TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



31 



if it is wet weather you must look out for lice. I am satis- 

 fied that nine-tenths of the poults that die are fed to death 

 or are killed by lice. 



RANGE— FOOD— HOUSING. 



I give my turkeys unlimited range and feed nothing un- 

 til July 15th, then I drive them home every night and give 

 them a little corn. In about a week they will come home 

 at night for food and to roost and I have no further trouble 

 with them until I am ready to sell or show. Some writers 

 claim that wet weather and heavy dews are fatal to poults. 

 If such were the case I should not have a poult to-day, as 

 the past season was the wettest we have had in several 

 years. Still I have more poults now than I ever raised before 



range, as they must have exercise and a variety of food, 

 which they cannot obtain except on an extensive range. If 

 you will examine the crop of a poult after September first 

 that has had plenty of range, you will find grasshoppers, 

 bugs and worms, together with several varieties of weed 

 and grass seeds, but very little grain. Some persons claim 

 that a turkey will eat more than a hog. I had a chance to 

 test the matter iast winter when I had sixty-five turkeys 

 on hand and there came a severe snow storm which pre- 

 vented the flock from getting anything to eat except what 

 I fed them. The sixty-five did not eat a half bushel of corn 

 a day during the week I fed them. 



Never discard a good bird because it is getting old. I 

 have known hens to be first-class breeders when seven years 



Champion Jr. One of B. F. Ulrey's Chicago Cup Winners. Score 97 Points by B. N. Pierce. 



in one season. I have never had but two sick turkeys dur- 

 ing the years I have been in the business. One of these was 

 crop-bound. I poured about a pint of warm milk down her 

 throat and kneaded her crop with my fingers for about ten 

 minutes, then gave her a tablespoonful of castor oil and she 

 was all right the net day. The other was a three-year-old 

 torn which dropped off the roost dead. I commence feeding 

 my turkeys all they will eat about November first and con- 

 tinue feeding until about February first, then I let them 

 hustle for their living and they will be in good breeding 

 condition. 



I never house turkeys, as the trees and fences are the 

 natural roosting places for turkeys and I think that the 

 nearer they are raised as nature does the better the results. 

 Turkeys cannot be raised sucessfully without plenty of 



old. The best torn I ever owned, both as a breeder and an 

 exhibition bird, I sold when he was three years old because 

 I thought he was getting too old for a breeder. The person 

 to whom I sold him used him two seasons and he proved a 

 successful breeder. Then this man sold him, thinking he 

 was too old for breeding or showing, but his new master 

 thought differently and showed him at Madison Square Gar- 

 den, New York, last winter when he was five years old, and 

 won the blue ribbon. Old "Champion" has a record of eigh- 

 teen first prizes. He weighed thirty-five pounds as a year- 

 ling, forty pounds as a two-year-old and forty-three pounds 

 when four years old. He was the sire of the first prize cock 

 and second prize hen at Chicago, January, 1900, and to my 

 knowledge, was the sire of eleven turkeys that scored 97 

 points or better. 



