THE GENESEE FARMER. 



88 



but when they rlo begin, supply them constantly and 

 abundantly with chopped eggs, shreds of meat and 

 fat and boiled Indian meal mixed with chives or 

 lettuce chopped tine. Mutton suet, poured over 

 shorts or middlings, cut up when cold ; also, liver 

 boiled and minced, are excellent things. I he 

 quantity consumed costs a trifle.; the attention to 

 supply is everything. 



The young of the turkey afford a remarkable in- 

 stance of hereditary and transmitted habits. From 

 laving been attended for many generations with 

 so much care, they appear naturally to expect it 

 almost as soon as they are released from the shell. 

 We are told that young pointers, the descendants 

 of well-educated dogs, will point at the scent of 

 game without any previous training ; and so turkey 

 chicks seem to wait for the attention of man before 

 they can have any experience of the value or nature 

 of their attentions. Food which they would re- 

 fuse from a dish, they will peck greedily from the 

 palm of a hand ; a crumb which would be dis- 

 dained if seen accidentally on the ground, will be 

 relished from the tip of the finger. The proverb 

 that "the master's eye fattens the hare," is appli- 

 cable to them, not in a metaphysical, but m a 

 literal sense; for they certainly take their food 

 with a better appetite if their keeper stays to dis- 

 tribute it, and see them eat it, than if he merely 

 set it down and left them to help themselves. 



We believe this "to be the case with more domes- 

 ticated animals than we are aware of, and appears 

 natural enough if we remember how much more 

 we enjoy a meal in the society of those we love 

 and respect, than if we partook of it in indifferent 

 or disagreeable company. 



The turkeys then are hatched, and we are rear- 

 ing them. Abundant food for the mother and the 

 young, constant attention to their wants are the 

 grand desiderata, An open glade in a grove, with 

 long grass, and shrubs- here and there, is the best 

 possible location. The long grass will afford them 

 cover from the birds of prey; the hen will drive 

 off four-tooted enemies with great courage. ^ e 

 have beer! amused with the fury with which a 

 mother turkey has pursued a squirrel, till it took 

 refuge iu t!ie branches overhead; what instinctive 

 fear^uri:ed her we know not. Insects, too, will 

 abound in such a situation. .When the little crea- 

 tures are three or four days old, they will watch 

 each fiv that alights on a neighboring flower, fix it 

 with mesmeric intensity, and by slow approach 

 often succeed in their final rush. But in the best 

 position you can station them, forget them not for 

 one hour in the day. If you do, the little turkeys 

 will for a time loudly yelp, "lO, then, remember 

 me," in notes less melodious than those of a prima 

 donna, and then they will be sulky and silent. 

 When 'you at length bring their delayed meal. 

 some will eat, some will not. Those that will not, 

 can only be saved by a method at all other times 

 unjustiliable — namely, cramming; but it must be 

 done most gently, the soft crumb of bread rolled 

 into miniature sausages, should be introduced till 

 their crops are full. For drink, many would give 

 ale or wine; we advise milk. The bird wants 

 material, not stimulant, It has been actually wire- 

 drawn. It has grown all the hours you have ne- 

 glected it, without any thing to grow from. Like 

 a young plant in the spring season, it will and must 



grow ; but has no roots in the fertile earth to ob- 

 tain incessant nouishment. The roots which sup- 

 ply its growth are in the stomach, which it is your 

 office to replenish. "Prevention is better than 

 cure." Such a case ought never to occur iu a 

 well-cared for poultry yard. 



The time when the turkey hen may be allowed 

 full liberty with her brood, depends so much on 

 season, situation, etc., that it must be left to the 

 exercise of the keeper's judgment. A safe rule 

 may be fixed at the season called ''shooting the 

 red," a "disease," as some writers call it— being 

 about as much a disease as when the eldest son of 

 the turkey's master or mistress shoots his beard. 

 When young turkeys approach the size of a par- 

 tridge, 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 forag- 

 ing, and still be thankful for all you can give them. 

 And now is the time that turkeys begin to be 

 troublesome and voracious. What else can be ex- 

 pected from a creature that is to grow from the 

 size of a robin, to 12 or 14 lbs. in eight or nine 

 months? The only way to keep them from ram- 

 bling, is to feed them well and regularly at home. 



0. N. BEMKNT. 



EYE FOE BEINGING LIGHT SOIL INTO CONDITION 

 TO PEODUCE WHEAT. 



Ens. Genesee Farmer :— In a former volume 

 of your excellent monthly text-book for farmers, 

 the fact was alluded to, that for some years past, 

 since the spirit of research and improvement (in a 

 large degree due to Liebig's discoveries and incul- 

 cations) in agriculture more generally setin, largo 

 tracts of light sandy land, some of it so light that 

 it blows and drifts, in Silesia and contiguous dis- 

 tricts in Germany, had been much improved by the 

 orowing and plowing in of successive crops of rye 

 and lupins— the lupin being a leguminous plant, a 

 small species of bean. It was shown, that by plow- 

 ing- in these crops in succession the same season, so 

 much humus or vegetable mold was accumulated 

 in the soil, that its color was changed from that at 

 a light sand to that in apperancC of a darkish loam, 

 ami its quality from that of a merely rye-growing 

 sand to a soil producing fair crops and quality of 

 wheat. Such, if my memory is correct, were the 

 almost, immediate results of this simple means of 

 renovating sandy soils — means not costly, nor diffi- 

 cult, nor laborious, nor tedious of application, but 

 so simple and easy of demonstration, as to be with- 

 in the reach of every cultivator of a farm, however 

 limited his means, or the extent of his possessions; 

 a method of improving poor light soils, so accessi- 

 ble and economical, that not one of us need allege 

 any other excuse but a want of will and perseyer- 

 ence, if hereafter we allow our light sandy soils to 

 become unprofitable by reason of a deficiency of 

 humus or vegetable mold in them. 



But my object, at present, was to refer to a pe- 

 culiarity of the rye plant— namely, its power of 

 transforming silica or sand itself into its own 

 growth and substance — i. e., that of its straw. 



Rye straw is stiller than the straw of either 

 wheat or oats, as is shown by its much taller 



