434 



POULTRY CULTURE 



The Slate Turkey corresponds in color to the blue races of fowls 

 and unquestionably comes from a cross of black and white. The 

 color is rare, and it is doubtful whether it should be considered a 

 variety in the proper sense of the term. A few flocks are bred for 

 preservation of this type, but its scarcity and the suddenness of 

 appearances of small exhibits in the shows indicates that most of 

 the stock is cross bred from black and white. 



Fig. 462. Bronze Turkey hen. (Photograph from Rhode Island Agricultural 

 Experiment Station) 



The BiLJf or Red Turkeys are produced by the elimination of 

 black in the wild or the bronze turkey, the red shades remaining and 

 by selection being made more intense and distributed more widely. 

 Buff birds, as well as gray and buff mixed, appear frequently in 

 mongrel flocks. The red turkeys produced at different times in 

 different places in this country probably came from crosses of such 

 buff turkeys with the bronze, and from personal or local selection of 

 the type. In none of the so-called buff turkeys is the color as uniform 



