1090 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part llj 



or nourishing, as those fattened upon more simple and substantial food ; as, for example, meal and milk 

 without the addition of either treacle or sugar. With respect to grease of any kind, its chief effect nuist 

 be to render the flesh loose and of indelicate flavour. Nor is any advantage gained, excluding the com- 

 mercial one. 



74iJ3. The methods of cramming by confining in a box the size of the body of the fowl, and allowing it'; 

 head and vent to project for intromission and ejection ; of blinding the bird for this purpose ; or of nail- 

 ing it to the board ; and also the mode of forcing down liquid food by a particular kind of pump, worked by 

 the foot of the feeder ; all these and other cruel practices we wish we could abolish in practice, and obli- 

 terate from the printed page. 



7484. Castration is performed on cocks and hens only in some districts, and chiefly in Berkshire and 

 Sussex. The usual time is when they have left the hen, or when the cocks begin to crow, but the earlier 

 the better. It is a barbarous practice and better omitted. Capons are shunned both by hens and cocks 

 which, it is said, will not roost on the same perch with them. The Chinese mode of making capons is fully 

 described and illustrated with cuts in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. vi. p. 46. 



7485. Pinioning of fowls is often practised to restrain them from roosting too high, or from flying over 

 fences, &c. ; and is much more convenient than the cutting their wing feathers only. But in the ordinary 

 methods of merely excising the pinion, it is frequently fatal ; and almost always so to full-grown birds or 

 fowls, by their bleeding to death. To prevent this in the long-winged tribes, as ducks, geese, &c., pass a 



threaded needle through their wing, close by the inside of the 

 smaller bone {fig. 935. a), and making a ligature with the thread 

 across the larger bone, and returning it on the outside of all, the 

 principal blood-vessels are secured, which could not be accom- 

 plished by a ligature confined to the surface only. After the 

 blood-vessels have been thus secured, cut off the portion of wing 

 beyond the ligature with scissars or shears. In the GaUinkcea or 

 short-winged tribes, as cocks, hens,&c., the operation is rendered 

 , . ^^ ,. ^ ^ safer by being performed on the beginning of the next joint (6), 



makmg the ligature embrace all the vessels between these two bones by passing it twice through, and 

 securing each bone individually, and passing the ligature around the whole of that part of the wing 

 generally. In this way also birds which have been accidentally winged in shooting may be preserved. 



7486. The turkey (ilieleagris Gallipavo L.,fig. 936.) is a native of America, and was 



introduced into this country from 

 Spain soon after the discovery of 

 the former country. The colour 

 in the wild state is black, but do- 

 mestication has produced great 

 variety. 



7487. In a state of nature they are said 

 to parade in flocks of five hundred, feed- 

 ing, in general, where abundance of 

 nettles are to be found, the seed of which 

 and of a small red acorn is their common 

 food in the American woods. They get 

 fat in a wild state, and are soon run down 

 by horses and dogs. They roost on the 

 highest trees, and since the clearing of 

 extensive tracts in America, have be- 

 come rare in many places : their antipa- 

 thy to any thing of a red colour is well 

 known. In this country they are sup- 

 posed to be of a tender constitution, which only applies to them when young; for when grown up they 

 will live in the woods with occasional supplies of food, as is actually the case to a great extent in the 

 demesne lands of the Marquis of Bute, in Bute. 



7488. The varieties are few, and chiefly the copper and white, said to be imported from Holland, the 

 former too tender for general culture ; the black Norfolk is esteemed superior to all others. 



7489. Breeding. One turkey cock is sufficient for six hens or more, and a hen will cover according to 

 her size from nine to fifteen eggs. The hen is apt to form her nest abroad in a hedge, or under a bush, 

 or in some secure place ; she lays from eighteen to twenty-five eggs or upwards, and her term of 

 incubation is thirty days. She is a steady sitter, even to starvation, and therefore requires to be regularly 

 supplied with food and water. Buffon says she is a most affectionate mother ; but Mowbray observes, that 

 from her natural heedlessness and stupidity, she is the most careless of mothers ; and being a great tra- 

 veller herself, will drag her brood over field, heath, or bog, never casting a regard behind her to call in her 

 straggling chicks, nor stopping while she has one left to follow her. The turkey differs from the common 

 hen in never scratching for her chicks, leaving them entirely to their own instinct and industry ; neither 

 will they fight for their brood, though vigilant in the discovery of birds of prey, when they will call their 

 chickens together by a particular cry, and run with considerable speed. Hence, when not confined within 

 certain limits, they require the attendance of a keeper. 



7490 Turkey chicks should be withdrawn from the nest as soon as hatched, and kept very warm by 

 wrapping them in flannel, or putting them under an artificial mother in a warm room or other warm 

 place. Various nostrums are recommended to be given and done at this season, as a peppercorn and a 

 tea-spoonful of milk, immersion in cold water, &c. Mowbray wisely rejected all these unnatural practices, 

 and succeeded by giving curd and hard eggs, or curd and barley meal kneaded with milk, and renewed 

 with clear water rather than milk, as he found the last often scoured them. A sort of vermicelli, or 

 artificial worms, made from pulling boiled meat into strings, he found beneficial for every species of 

 gallinaceous chicken. Two great objects are, to avoid superfluous moisture, and to maintain the utmost 

 cleanliness, for which purposes as little slop food is given as possible. A fresh tuft of short sweet grass 

 should be daily given as green food, but not snails or worms as scouring, and no oats ; nettle seed, clover, 

 rue, or wormwood gathered, as recommended by the elder housewives. Water is generally preferable to 

 milk. When the weather is favourable, the hen is cooped abroad in the forenoon. During the rest of the 

 day and night, for the first six weeks, she is kept within doors. After this the hen may be cooped a whole 

 day externally for another fortnight, to harden the chickens j and afterwards they maybe left to range 

 within certain limits, or tended by an old man or woman, being fed at going out in the morning and 

 returning in the evening. Their ordinary food may be that of the common cocks and hens. They will 

 prefer roosting abroad upon high trees in the summer season, but that cannot generally be permitted with 

 a view to their safe keeping. 



7491. Fattening. Sodden barley, or barley and wheat-meal mixed, is the most approved food ; and the 

 general mode of management is the same as that of the common cock and hen. I'hey are generally fed so 

 as to co?ne in at Christmas, but they may be fattened early or late. Sometimes though, but rarely, they 

 are caponised. Buffon says, the wild turkey of America has been known to attain the weight of sixteen 

 pounds ; the Norfolk turkeys are said sometimes to weigh twenty and thirty pounds; but Mowbray says,- 



