around the whole of that part of the wing 

 generally. In this way also birds which have been accidentally winged in shooting may be preserved. 



7486. The turkey (Afeleagris Gallipavo L.,Jig. 936.) is a native of America, and was 



introduced into this country from 



936 





Spain soon after the discovery of 

 the former country. The colour 

 in the wild state is black, but do- 

 mestication has produced great 

 variety. 



7487. In a state of nature they are said 

 to parade in flocks of rive hundred, feed- 

 ing, in general, where abundance oi 

 nettles are to be found, the seed of which 

 and of a small red acorn is their common 

 food in the American woods. They get 

 fat in a wild state, and are soon run down 

 bv horses and dogs. They roost on the 

 highest trees, and since the clearing of 

 extensive tracts in America, have be- 

 come rare in many places : their antipa- 

 thy to any thing of a red colour is well 

 known, in this country they are sup- 

 posed to be of a tender constitution, which only applies to them when young; for when grown up they 

 will live in the woods with occasional supplies of food, as is actually the case to a great extent in the 

 demesne lands of the Marquis of Bute, in Bute. 



7488. The varieties are few, and chiefly the copper and white, said to be imported from Holland, the 

 former too lender for general culture ; trie black Norfolk is esteemed superior to all others. 



7489, Breeding. One turkey cock is sufficient for six hens or more, and a hen will cover according to 

 her size from nine to fifteen eggs. The hen is apt to form her nest abroad in a hedge, or under a bush, 

 or in some secure place ; she lays from eighteen to twenty-five eggs or upwards, and her term of 

 incubation is thirty days. She is a steady sitter, even to starvation, and therefore requires to be regularly 

 supplied with food' and' water. Buflbn says she is a most affectionate mother ; but Mowbray observes, that 

 from her natural heedlessness and stupidity, she is the most careless of mothers ; and being a great tra- 

 veller herself, will drag her brood over field", heath, or bog, never casting a regard behind her to call in her 

 Straggling chicks, nor stopping while she has one left to follow her. The turkey differs from the common 

 hen in never scratching for her chicks, leaving them entirely to their own instinct and industry ; neither 

 will they tight for their brood, though vigilant in the discovery of birds of prey, when they will call their 

 thickens together by a particular cry, and run with considerable speed. Hence, when not confined within 

 certain limits, they require the attendance of a keeper. 



74'JO Turkey chicks should be withdrawn from the nest as soon as hatched, and k^pt very warm by 

 wrapping them in flannel, or putting them under an artificial mother in a warm room or other warm 

 place. Various nostrums are recommended to be given and done at this season, as a peppercorn and a 

 tea-spoonful of milk, immersion in cold water, &c. Mowbray wisely rejected all these unnatural practices, 

 and succeeded by giving curd and hard eggs, or curd and barley meal kneaded with milk, and renewed 

 with clear water rather than milk, as he found the last often scoured them. A sort of vermicelli, or 

 artificial worms, made from pulling boiled meat into strings, he found beneficial for every species of 

 gallinaceous chicken. Two great objects are, to avoid superfluous moisture, and to maintain the utmost 

 cleanliness, for which purposes as little slop food is given as possible. A fresh tuft of short sweet grass 

 should be daily given as green food, but not snails or worms as scouring, and no oats ; nettle seed, clover, 

 rue, or wormwood gathered, as recommended by the elder housewives. Water is generally preferable to 

 milk. When the weather is favourable, the hen'is cooped abroad in the forenoon. During the rest of the 

 day and night, for the first six weeks, she is kept within doors. After this the hen may be cooped a whole 

 day externally tor another fortnight, to harden the chickens; and afterwards they maybe left to range 

 within certain limit.-, or tended by an old man or woman, being fed at going out in the morning and 

 returning in the evening. Their ordinary food may be that of the common cocks and hens. They will 

 prefer roosting abroad upon high trees in the summer season, but that cannot generally be permitted with 

 a view to their sale keeping. 



7481. Fa t ten i ng. Sodden barley, or barley and wheat-meal mixed, is the most approved food; and the 

 general mode of management is the same as that of the common cock and hen. 'i hey are generally fed so 

 a- to come in at Christinas, but they may be fattened early or late. Sometimes though, but rarely, they 

 are canonised. Burton says, the wild turkey of America has been known to attain the weight of sixteen 

 pounds ; the Norfolk turkeys arc said sometimes to weigh twenty and thirty pounds; but Mowbray says, 



