290 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 
as they have left the stage of ‘‘infancy,” as shown by 
‘“‘shooting the red,” their propensity to wander in search 
of their food asserts itself, and they must have that priv- 
ilege or they will sicken and die. This is a fortunate 
trait, for two reasons. First, it makes the birds’ flesh 
better food for man; second, it limits the business to 
fewer persons, who get paying prices for their labor. If 
turkeys could be raised at a profit in confinement, their 
flesh would not be so wholesome, and so many people 
would go into the business that the price would coma 
down to a non-paying point. Turkey nature itself ef. 
fectually prevents all danger of overdoing the business, 
Turkeys are not hard to raise after you know how, 
For the first few weeks of their lives they require more 
care than any other domesticated bird, but after they 
are fully feathered and have ‘thrown the red,” they 
require less care than any other fowl. It requires but 
little capital. Houses, except in the extreme North, 
and turkey sheds in other sections, are not needed. 
Turkeys must be raised on farms, and farmers raise 
much of the grain they need. One tom and three to 
five hen turkeys are enough to begin with. When you 
can raise all, or nearly all, of their progeny, then it will 
be time to think of enlarging your business. From a 
flock of six you ought to raise seventy-five to one hun- 
dred turkeys. 
Turkey raising is an excellent business for women. 
Many a farmer’s wife, whose husband does not care to 
‘‘bother with poultry,” can earn from fifty to three hun- 
dred dollars a year, according to the size of the flock, 
the range and the market, without seriously impeding 
the other necessary work which falls to the lot of farm- 
ers’ wives. 
Rhode Island Experiment Station: ‘To the fore- 
going it should be said, that we have found the largest 
and most thrifty looking turkeys on rather light land, 
