Money in Broilers and Squabs. 119 



Unless they are at least a week old young turks should be kept away 

 from all other poultry save their mother, since they are prone to fol- 

 low anything that is moving. The first feed should consist of stale 

 bread soaked in milk, with chopped onions and milk curd, to which 

 should be added a little black pepper three times a week. Hard 

 boiled eggs may be given, but there is a proneness to give too much 

 of this food. A poult is easily killed and a few lice on it will mean 

 its death. 



Young turkeys require feed oftener than young chicks. The 

 breeding stock should not be related in the least. Raw corn meal is 

 not beneficial to turkeys. When they are old enough to eat corn 

 they may eat almost any other feed that is at hand. A little fresh 

 meat chopped and fed to them, will be a benefit and will also be very 

 muck relished. Keep roosting coops clean and dry. Should a 

 mother hen refuse to go in a coop it is because it is full of lice or is 

 filthy, her instinct telling her that it is not a proper place for her 

 brood. Keep all drinking fountains clean and sweet. For the first 

 few weeks the poults should not be exposed to rain or dew. Provide 

 plenty of sharp sand or gravel for them. Give them a good dust 

 bath, composed of sifted coal ashes. It will cause lice to hunt other 

 quarters very soon. One very important point will be to look twice 

 a week for large lice on their heads. Two or three healthy insects 

 of this order will soon cause the death of a poult. Turkeys are 

 fond of grass seed and insects, and will seek such foods if they do 

 not have them. Turkeys do not take kindly to close confinement, 

 and the young take great delight in warm weather, it can scarcely 

 get too warm for them and for this reason the earliest broods do not 

 do the best. Warm weather and long rambles through the fields are 

 necessary privileges of the turkey. They will be noticed to move 

 slowly scanning every nook and corner for some morsel to pick up, 

 even in the heat of the day. To be profitable they should make 

 rapid growth, and to do this they should have plenty of good food 

 and should be kept warm and dry. 



In an excellent article on the turkey, the Feather gives the fol- 

 lowing practical advice : 

 , Marketing, 



After the turkeys are grown and ready for market, quite as 

 much care and attention should be given to the killing and shipping 

 as to the proper growing. Where these things can not be done to 

 good advantage, it is better to sell them alive. Buyers who are pre- 

 pared to kill, dress, pack, and ship turkeys, and to save the feathers, 

 should be in position to pay what they are worth alive ; and should 

 be able to handle them at a profit, better than can the grower, who 

 may not be prepared to do the work to advantage. So much de- 

 pends upon marketing them in the best condition that small growers 

 should either dress and sell to thteir home market or, providing it 

 can be done at a fair price, sell alive to someone who makes a busi- 

 ness of handling such stock. 



