12 NATURE AND ITS 



"bothers or worries them and they don't get lost. But if you 

 should scare them, half of them would get lost. Now, the 

 old hen picks seeds of grass, calls the poults and finally the 

 young pick their own feed little by little, until at night they 

 have a crop full. They are not fed fancy food and dosed 

 with other truck, which is sure death to turkeys. I have 

 not feed a young turkey for eight years and never raised 

 more turkeys in my life than I have during that time. Be- 

 fore that time I lost almost all. I watched them day and 

 night, fed and housed them with the greatest care, but they 

 would hang their wings, get lousey, and if I handled them 

 to get rid of the lice they would die in spite of me. They 

 want liberty. This last summer I raised seventy-two turk- 

 eys. I never fed them. In fact they could not get anything 

 to eat at the house. They hatched out in the woods, lived 

 on seeds, grasshoppers, and the like. They went through 

 a dozen heavy rains and the damp dews and they all lived. 

 I know that if I had kept them at home, yarded and fed 

 them, they would have all died. In the spring I set twenty - 

 eight turkey eggs under hens. Almost every egg hatched, 

 but before they were five weeks old over one-half died and I 

 raised only seven out of twenty-eight. I gave them the best 

 of care and used common sense in feeding, etc., but it was 

 of no use, they died. 



I remember a Black Langshan hen bringing home six- 

 teen chickens about eight weeks old, hatched and raised in 

 the woods and never fed. Almost every year I have had 

 one or two hens come home with ten or twelve chicks. Bet- 

 ter and healthier chicks could not be raised by any man 

 with the best of care. 



Geese are the hardiest Poultry we have in the world, 

 but if you try to raise them in a brooder house you cannot 

 raise one. A goslin must have grass to eat and be out in the 

 free air and range. It will live on grass alone, and will sel- 

 dom eat anything else the first week. A goslin hatched, is 

 a, goslin raised, and they do not want much mothering ex- 

 cept on very cold nights. 



Geese and turkey farming is the easiest and best money 



