68 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



fer the carbolineum, but I like Lee's best lor painting a 

 box in which to place the birds. I use Lambert's Death to 

 Lice for the very young birds. 



DIARRHOEA AND LICE. 



A lady wrote that she hatched sixty-six little turkeys 

 and had only ten left. Her turkeys had a diarrhoea, a thin 

 yellowish discharge. This might be from lack of grit. She 

 said she greased them once a week for lice. Too much 

 grease will kill turkeys. I only grease their heads a little 

 for the large headlice, and dust them with Lambert's Death 

 to Lice. Most of the lice will be found between the quill 

 feathers, below the vent, and on large turkeys on the 

 thighs. 



TINCTURE OF IODINE FOR LICE. 



I have been in the habit of using tincture of iodine for 

 lice. I take a feather (but intend getting a small brush) 

 and brush the top of the head and across the quills of the 

 wing feathers, under the wings, and the fluff below the vent 

 with the tincture of iodine. It is a fact that I have proved 

 time and again that those treated with iodine for lice out- 

 grew those treated with other remedies, 'the only objection 

 being the expense, but if one will send and get a large bottle 

 at wholesale price it will not be expensive. 



When turkeys are making very rapid growth, I find 

 the lice are making rapid growth also. When I take the 

 old turkey off the nest I paint a box with lice killer, put 

 her in and leave her for two hours. I do not shut her in 

 an air tight compartment, only close enough for the lice 

 killer to thoroughly fumigate her feathers. This kills all 

 the lice and nits. I grease the heads of the little turkeys 

 to destroy the large head lice; I also dust them thoroughly 

 with Lambert's Death to Lice and paint their coops with 

 carbolineum, but with all the precautions I find I must look 

 over them once a week for lice. One of the most essential 

 things during July is to keep the turkeys free from lice. 



The first of July generally ends the turkey egg business. 

 Occasionally turkeys lay a third clutch of eggs after that 

 time, but I never consider them of much value, as they do 

 not hatch well and the young turkeys never grow very 

 large. I remember one exception to that rule. I had a 

 brood of young turkeys come off about the first of August, 

 and a pullet from that flock weighed sixteen pounds on the 

 10th of December. I took first premium with her at Dixon, 

 111., before the weight was raised in the standard. That 

 was one pound above standard weight on a pullet ten days 

 over four months old. 



The work for August in the turkey yard is very light as 

 the turkeys are, or should be, out on the range on farms. 

 I only feed them a little in the morning so that they may 

 be induced to run out in search of food, and a little at night 

 to get them to come home. After they have started out, all 

 I have to do is to bring them home at night and keep on 

 the watch for lice. They go through a corn field and I have 

 noticed the old turkey and young ones stop and wallow in 

 the loose dirt to dust themselves, so I hardly ever have 

 much trouble with lice when they are out on the range. 



In November I have watched them with a great deal of 

 interest to see how they make up their bill of fare for 

 breakfast. They work lively, for they have voracious ap- 

 petites and have nearly cleared the place of grass- 

 hoppers. Now they make their breakfast of weeds or grass 

 seeds with occasionally oats that have been left lying on 

 the ground. I notice as the fall advances they spend a lot 

 of time in the corn field, picking corn from ears that have 

 been blown down. 



The following is a good story, although I do not vouch 

 for its truthfulness: A farmer in Kansas has started a 



novel plan, based upon the prevalence of grasshoppers. He 

 has about one thousand turkeys. After his neighbors saw 

 the way his fields were cleared of grasshoppers they pro- 

 posed hiring one hundred turkeys by the day to eat their 

 grasshoppers, so he divided them into flocks of one hun- 

 dred and hired them out at $2.50 per one hundred for a 

 day's work, which made $25 income a day for the use of one 

 thousand turkeys, and what turkeys those turkeys will be 

 this fall. This of course settles the grasshopper question 

 in Kansas and Nebraska. If they can settle the rainfall 

 question as easily, the two states will never hold the emi- 

 gration that will rush there. 



INBREEDING AND NEED OF RANGE. 



Turkeys deteriorate quicker by inbreeding than any 

 other animal. Inbreeding indiscriminately for a long time 

 weakens their constitutions. Turkeys, like horses, in their 

 wild state, elected their leaders, or rather the leaders elect- 

 ed themselves by their prowess. When an old leader began 

 to show signs of feebleness a young turkey torn challenged 

 him to mortal combat. If the old chief was equal to the 

 combat the young aspirant was compelled to fall back to the 

 rear or remain where he fell. When the old chief showed 

 renewed signs of feebleness another young aspirant for 

 royal honors stepped out of the ranks and the old torn rarely 

 came off conquerer. One of our hunters who goes west every 

 year to hunt has often told me of seeing the footprints of 

 an enormous wild turkey that he had tracked and had oc- 

 casionally got a glimpse of. He described him as being as 

 large as a calf. That old torn had evidently ruled supreme 

 for many years and had grown too smart to be caught 

 napping, so the hunter could never get a shot at him. Tur- 

 keys in their wild state range in large flocks, but when 

 they are domesticated it is necessary to keep them in 

 small flocks. I think eighty acres little enough range for 

 150 turkeys. They could be bred in and left to run in 

 flocks of three hundred if they had a range of three hun- 

 dred acres. The reason large flocks cannot be kept on small 

 range is that they do not find sufficient insects and the thou- 

 sand other things that they pick up to make their bill of 

 fare. Fifty can be kept on from one to three acres until 

 they are six weeks or two months old, then one just simply 

 cannot keep them in a small enclosure, as they will crawl 

 under or through or get out some other way, for they are 

 growing fast and must have what nature demands. I al- 

 ways make a virtue of necessity and turn them out on the 

 range. 



I change males every year. I do not go out of the strain 

 I am breeding, but take another branch of the same line 

 of blood, and have found that I do not impair their vigor 

 in the least, but am building up strong, healthy birds with 

 plumage that for years has kept my whole flock above a 

 score of 93, and that in a flock of one hundred and fifty 

 birds. Last year 94 was the lowest. While I have improved 

 them in shape and plumage I do not find one sick turkey 

 in twenty-five throughout the season. 



LINE BREEDING. 



At the great Chicago show just passed two things were 

 very strongly impressed on my mind; one was strain or line- 

 breeding of turkeys. The two leading strains exhibited there 

 have been line bred to my certain knowledge; one at least 

 ten or twelve years (perhaps longer, but I am speaking of 

 what I know), the other from information gained in differ- 

 ent ways I am led to believe has been line bred the same 

 length of time. They have formed two distinct types; both 

 strains very large birds and beautifully bronzed, but with 

 this difference in color of plumage — in one strain the bronze 

 or gold band across tail coverts, and in fact throughout the 



