88 MANAGEMENT. 



and on their return at evening : the same in spacious 

 farm-yards ; if confined to the poultry-yard their 

 food and treatment is similar to that of the common 

 cock and hen. Turkeys would prefer roosting 

 abroad upon high trees, in the summer season, could 

 that be permitted with a view to their safe keeping. 



In the Sporting Magazine, August, 1824, there is 

 a letter signed Rusticus, giving an excellent and 

 obviously practical account of their breeding and 

 management. From thence I have made the fol- 

 lowing extracts. ft At two periods of their lives 

 turkeys are very apt to die ; viz. about the third day 

 after they are hatched, or when they throw out 

 what is called the red head, which they do at about 

 six or eight weeks old. At the latter period, a few 

 old beans split small, may be mixed with advantage 

 in their food. 



" If any notion is entertained of a second hatch, 

 the sooner one hen is turned away from her brood, 

 and the brood mixed with that of another which has 

 hatched about the same time, the better chance there 

 is of rearing it ; as the hen which is so turned away, 

 will lay again in a fortnight or three weeks, and thus 

 hatch a second time before the month of July is out. 

 Even under these circumstances, the chance of rear- 

 ing the young ones is very uncertain, as they are 

 hardly strong enough to meet the cold nights in the 

 Autumn, when they often become what is called 

 club-footed, and die. I rather recommend letting 

 the hen lay as many eggs as she will, and turning 

 her oiF when she becomes broody. Hens thus 

 treated will lay again in the month of August, so 



