RAISING TURKEYS. 195 
pens for a few days until they are strong enough to fly 
over a board inclosure one foot high. He feeds fre- 
quently with coarse corn-meal and sour milk until four 
o'clock in the afternoon. He found in his experience 
that he lost a good many chicks from the food hardening 
in the crop. There is danger from over-feeding. As 
the chicks grow the sour-milk diet is increased, and 
during the summer it is kept constantly in a trough for 
them. They are exceedingly fond of sour-milk and 
buttermilk, and they grow very rapidly upon this diet. 
An incidental advantage, and a very important one, he 
thinks, is that the young birds are prevented from stray- 
ing very far from the house. ‘They return many times 
during the day to the buttermilk trough for their favor- 
ite food. This, with Indian meal, constitutes their 
principal food until midsummer, when insects are more 
abundant, and they wander farther from the house. 
This method can easily be tried on dairy farms, 
TURKEY ROOSTS. 
The turkey instinctively goes to roost at nightfall, 
and in its native haunts takes to tie highest trees, in 
order to be safe from numerous enemies. The domes- 
ticated bird has the same instinct, and prefers the 
roofs of buildings, or the branches of trees, to any perch 
under cover. Yet, if taken in hand when the broods 
are young, turkeys can be treined to roost in almost any 
place not under cover. For safety the roost should be 
near the house or barn. If left to roost upon fences or 
trees at a distance from the house, tlicy are liable to be 
disturbed, or carried off by foxes, or by poultry-thieves. 
The roost should besome fifteen or twenty feet from the 
ground. Poles of red or white cedar, from three to five 
‘ 
