Farm Foullry. 
79 
their appearance on the twenty-eighth day. The young are 
rather delicate, and should not be interfered with until the 
following day, as they require no feeding for the first twenty- 
four or thirty hours. During this time, as is the case with fowls, 
the young bird is digesting the yolk which is drawn into the 
body at the period of hatching and furnishes the first food. 
Great care should be taken to place young turkeys at first in 
a dry situation, such as the foot of a wall facing the south, or 
under an open shed. The first food of the young turkeys 
should be egg and milk, prepared as for fowls ; but it should be 
remembered that turkeys are much more addicted to feeding on 
green vegetables than fowls are. If allowed to wander at will, 
it will be noticed that they eat bitter herbs, such as dandelion 
and milky lettuces, and care little for whole corn. If ants' eggs 
can be obtained, such as are used by the gamekeepers for rear- 
ing pheasants, they will be found a most valuable addition to 
the food of young turkeys. But great dependence must be 
placed in the first instance on egg and milk, fresh meal and 
milk, lettuces run to seed, chopped dandelion, and such insect 
food as the birds can obtain for themselves. In wet weather, 
when the rain necessitates keeping them under cover, they should 
never be kept on hard ground, but the floor should be covered 
with dry soil or ashes. If the hens are cooped, the coops 
should be moved every day, the grass around them for some 
considerable distance being mown, as is done in the case of 
pheasant rearing. 
Turkeys are particularly subject to cold in the head, caus- 
ing swollen faces and sore ej^es, which rapidly develops into 
roup, a most infectious and troublesome disease. Care must be 
taken therefore not to allow hens to wander with the young 
birds early in the morning, before the sun has dried the grass. 
Although delicate when j'oung, turkeys are particularly hardy 
when old, and may be allowed to roost in the trees, where they 
do much better than in houses. For the market it is not 
necessary to shut them up, but they may be fed on soft food 
mixed with skimmed milk two or three times a day. In France, 
flocks of young turkeys are frequently put under the care of a 
girl, who drives them with a long light pole on to the stubbles, 
where they feed on the corn which would otherwise be wasted. 
This method of utilising the waste corn which is always 
knocked out in harvesting is very much neglected in England, 
although some farmers, by having movable poultr3^-houses on 
wheels, endeavour to carry it out. The rearing of turkeys is 
hardly to be recommended in damp localities, more especially 
where the soil is heavy and clayey ; but in suitable situations, 
