272 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



— Strays, hawks^ foxes, minks and weasels, hunters and 

 dogs a little later in the season, make big inroads into 

 the flock unless guarded. Ordinarily this would be 

 rather dull work for a boy or girl, and none should 

 attempt it unless there were two for company. The 

 route taken by the flock could be through all the 

 stubble fields, where sufficient grain food would be 

 gleaned, in the pastures and cut meadows, where the 

 poults would do good work on grasshoppers, crickets 

 and other insects, and into the woodland, where they 

 will dust themselves in the fine dust of some rotten 

 log, to rid themselves of lice. Even when it is imprac- 

 tical to guard them the entire day, much can be done 

 by way of insuring their safety by having them roam 

 in the direction showing least danger. This can be 

 done by starting them right in the morning and feed- 

 ing them a short distance from home on their return 

 at night. 



When fattening turkeys in the fall, feed plenty of 

 whole corn and pen them up in a shed or stable, letting 

 them out every four or five days to take exercise. 



MARKING TURKEYS 



xn neighborhoods where many of the farmers 

 raise turkeys it is necessary to brand or mark the stock 

 in some way in order to prevent loss and the occasional 

 neighborhood quarrels which result. As turkeys are 

 so much inclined to roam, flocks of several neighbors 

 frequently get mixed early in the season and run 

 together more or less the rest of the year. The one 

 who first rounds up the flock usually selects his original 

 number and chooses the best turkeys ; the others have 

 to stand all the losses. By a system of punching the 

 webs between the toes the turkeys can be easily identi- 

 fied. This is easily done with a harness punch or a 



