1*78 [AsSEMliLY- 



pick up the grains scattered in gathering, and not only live but 

 get almost fat by their industrious rambles'? Tlie?e too, not being 

 so much at home, do not infest gardens, yards, &c., as much as 

 others, and they are more sought after, and will bring more in 

 market. Turkies, after running at large till late in autumn, must 

 be fattened or prepared for market, except such as are to be win- 

 tered or kept for store. We think the best way is to confine them 

 in pretty large pens, with fences rather high, and also high 

 p<^rches for thera to roost on, higher than other poultry ; they 

 require it ; it is on<3 of their hereditary habits. 



Turkeys are voracious feeders, give them plenty of feed and 

 they will fatten quick— all kinds of grain are good for them, esps- 

 cially Indian corn, barley, buck- wheat ground or unground, feed 

 should be changed often and the shape of it, given as meal or 

 flour, moistened with water or skim milk, scraps of the house, 

 dry crumbs of bread, bits of meat, all mixed up and made fine, 

 and stirred up together witli the flour and meal. Certain fruits 

 are good, sweet apples, peajs, nuts &c.; these for a change, both 

 healthy and fattening : the small fruits are good early in tlie sea- 

 son both for young and old turkeys, strawberries, blackberrie?, 

 whortleberries &c. Some people in Europe, perhaps some in our 

 own country, cram their turkeys in the season of fattening them^ 

 with a delicate machine made for the purpose, and this after they 

 have eaten all they would voluntarily. We should doubt the 

 profit of this system. We think it unnatural, it is a forced pro- 

 cess, and the food, after the crop is thus stuffed against the will 

 of the animal, cannot prepare its various secretions in the stom- 

 ach, and that part which goes to make flesh and fat assimilates 

 to the body healthily and naturally. A few years ago, we met 

 with a French gentleman who appeared to be conversant with 

 this system of cramming.^ as he called it. In a certain district in 

 France, they reared the turkey altogether, fattened and prepared 

 them for the Parisian market. They did this almost exclusively 

 on hickory nuts, raised for the purpose, large, thin shells, and full 

 of rich meat. After tlie turkeys had eaten as much of thefe as 

 they would, ihey crammed theui every day with the nuts. This 

 was done, he said, not only to make them very fat, but to fatten 

 them very quick, and thereby gave expense, as there was no feed 



