SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



21 



MAMMOTH BBONZE TXmKBYS. 



IMBEEIAIi PBKIN DUCKS. 



Bronze turkeys are by far tEe most popular variety of 

 ■turkeys bred in this country. There are six standard var- 

 ieties of turkeys, viz: the Bronze, "White, Buff, Slate, Black 

 and Narragansett. Next to the Bronze the White Holland 

 is most popular. The. standard weights of Bronze turkeys 





standard-bred Mammoth Bronze Turkeys. 



are as follows: Adult cock, thirty-five pounds; yearling 

 cock, thirty-two pounds; cockerel, twenty-four pounds; hen, 

 twenty pounds; pullet, fifteen pounds. The Bronze turkey 

 is perhaps the most beautiful bird in poultrydom. Their 

 plumage is irridescent in color, having all the tints of the 

 rainbow and about a dozen more. We understand that they 

 were bred from the wild turkey. The wild turkey is n, 

 handsomie bird, but not to be compared with the standard- 

 bred Mammoth Bronze. 



In Bronze turkeys the size of the wild turkey has been 

 much improved on, in fact. Bronze turkeys have been bred 

 so large as to make them unsaleable on the market. Tn 

 other words, it is not desirable to breed them too large. 

 The benefit of breeding them to extra size is that they 

 are of quicker growth, and hence will sell on the, market 

 when younger, more tender and less costly to produce. 

 Ninety per cent of the turkeys sold on the common market 

 are Bronze, or part Bronze. The smaller ' they are, as a 

 rule, the less pure-bred Bronze there is about them. Where 

 a flock of fine, large turkeys is seen, it may be taken for 

 granted that there is more or less Bronze blood, in their 

 Veins. 



It is useless to attempt to raise turkeys on a small 

 lot. They must have range. Some breeders turn their 

 flocks into a wooded place and let them grow in nature's 

 way- — the way of the wild turkeys which live in the woods. 



They must have large range and they will forage their 

 own living, set, hatch and raise their young, but it is aid- 

 Viisable , to watch them, gather their eggs and set them, 

 where you can keep watch over them so varmints will not 

 kill the young. You must not confine old turkeys in small 

 houses, itbey will not thrive or do well. 



Unciuestionably the Business Duck of the Age— lECandsome, 



Tlirlfty, Easy to Raise, Productive, Profitable— Thou- 



auds Hatched and Beared by Artificial IMeans. 



BY ME. JAMES BANKIN, BKEEDEB. 



The Pekin ducks are first-class, layers, producing from 

 100 to 120 oggs each year. It is a very fascinating work 

 to raise ducks, they mature so quickly, the mortality is so 

 small, and the grower, if he works his cards right, has 

 complete control over them from beginning to end. Our 

 mortality is about one per cent, and that principally by 

 accident. A duckling will weigh more at nine weeks old 

 than a chicken at twenty weeks. We- grow all our poultry 

 artificially, getting out from, 4,000 to 5,000 ducklings and 

 from 2,000 to 3,000 chicks yearly. We ship our ducklings 

 to both Boston and New York, sometimes to both the same 

 day. The maximum price for ducklings the past season 

 was forty cents per pound, the minimum thirteen cents, 

 and as these ducklings dress on the average nine pounds 

 per pair at nine weeks old, and can be put upon the market 

 at a cost of less than five centsperpound, it can be easily 

 seen what profits attend the business. 



.We obtain for our birds, both in New York and Boston, 

 from four to five cents per pound more than thehighest mar- 

 ket rates. Our dealers in both places will gladly cor- 

 roborate this statement. We mention this in particular in 

 order to disprove a -wide-spread but erroneous opinion which 

 prevails over the country that artifiicially grown birds are 

 inferior in every respect to those grown in a natural way. 

 Our ducklings are the largest of their age that enter the 

 Boston and New York markets, and not only that, but they 

 have won the first premiums the past year all over the 

 country for their size and beauty, while not only the birds 

 themselves, but their parents and grandparents, together 

 with a long line of ancestors have been hatched and grown 

 artificially. 





standard-bred Imperial Fekln Ducks. 



We find no trouble in getting rid of our surplus eggs in 

 market at remunerative prices. W© find ducks during the 

 summer months much more profitable than chicks. The 

 feathers are worth fifty cents per pound at wholesale mak- 

 ing quite an item of profit. 



