TURKEYS ON THE FARM. 315. 
with sour milk, and they are given sour milk to drink, 
no water being given them. When four weeks old, 
cracked corn is mixed with the meal, and the quantity 
is gradually increased, until at eight or ten weeks old 
their feed consists of cracked corn moistened with sour 
milk. Until June Ist they are fed three times each day. 
From June ist to July 15th they are fed twice a day. 
After this Mr. Tucker used to give them no feed until 
they commenced to come to the house, in the latter part 
of September, when a little whole corn was given them 
daily, but of late years, he has thought they did not get 
enough without it and has continued the feed the whole 
season. 
In November they are given all the corn they will eat. 
They like northern white flint corn the best, fatten most 
rapidly on it, and the quality of the flesh is also finer 
when it is given. If fed new corn, they have bowel 
trouble. Mr. Tucker usually gives old and new corn 
mixed, for fattening. When the young turkeys get to 
be the size of quails, two hens and their flocks usually 
join forces and roam together until fall. In the fall the 
sexes separate, the gobblers going together in one flock, 
and the hens in another. About Thanksgiving, the lit- 
ters hatched in the latter half of May weigh, gobblers 
eighteen to twenty pounds, and hens ten to eleven 
pounds each. Mr. Tucker does not care to raise second 
litters. When he has them, it is because the hens have 
stolen their nests. He has considerable loss among late 
turkeys, and if such birds are kept over winter they get 
sick more readily, and as disease spreads very quickly 
among turkeys, he looks upon them as disease breeders. 
The turkeys of the early litters that are lost generally 
die during the first week, or in August, when two or 
three months old. There are no foxes, weasels or skunks 
on the island. Mr. Tucker prefers birds with short legs, 
as they have the plnmpest bodies. His turkeys are a 
