223 POULTRY-CRAFT. 



328. Turkeys Can Be Grown in AH Sections, but not in every 

 situation. Low, damp places and cold, heavy soils do not suit them. They 

 are healthiest and develop best on rather high ground, and soils from which 

 the water drains quickly. The bulk of the turkey crop as of the crop of 

 chicken products is produced in the central west, where the large grain, 

 grass, and stock farms furnish unrivalled foraging grounds ; but there is no 

 section of the country where turkeys are not profitably raised by those situated 

 favorably for handling them. Exclusive turkey farms, on the lines of chicken 

 and duck farms, are unknown. The nearest approach to anything of the kind 

 is found in Rhode Island, where on some farms three hundred, four hundred, 

 or even more turkeys are produced annually. 



329. Profit in Turkeys. It is not easy to make a satisfactory estimate 

 of the profit from market turkeys. Very few growers keep accounts. From 

 the few accounts and close estimates which have been made public, it would 

 appear that the average profit is about a dollar per head rather less than 

 more and that the profit in most sections where turkey growing is carried 

 on extensively does not often vary much either way from the average. 

 Reports of the amounts " made "on flocks in different sections indicate no 

 great differences in net profits on Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Vermont 

 turkeys, which bring the highest prices in the eastern markets, and western 

 turkeys, for which the grower receives, possibly, only half as much per 

 pound. 



The profits on high class stock are proportionate to the reputation of the 

 breeder and the volume of his trade. It is commonly considered that the pro- 

 duction of turkeys of fine exhibition and breeding quality is less profitable 

 than the breeding of chickens of similar quality. 



330. Houses for Turkeys. Perhaps the commonest practice among 

 turkey growers is to allow or compel their stock to roost outdoors in all 

 seasons, and through all weathers. This practice is not limited to those who 

 are indifferent to the welfare of their fowls. It obtains among progressive 

 breeders, and is even approved and recommended by some authorities on 

 turkey growing. The reasons given for continuing and sanctioning a practice 

 condemned in every other line of stock keeping, are various, but are in gen- 

 eral much the same as those once used by writers who advocated making 

 hens " rough it." * But though all too common, this practice is by no means 



* NOTE. In comparison with the methods of up to date hen men, some of the methods 

 common among successful turkey growers seem thriftless not to say barbarous. As 

 compared with current instruction relating to chickens, much of the teaching of authori- 

 ties on turkey culture seems antiquated. One at all familiar with the recent progress of 

 poultry culture can hardly fail to have observed the striking similarity between present 

 general teachings about turkeys and the kind of instruction on matters relating to chick- 

 ens which was most in vogue twelve or fifteen years ago : nor can he fail to have noticed 



