176 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK. 



forests, which furnish a large amount of food. The owners of rather poor farms 

 with a large share of huckleberry pasture, can be thankful that they have a first- 

 rate chance to enlarge the poultry crop, and make money. 



" Food /or Yowng Turkeys. — There is a good deal of nonsense published in 

 the books about the feeding of young turkeys, and the flocks later in life. The 

 simple fact is that this bird is a voracious feeder, to which hardly anything in 

 the list of animal and vegetable diet comes amiss. The principal need of cau- 

 tion in the few days after hatching is in the direction of overfeeding. They 

 want very little, and want it often, and nothing should be left upon the feed- 

 ing-board or run to grow sour, or to become mixed with the excrement before 

 the next feeding. Some tell us to plunge the chicks into cold water, to make 

 them hardy. A worse thing could hardly be done. Others say, make them 

 'swallow a whole peppercorn,' which is about as indigestible as a bullet. 

 Others advise to give them a little ' ale, beer or wine,' taking counsel of their 

 own perverted appetites. The-turkey craves a mixed diet of grain and animal 

 food from the start, and this can be supplied in a great variety of forms. Most 

 farmers, especially on dairy far;ais, have the best food for them close at hand. 

 The best staple food is Indian corn, ground coarse, mixed with new milk. Add 

 to this a hard-boiled egg, chopped up fine, and you have a complete food for 

 young turkeys. A pint of meal to one egg, with milk enough to just moisten 

 it, is a good mixture for the first few days. Then chopped onion tops and grass, 

 or cabbage, may be added. The old ones will eat of this dough,, but cannot 

 get it all. The chick wiU be able to get crumbs enough to meet its wants. 

 Boiled liver is a good substitute for eggs. As they grow older, chopped raw 

 meat, or fish, may be given. Milk is always in order, and among the best foods 

 for the growing birds all through the season. 



" One of the most successful turkey-raisers that I know of, robs the pigs to 

 give sour and skimmed milk to .his turkeys through the summer. He has a 

 long trough, into which the milk is poured every morning, and the turkeys 

 have all they can drink. There is generally enough left in the trough to entice 

 them back from their rambles at an early hour to the roost. He frequently 

 raisej two hundred turkeys in a season, and never has a failure of the crop. 

 Indian corn is the best food for the half-grown and adult birds, and they nevgr 

 seem to get tired of it. All kinds of grain are keenly relished, and it is well to 

 give an occasional feed of oats, buckwheat, wheat or barley, for change of diet. 

 As the fattening season approaches, along in October, many farmers feed with 

 a mixture of boiled potatoes and Indian meal, or oats and corn ground to- 

 gether. This is given warm every morning, and where pigs are fed it is a very 

 convenient preparation. But there is probably nothing more economical than 

 corn, as the staple food through the year. Young turkeys should not be fed 

 after five o'clock in the afternoon. Instinct does not teach them to feed at night. 

 If they have a good range in summer, they will return from their rambles with 

 their crops full of insects, and all they want is a safe roost, and time to digest 

 what they have eaten. Any kind of cheap animal food, given occasionally, 

 will help their growth in seasons or places where insects are not abundant, ©ne 

 of the cheapest of these is boUed beef scraps, or mutton scraps, from the butoh- 

 er-B. This comes in cakes, and costs about a cent a pound. Fruit and vegetal 



