will digest, and you will find that your bird is on the road 

 to recovery. A great many birds have been saved this way. 



To prepare my birds for the breeding season I keep before 

 them charcoal, grit and oyster shells; and in the drinking 

 water once a week, in the morning, I put one-half teaspoonful 

 of common baking soda to a gallon of water for eight turkeys. 

 This will sweeten the crop and help to tone up the bowels. 

 If you feed corn to your grown turkeys in the winter, feed it 

 at night, and on cold nights it is well to warm it, as it is not 

 so apt to cause diarrhoea. If impossible to get turkey feed, 

 try to keep before them ground wheat, oats and barley, 5 

 pounds of beef scraps to 100 pounds of mixed feed, with 1 pint 

 of air-slacked lime mixed well into the feed. In the laying 

 season, if you have any sour milk to spare you will find it a 

 great benefit. 



To one pen of eight hens I keep one tom. To persons 

 going into the turkey-raising business on a large scale I should 

 advise the keeping of three or four extra toms so that if any- 

 thing happened to one tom, they would have good, clean 

 breeding stock to fall back on. Try to win the confidence of 

 your stock, and have them trust you. Speak low and gently, 

 and you will find your success with them will be much better. 



I would suggest having four good nests to each pen, these 

 to be deep, containing a plentiful amount of straw. The nest 

 may be built in a small packing case, the only opening being 

 towards the wall, and a china egg placed in the nest about 

 the 1st of March. The turkey hen likes a dark, secluded nest, 

 and will set for a short time daily, even before she is ready to 

 lay. 



A strong turkey hen should lay about 30 eggs in her first 

 litter. These may be hatched out under common hens. I use 

 a bushel box, filled with good coarse hay, and make a round 

 nest, stuffing the four corners well so that the eggs will not roll, 

 and filling the box so the nest will not be too deep. The hen 

 should be able to get on to the nest without jumping. 



When the hen shows signs of setting I take her away to an- 

 other pen, and in a very short time she will be ready for the 

 second litter of eggs, at which time I generally set her. 



When a turkey hen is setting she has to have very good care. 



