TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



35 



what they would develop and we were not disappointed. 

 Since then we have known better what to purchase. Turkey 

 raising is like a great many other things. One can read 

 a great deal about it, but the actual experience is necessary. 

 More than that, it can never all be learned, nor does one 

 person possess more knowledge than all other turkey raisers 

 combined. The longer one is in the business the less con- 

 ceited he becomes if he has any success. 



MARKETING TURKEYS. 



In catching poults or old turkeys, one must catch them 

 by the legs, holding them just below the hocks with the 

 legs together, laying the birds across the arm if you wish 

 to carry them, or on something else if you do not. The cost 

 of feeding a turkey on a farm does not amount to more than 

 50 cents per head, even with all the extras a breeder needs, 

 and the farmer's wife who lets. the turkey do the raising is 

 out so little one cannot estimate it. We purchase food for all 

 our poultry together, using as we need it, and conse- 

 quently when the time to balance comes we simply count up 

 our expenses and income from all our flocks and look for 

 the gain or income. "When turkeys are raised for market, 

 the heavy ones will pay the most profit fattened and sold 

 for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the younger and 

 lighter weights that are not in as good condition as they will 

 be later, can be marketed any time during the winter, as 

 the turkey market does not fluctuate so very much for good 

 stock. We have had dressers of poultry tell us that the 

 Bronze turkeys were the finest they handled, but we do not 

 believe they command a higher price than other varieties, 

 all conditions being equal. Good dressed turkeys bring 

 from eleven to twelve and one-half cents a pound in Chi- 

 cago. Every breeder should dress his own fowls, as it will 

 pay him in all instances. Have the fowls fat and do the 

 work nicely and you are sure of the top price. 



LICE ON TURKEYS. 



We have not touched the lice question in regard to 

 young poults. We are not much in favor of greasing, ex- 

 cept in using a little lard on the old hen when first taken 

 from the nest and on the tops of the poults' heads as a pre- 

 ventive of head lice. We dust the old hen two or three 

 times while she is sitting, and thoroughly when we give 

 her the poults, then watch the young and as soon as we see 

 lice on them, dust them with good insect powder, avoiding 

 the white, as it makes them look shabby. We do consider- 

 able dusting, once a week for a few months, but oftener if 

 the lice compel us lo. Dust the old hen, too, for when tne lice 

 are destroyed in this way at the beginning your trouble is 

 over. We catch the young by having a box trap. Feed 

 them in a bunch and when they commence to eat set the 

 trap over them, the top of the box being laths with a little 

 trap door in it so we can take the poults out one by one, dust 

 them and let them go. In this way none are missed. It is 

 not so easy to catch the old bird. Occasionally she escapes 

 a dusting, but we manage to get her often enough to prevent 

 trouble. We seldom have a sick poult, so we never experi- 

 enced pulling wing feathers. Our trouble heretofore has 

 been, as we said, in the fall, and we think we can steer clear 

 of that better than we have. 



DISEASES OE TURKEYS AND RANGE. 



In our experience the diseases of turkeys are brought 

 about by impaired digestion. If one can build up the consti- 

 tution and remove the causes of the trouble one can cure, 

 many of them, but when the constitution has become thor- 

 oughly broken down you might as well use the ax and stop 

 the misery. Do not be too hasty, however, as many 01 them 

 may be cured and marketed. Colds are not necessarily 

 fatal, nor is rheumatism, although the latter is worse, but 

 when a turkey gets the black head he is often dead before 

 one gets a chance to doctor him, so the best way is to begin 

 right and avoid such trouble. A large flock is more difficult 

 to handle than a small one. We do not aim to raise over 

 seventy-five in our home flock, as the range is not good on 

 the prairies and the pastures are too small. We all know 

 that a large cattle pasture is an ideal range, but they are 

 not to be found in a locality like ours, where land is high 

 and it is all under cultivation, besides one's neighbors do 

 not like to see another man's turkeys in • their oat fields 

 or corn fields in the fall, although it is a well established 

 fact that turkeys eat more injurious insects than they do 

 grain and they are a benefit rather than a detriment, but 

 you cannot make many farmers believe it, and it is useless 

 to try. We are trying to console our neighbors by compen- 

 sating them in some way for the imagined damage, but with 

 all that the yellow cur puts in his appearance occasionally 

 and chews up a fine bird. It is not all clear sailing in the 

 turkey business, and as we are located, if it were not for 

 the pleasure we take in seeing a fine flock of the mammoth 

 beauties, we should quit the business. 



We do not think swampy ground would be a good place 

 for turkeys, especially during a wet season. 



FOR THE AMATEUR. 



Were we to start in the turkey business, knowing what 

 we do now, we should buy the best breeders we could find 

 that were for sale at a price we could stand and would not 

 be afraid of a few dollars if we could afford it. We should 

 build a shed for them, and if we did not have some kind of 

 a grove we think we could ill afford not to build. We 

 should start with the Bronze, for considering all we know 

 of other breeds, we still like them best, and think that 

 we can make the most money out of them. The market 

 man prefers them for their size and the fancier for their 

 beauty. Judging from the numbers shown in our exhibi- 

 tions, they are the most popular variety. 



A word to purchasers — when you wish to buy, first se- 

 lect a reliable breeder and if you want breeding birds you 

 can easily purchase them at a reasonable figure, but if you 

 want show birds for breeders (which are the best) do not 

 expect them at common breeding stock prices, for no man's 

 whole flock is composed of show birds, even if many of his 

 old breeding stock were once show birds. If the breeder 

 tells you that his birds were never beaten in the show, im- 

 mediately learn where the birds were exhibited, whether in 

 a local show or in a show like Chicago, New York or Bos- 

 ton. No person has made a clean sweep at many large 

 shows unless the competition was very small indeed. 



B. F. HISLOP. 



