No. 8. 



Turkeys. 



243 



has grown all the hours you have neglected 

 it, without anything to grow from. Like a 

 young plant in the line spring season, it will 

 and must grow; but it has no roots in the 

 fertile earth to obtain incessant nourishment. 

 The roots which supply its growth are in 

 its stomach, which it is your office to replen- 

 ish. Prevention is better than cure. Such 

 a case ought never to occur in a well-cared 

 for poultry-yard. 



When two hens hatch at or near the same 

 time, the two broods may be given to one 

 mother, and the other hen turned out to 

 range. If kept from the sound and sight of 

 her little ones for a few days, she will not 

 pine like the common hen, but will shortly 

 recommence laying, and so produce a later 

 hatch that will be very acceptable the fol- 

 lowing February and March. Sometimes 

 two hens will choose to sit and lay in the 

 same nest, like the wild birds mentioned by 

 Audubon; but it is better not permitted. 

 They will not quarrel, but alternately steal 

 each other's eggs, and run the chance of ad- 

 dling all. A frequent practice is to hatch 

 spare turkeys' eggs under common hens. 

 This answers well in fine dry summers, but 

 not in wet cold seasons. The turkey-poults 

 require to be brooded much longer than 

 chickens; the poor hen will be seen vainly 

 endeavouring to shelter and warm young 

 turkeys nearly as big as herself, till she 

 gives up the task in despair, and leaves 

 them to shift for themselves. It is better to 

 transfer the chicks as soon as hatched to a 

 turkey, and give the hen some fowl's eggs 

 to go on with another three weeks. The 

 improved and less rambling disposition of 

 turkeys that have been reared by a hen is, 

 unfortunately, all imagination, notwithstand- 

 ing what Cobbett has so beautifully written 

 on the subject. The instinct of the turkey 

 is no more altered by this mode of education 

 than the migrations of the cuckoo are check- 

 ed by its being brought up by hedge-sparrow. 

 The only way to keep turkeys from ram- 

 bling, is to feed them well and regularly at 

 home. 



The time when the turkey hen may be 

 allowed full liberty with her brood, depends 

 so much on season, situation, &c., that it 

 must be left to the e.xercise of the keeper's 

 judgment. A safe rule may be fixed at the 

 season called "shooting the red," a "dis- 

 ease," as some compilers are pleased to term 

 it; being about as much a disease as when 

 the eldest son of the turkey's master and 

 mistress shoots his beard. When young 

 turkeys approach the size of a partridge, or 

 before, the granular fleshy excrescences on 

 the head and neck begin to appear; soon 

 after, the whole plumage, particularly the 



tail feathers, start into rapid growth, and 

 the " disease" is only to be counteracted by 

 liberal nourishment. If let loose at this 

 time they will obtain much by foraging, and 

 still be thankful for all you choose to give 

 them. Caraway seeds, as a tonic, are a 

 great secret with some professional people. 

 They will doubtless be beneficial, if added 

 to plenty of barley, boiled potatoes, chopped 

 vegetables, and refuse meat. And now is 

 the time that turkeys begin to be trouble- 

 some and voracious. What can you expect 

 else from a creature that is to grow from the 

 size of a lark to 12 or 14 lbs. in eight or 

 nine months] "Corn sacks, coffers for oats, 

 barn-swallowers, ill neighbours to Peasen," 

 are epithets deservedly earned. They will 

 jump into the potatoe ground, scratch the 

 ridges on one side, eat every grub wireworm, 

 or beetle that they find, and every half- 

 grown potatoe. From thence they will pro- 

 ceed to the Swedes; before the bulbs are 

 formed they will strip the green from the 

 leaves, thereby checking the subsequent 

 growth of the root. At a subsequent period 

 they will do the same to the white turnips, 

 and here and there take a piece out of the 

 turnip itself. They are seldom large enough 

 before harvest to make so much havoc among 

 the standing corn, as cocks and hens and 

 gumea-fowl, or they have not yet acquired 

 the taste for it ; but when the young wheat 

 comes up in October and November, they 

 will exhibit their graminiverous propensi- 

 ties, to the great disadvantage of the farmer. 

 The farmer's wife sees them not, says no- 

 thing, but at Christmas boasts of the large 

 amount of her turkey money. One great 

 merit in old birds — besides their ornamental 

 value, which is our special recommendation 

 — is that in situations where nuts, acorns, 

 and mast are to be had, they will lead off 

 their brood to these, and comparatively — that 

 is all — abstain from ravaging other crops. It 

 is, therefore, not fair for a small occupier to 

 be overstocked with turkeys, — as is too often 

 the case, and with other things also, — and 

 then to let them loose, like so many harpies, 

 to devastate and plunder their neighbour's 

 fields. 



Soon after Michaelmas, it will be time to 

 think of fatting a portion of them. Some 

 families require turkeys very early in the 

 season; but they are like every other imma- 

 ture production, inferior in quality. To eat 

 turkey poults is a wasteful piece of luxury; 

 those who order them are occasionally de- 

 ceived by a small hen of the previous year. 

 In the Roman markets hen turkeys sell for 

 a baJGCCo (halpenny) a pound more than the 

 cock, and there are turkey butchers, of whom 

 you may buy the half or a quarter of a bird. 



