Turkeys. 137 



mixed with barleymeal, oatmeal, or wheaten flour, and 

 curds, if they can be afforded, form excellent food for the 

 young poults ; also steamed potatoes, boiled carrots, tur- 

 nips, and the like. With this diet may be given buck- 

 wheat, barley, oats, beans, and sunflower seeds. 



When they are old enough to be sent to the stubble and 

 fields, they are placed in charge of a boy or girl of from 

 twelve to fifteen years old, who can easily manage one 

 hundred poults. They are driven with a long bean stick, 

 and the duties of the turkey-herd is to keep the cocks from 

 fighting, to lead them to every place where there are 

 acorns,^ beech-mast, corn, wild fruit, insects, or other food 

 to be picked up. He must not allow them to get fatigued 

 with too long rambles, as they are not fully grown, and 

 must shelter them from the burning sun, and hasten 

 them home on the approach of rain. The best times for 

 these rambles are from eight to ten in the morning, when 

 the dew is off the grass, and from four till seven in the 

 evening, before it begins to fall. 



Turkeys are crammed for the London markets. The 

 process of fattening may commence when they are six 

 months old, as they require a longer time to become fit for 

 the market than fowls. The large birds which are seen at 

 Christmas are usually males of the preceding year, and 

 about twenty months old. All experienced breeders 

 repudiate " cramming." To obtain fine birds the chickens 

 must be fed abundantly from their birth until they 

 are sent to market, and while they are being fattened they 

 should be sent to the fields and stubble for a shorter time 

 daily, and their food must be increased in quantity and 

 improved in quality. Early hatched, well fed young 

 Norfolk cocks will frequently weigh twenty-three pounds 

 by Christmas of the same year, and two-year-old birds 

 will sometimes attain to twenty pounds. When two or 

 more years old they are called " stags." 



The domesticated turkey can scarcely be said to be 

 divided into distinct breeds like the common fowl, the 

 several varieties being distinguished by colour only, 

 but identical in their form and habits. They vary con- 



