32 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



STARTING THE BUSINESS. 



If I were to start in the business of raising turkeys, hav- 

 ing the experience I now have, I should purchase three or 

 four of the best females 1 could And that were near standard 

 weight and as nearly perfect in color as I could find. I 

 should also buy their sire if he had proved to be a good one 

 and should mate them to him. If I could not get the sire, 

 I should get a cockerel from the same mating that the fe- 

 males were from and should mate him to the females. Then 

 1 should save the eggs from the best hen, mark her poults 

 and save a torn from her to mate with my flock the next 

 season. The pullets I should take to another farm and mate 

 to a torn from the home flock. In that way I could line- 

 breed and not in-breed Loo closely. When I saw there was 

 need of new blood, I should purchase a female from the 

 breeder of whom I purchased my original stock, and in that 

 way I would keep the same strain, but my birds would not 

 be near enough related to affect their health and vigor. As 

 surely as you introduce a new strain in your flock, you will 

 lose both shape and color and it will take at least three 

 years of careful mating to get back where you were when 

 you made the cross. 



I find that the breast and back are the most difficult 

 sections to breed correctly in regard to shape. As a rule, the' 

 back is too narrow and too short. We want our birds broad 

 across the shoulders with a long back and full round breast, 

 rather long legs and large feet. In color we have the most 

 difficulty with the wings, tail and back. The standard says 

 in regard to color of wings: "Primaries — Each feather 

 evenly and distinctly barred across, with parallel bars of 

 black and white extending the entire length of the feather." 

 Of the color of the tail it says: "Black — each feather irregu- 

 larly penciled with a narrow band of light brown and ending 

 in a broad black band with a wide edging of white or gray — 

 white preferred." Now I find if we get a clear white barring 

 in the wings we are sure to get white tiarring in the main 

 tail feathers, which is a serious defect. In fact, I should not 

 keep a bird for a breeder that had white barring in its tail. 

 I also find that if we get a clear white edging on the tail and 

 tail coverts we do not get a rich bronze on the back and tail 

 coverts, and if we get a good bronze where the standard de- 

 mands it, we are sure to get smutty white on the end of the 

 tail and smoky white on the tail coverts. 



B. F. TJLREY. 





