StTCCESS WITH POULTRY 



93 



Dressed Kiukeys. 



peering around to encourage them in their' efforts. It is evi- 

 dent there is a language which they understand and by 

 which the mother controls, comforts or warns them as occa- 

 sion requires. Tor that matter all of our domestic animals 

 seem to be able to communicate with others of their iind 

 and we, who love to watch them, sometimes catch the secret. 



THE FALL AND WINTEiR FEED. 



I have lately been experimenting with blood meal as a 

 daily ration for a brood of White Eock chicks hatched Feb- 

 ruary 15, and from their rapid growth I am satisfied that it 

 will be a valuable addition to the feed for poults. It should 

 be given sparingly — according to directions — ^and supplies 

 the place of meat, besides it is always ready, an item of im- 

 portance to most farmers' wives. The expense is slight since 

 it is so condensed, that a teaspoonful a day would be suffi- 

 cient for twenty young poults. This amount could be in- 

 creased if it were found desirable to keep them on limited 

 range, or in case of late hatched turkeys it, would be excel- 

 lent to promote growth. Turkeys hatched later than June 

 are not good for breeding stock the following' year, but they 

 make delicious, juicy roasts. The fall and winter feed should 

 consist of grit, corn and wheat, or oats may be substituted 

 for wheat, if well filled out, but if light and, husky they are 

 dangerous. There is no economy in buying wheat screen- 

 ings. They are liable to contain injurious seeds and are 

 quite as expensive on the whole as clear wheat. There is no 

 mistake made in feeding corn for fat, wheat for growth, and 

 grit for the mill, and when the ground is covered with snow 

 they should be given a vegetable ration of cabbage or potato 

 peelings, but as soon as patches of grass appear they will 

 find every tender blade. If, as is usually the case, turkeys 

 have access to the feeding yard of cattle or hogs they will 

 get aU the corn they ought to have, but if they are deprived 

 of this privilege it is well to give them a full meal at night — 

 all they will eat up clean— and in the morning a handiful of 

 corn and the same amount of wheat for each turkey scat- 

 tered if possible so that they will be obliged to search for it, 

 but very few farmers have a scratching shed large enough 

 for fifty or one hundred turkeys. I do not encourage my 

 turkeys to eat or sleep in the chicken house, believing that 

 keeping a line of separation between mine and thine con- 

 duces to -harmony and healthfulness. I do not think it would 

 be^ an advantage to turkeys to roOst in a house unless it 

 might be during a protracted storm. If they are not accus- 

 tomed to it while young they .gradually become inured to the 

 cold, and nature has provided them with a coat that fits very 

 closely in a rainy or cold season. I never had a turkey with 

 frozen feet, although mine roost out of doors in the coldest 



weather. It is true they never go into tree-tops nor 

 into trees at all, for that mgitter, but perch on the 

 fence that surrounds the barn lot. 



Many farmers object to raising turkeys on ac- 

 count of the expense and consider the amouitt «f 

 grain eaten by them worth more than the tarkey'a 

 themselves. They do eat a great- deal from November 

 till May, but there is another side to that question. 

 They eat a great deal from May to November that 

 the farmer wants them to eat. Bugs, worms, larvae 

 and weed seeds — destructive enemies of the farioer — 

 form the chief diet of turkeys from spring till falL 

 We think they pay for their keeping by what they 

 destroy, paradoxical as that may sound, and in their 

 behalf, fearlessly challenge the comparative useful- 

 ness of "The Birds of Killingworth, " as told by 

 by the student in Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside 

 Inn." If any readers of this article grudge -our 

 feathered friends the grain they need, will they not read 

 that little story again? If turkeys are raised for market 

 they should be fed more liberally than if they 'are designed 

 for breeders, although the incessant dema-nd of buyers — for 

 stock — ^is for great size, and this is a strong temptation to 

 the feeder to sacrifice future usefulness to enormous weight. 

 I am unable to understand the requirement, since the con- 

 census of opinion among experienced breeders is that the 

 largest turkeys are not as prolific, nor as vigorous, as a me- 

 dium size, and they are not in demand in any market. While 

 a few raise turkeys to sell for stock only, most breeders are 

 raising for the market, or at least mainly for that purpose, 

 and the market standard is for plump, well-shaped birds of 

 medium size. Very few families — ^except, perhaps, at the 

 holidays — ^want very large turkeys, but they do -want good 

 ones. Will it not, then, be wise to regulate the supply by 

 the demand, and instead of striving to secure the heaviest 

 bird, try to get the most symmetrical and beautiful f We 

 have already gone beyond the standard in weight. Is it not 

 time to call a halt in that direction before our work becomes 

 impractical, and improve in shape and plumage f 



In this series of articles I have not touched upon the dis- 

 eases of turkeys, for the reason that I believe in the efficacy 

 of prevention rather than cure. It is said that in China 

 physicians are employed to keep their patients well, instead 

 of curing them when they are ill; so with turkeys, if they 

 can not be kept well it is usually labor lost to doctor them, 

 because even if they live it will be with enfeebled constitu- 

 tions and their offspring will inherit the same tendency, 

 thus the flock will deteriorate instead of becoming stronger 

 by the survival of the fittest. 



PBEPABING TURKEYS FOB EXHIBITION. 



Preparations for the show room is very simple if the 

 birds have had good care during the preceding weeks, and 

 by this I do not mean that they should be fattened, but kept 

 in good, thrifty condition, just such conditions as you would 

 like to have them in if you were buying instead of selling. 

 Washing their feet — if dirtj- — and putting a numbered band 

 on the leg is all the pl-eparatidn necessary for Bronze turkeys. 

 On no account attempt to wash the plumage. The brilliancy 

 would be greatly injured by soap and water, and a turkey 

 takes pflrf eet care of his own feathers. Of course, a careful 

 breeder will look over his or her flock in the fall after they 

 all get their freedom suits, and in ease of any "off" feath- 

 ers, will mark that one for the oven, though the per cent 

 of culls in a flock of full blood turkeys is very small. Some- 

 times the wings of poults will be defective, but when tke 



