FATTMNING TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 133 



kinds, potatoes and beetroots cut in small pieces, 

 beech-nuts, small chestnuts ; a fortnight later they 

 should be given for their evening meal a paste of 

 potatoes cooked and mashed and mixed with some 

 meal. One may dilute this paste with curdled milk, 

 but it is necessary to prepare only the quantity needed 

 for each meal to prevent its turning sour. 



' ' A fortnight after this change in the food, the grain 

 in the morning, and on returning from the fields, should 

 be left off, and replaced by the paste ; at length during 

 the last eight days, when the turkeys have eaten the 

 paste, they should be made to swallow one or two 

 pellets as an addition, and a pellet is added at every 

 feed, so that at the end of a week the turkey eats, 

 besides what it likes to take itself, 18 or 20 pellets, 

 which are prepared as follows : — 



" Dilute unsifted meal with curdled milk ; this meal 

 may be barley, wheat, buckwheat, or even maize. To 

 this are added potatoes, steamed and mashed. This is 

 formed into a paste, and after being kneaded well with 

 the hands it is made up into patons or pellets about as 

 big as a finger. These the turkey is made to swallow, 

 taking care first to moisten them ; for if one does not 

 take this precaution they will not pass into the throat ; 

 then one gives it some milk. 



' ' To cram several turkeys quickly two persons are 

 necessary ; one takes the bird between her knees, 

 holding it in such a manner that it is facing her, and 

 she opens its mouth carefully ; the other takes the 

 paton and places it into the throat, taking care not to 

 raise the tongue of the bird and not to hurt it with her 

 nails. It is necessary to make the patons pass into 



