A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 307 
and they usually grow a large crop of them from the 
beginning. 
The young birds should be supplied with water, char- 
coal and grit from the first. After two weeks begin to 
feed other feed. Table scraps and cracked corn, con- 
tinuing to feed curds, if they are convenient, as they are 
very nutritious and easily digested. By the time they 
are six weeks old they may be fed grain only and allowed 
considerable liberty through the day. They should be 
fed every evening, no matter how good a range they have, 
as this will accustom them to coming home to sleep. If 
they are allowed to sleep one night away from home they 
will not come back to the house again, but wander here 
and there and sleep on any convenient fence when night 
comes, 
In the western states where turkeys have free range 
they require but very little feed until time to fit them for 
market. Then they should be given all they will eat of 
sound old corn. If new corn is fed to them in large quan- 
tities it sometimes gives them diarrhoea and prevents 
them from putting on weight. Turkeys are usually sold 
alive and dressed by the buyer. Where they are dressed 
at home they are killed and dressed the same as chickens 
and the directions given under the head of “Marketing 
Poultry.” 
The deadly disease known as blackhead has of late 
years destroyed so many turkeys in the eastern states and 
has appeared in so many localities in that part of the 
Middle West east of the Mississippi River, that the 
breeding of them should be undertaken with considerable 
caution. Care should be taken to buy only healthy breed- 
ing stock. It is better to begin by purchasing eggs, as 
these rarely carry any infection with them, although it is 
