XX 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



January, 1907 



"LANE^S BALL-BEARING'' 



13 the 



Best 

 House- 

 Door 

 Hanger 

 Made 



Other Styles for Less Money Sold ty Hardware Trade Ssnd for Catalog 



Lane Brotkers Company, 434-466 Prospect Street, Pouglikeepsie, N.Y. 



THE 



METROPOLITAN 



= — —MAGAZINE 



''The Magazine of Cheerfulness'' 

 Its Agressive Policy for 1907 



A Great Historical Series 



The Mexican War. Chapters of Dramatic Human Interest relating to 

 a neglected period; political discK)sures of great national significance to 

 America and Americans, — presenting in reHex some of the most important 

 doings" at Washington to-day. 



Health and Surgery 



Articles by Physicians and Surgeons of world-wide repute on present-day 

 ailments, including a treatise on Appendicitis by one of the most celebrated 

 medical men in America. 



The Future of Transportation 

 The Best Fiction 

 The Best in Art 

 The Note of Cheerfulness in and through All 



Tke January Issue of tke 



/i^,"^ AH&G 



METROPOLITAN /-f^,,,. %t 



. ^ / Metropoli- 



will te full of good stories, and apt illustrations. TKe X '^'^^ Magazine 

 World-at-Larde Department will deal witK current / ^/ . ^""^ 

 events or national and world-wide importance. / ^ 

 TKe Drama will te treated of in picture ^ '^^"^ 



and story. / ^/ Address 



THE METROPOLITAN MACAIINE CD. 



5 West 29th St.. New York City 



hold small portions of the food close to the 

 bills of the young ones. A careful breeder 

 will coax the poults to eat out of the hands 

 by peeping gently to them in imitation of the 

 mother's call. In a short time the poults 

 will eat the bread eagerly and further feeding 

 is made simple. Sour bread or tainted milk 

 must be carefully avoided. There are many 

 prepared foods on the market for turkey 

 poults, but one may secure just as good results 

 by using bread and sweet milk. 



As soon as the poults have learned to eat a 

 little out of the hand spread the food on a dry 

 board near where the turkey hen can teach 

 them to pick it up. In two or three days dry 

 bread crumbs instead of moistened bread 

 should be fed them, and a day or two later 

 add small broken oats and cracked corn. The 

 latter must be very fine or else strangulation 

 may result. As they grow older the poults 

 should have a more liberal variety of grain, 

 and the cracked pieces may be larger. 



Meanwhile, the hen must not be neglected. 

 She must be fed liberally with mixed grains 

 and other foods she is accustomed to. For the 

 first few days this should be given to her so 

 that the young poults can not reach it and 

 run the risk of choking. The mother hen 

 should not be confined, but should be given the 

 privilege of roaming around every day to pick 

 up worms and bugs. When a week old the 

 poults can be turned loose a short time each 

 day with the mother for exercise, but care 

 must be exercised to see that they are not tired 

 out. They must be separated from the mother, 

 or the latter cooped up, for a part of the time 

 until the poults are at least a month old. Us- 

 ually when five or six weeks old the poults 

 are strong enough to roam continually with 

 the mother. The range at first should be 

 limited, but as the turkeys grow in size and 

 strength larger fields for roaming should be 

 opened to them. 



There should be no mistake about the clean- 

 liness and sanitary conditions of the nesting 

 place, yard, and shelter for the turkeys. Next 

 to inbreeding, turkey lice destroy more young 

 poults than any other thing, and filth, foul 

 odors, and dampness follow close upon the 

 heels of both as agents for increasing the 

 mortality of turkeys. Poultry lice can be pre- 

 vented by keeping all roosting, nesting and 

 other places scrupulously clean. Whitewash 

 the inside of the shelters as often as they need 

 it, and clean house every day or two. If any 

 building becomes infected shut it off from the 

 turkeys, and sprinkle it thoroughly with di- 

 luted carbolic, and then whitewash a few days 

 later. Do not let the turkeys return until 

 every evidence of vermin has been removed. 

 Filth and foul odors can be prevented by simply 

 keeping the houses clean. As one sweeps and 

 scrubs his own living-quarters, so should the 

 houses designed for the choice turkeys be 

 cleaned. 



A good many successful turkey breeders do 

 not provide much shelter for their turkeys. 

 Their contention is that the birds are much 

 better when forced to live and roost out of 

 doors ; but this should be accepted with a good 

 deal of reservation. While turkeys may be 

 wintered successfully in the southern States 

 without much shelter, they can hardly do so 

 well in the North without good winter quart- 

 ers where they are protected from cold and 

 stormy weather. What they may gain in 

 hardiness of constitution, they will lose in fat 

 and plumpness. In other words, to secure 

 choice-meated turkeys they must be provided 

 with quarters in winter that will make life 

 pleasant and accommodating to them. The 

 danger of such houses is that the owner is 

 apt to neglect their sanitary arrangements, 

 and thus permit filth and disease to creep in. 

 Dampness in particular must be avoided, for 

 this is fatal to the young poults. By building 



