TURKEYS AND DUCKS. 283 



TURKEYS. 



All kinds of young poultry should have a dry, airy 

 shelter in bad weather, as cold and dampness are de- 

 structive to them. The curd of milk is good food for 

 young turkeys. It may be prepared by boiling sour 

 milk. Eggs, boiled hard, are excellent. Indian meal 

 is injurious. After they are a few weeks old, it may be 

 given, if prepared by scalding. Brown bread is good. 

 In some parts of the west, young turkeys are fed almost 

 wholly on shorts, and with great success. They are 

 scalded or boiled, and stale bread added, if convenient. 

 Boiled potatoes, mixed with bran and meal, are a very 

 good food. If young turkeys become chilled and droop- 

 ing, add to their food, chopped chives or onion tops, or a 

 little pepper, or other warming food. When the weather 

 is fair, turkeys do better to range in the free air, and seek 

 their food. They are great ramblers, and cannot well 

 bear confinement. 



DUCKS. 



Tlie management of ducks is often bad when it is sup- 

 posed to be good. They need fresh, pure water, not a 

 nasty mud-hole. If you have no clear stream or pure 

 pond, make a little artificial puddle or pond, and every 

 morning change not only the water, but the mud and 

 filth produced by the ducks ; and give a lot of fresh 

 gravel every day, else they will soon decline. If they 

 have water from the pump, let it stand in the sun before 

 they enter. 



The best food for young ducks is scraps, from the 

 tallow-chandler, cut fine and sifted to the size of large 

 peas, then swelled half a day, and mixed with an equal 

 quantity, when swelled, of Indian meal. On this they 

 will be fit for the market in five or six weeks. Protect 

 from the wet and cold. Some succeed remarkably well, 

 and never let ducks go into water, having only a little to 

 drink through slats. 



