POULTRY. 
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hard and finely minced, or curd with bread crumbs, boiled nettles, and 
the green part of onions, parsley, etc., chopped very small, and mixed 
together, so as to form a loose crumbly paste. Barley or oatmeal, 
kneaded with a little water, and mixed with the pulp of potatoes and 
Swedish turnips, to which chopped beet-leaves are added, may also be 
given. They will require water ; but this should be put into very shal- 
low vessels, so as to insure against the danger of the chicks getting wet. 
Fresh milk is apt to disagree with the young birds, and is not needful. 
Both the turkey-hen and her chickens should be housed for a few days; 
they may then, if the weather be fine, be allowed a few hours’ liberty 
during the day; but should a shower threaten, they must be put im- 
mediately under shelter. This system must be persevered in for three 
or four weeks. By this time they will have acquired considerable 
strength, and will know how to take care of themselves. On the first 
drops of a shower, they will run for shelter into their accustomed place 
of refuge, which should be warm and waterproof. As they get older, 
meal and grain may be given them more freely. They now begin to 
search for insects, and to dust their growing plumage in the sand. At 
the age of about two months, or perhaps a little more, the males and 
females begin to develop their distinctive characteristics. In the young 
males the carunculated skin of the neck and throat, and the horn-like 
contractile comb on the forehead, assume a marked character. This is 
a critical period. The system requires a full supply of nutriment, and 
good housing at night is essential. Some recommend that a few grains 
of cayenne pepper, or a little bruised hempseed, be mixed with their 
food. The distinctive sexual marks once fairly established, the young 
birds lose their names of chicks or chickens, and are termed turkey poults. 
The time of danger is over, and they become independent, and every 
day stronger and more hardy. They now fare as the rest of the flock, 
on good and sufficient food, if their keeper is alive to his own interest. 
I again repeat it, that a man who keeps poultry on meagre, spare, in- 
nutritious diet, will never rear fine poultry, and never repay himself 
even for his niggardly outlay. Poultry should never be in bad con- 
dition : let them not be kept at all, unless they are kept properly. 
THE WILD TURKEY is a noble bird, far exceeding its domestic relative 
in neatness of form and beauty. Crosses in America often take place 
between the wild and tame races, and are highly valued, both for exter- 
nal qualities and for the table. In districts where the wild turkey is 
common, such crosses are quite frequent; the wild male driving away 
his domesticated rival, and usurping the sultanship of the seraglio. 
Eggs of the wild turkey have frequently been taken from their nests, and 
hatched under the tame hen. The young preserve a portion of their 
uncivilized nature, and exhibit some knowledge of the difference between 
themselves and their foster-mother, roosting apart from the tame ones, 
and in other respects showing the force of hereditary disposition. The 
domesticated young reared from the eggs of the wild turkey are often 
employed as decoy-birds to those in a state of nature. Mr. William 
Bloom, of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, caught five or six wild turkeys when 
quite chickens, and succeeded in rearing them. Although sufficiently 
tame to feed with his tame turkeys, and generally associate witli them, 
