390 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
then stuff them so that they will weigh as much as your neigh¬ 
bours’ fowls that have been well fed from the shell. 
This may sound like a great deal of work, and you may think 
that I am inclined to be “fussy” and particular about my Turkey 
feed. Well, I am particular about it, because I have learned that 
it will not do to feed young Turkeys anything and everything 
just as it happens. Feeding meal too sood, feeding uncooked 
meal, and feeding grain before they are able to digest it, will kill 
fully one-half of your brood. It is some work to prepare proper 
food for young Turkeys, but successful Turkey-raising pays so 
well that one can well afford to do a little extra work. After you 
get into the way of it you will find that the extra work does not 
amount to much after all. 
Dampness is another cause of the great mortality among young 
Turkeys. Chills and cramps caused by tramping around in the 
wet grass puts an end to the lives of a goodly number of the 
infant Turks. You must keep your young Turkeys dry and com¬ 
fortable during the first ten or twelve weeks of their lives—or 
until they are fully feathered and have thrown out the red on 
their heads. For a few days after they are hatched, whether you 
raise them with a hen mother or a Turkey mother, confine them 
to the coop and pen that I have described ; then if all appear 
strong and well, open the pen and give the mother and her brood 
free range every pleasant day as soon as the sun has dried the 
dew off the grass. A hen mother will be very apt to bring her 
brood home at nightfall, but for the first few nights you will have 
to drive the Turkey mother home ; else she will squat down 
wherever night happens to overtake her, and get up in the morn¬ 
ing and drag her brood around through the wet grass long before 
you think of getting out of bed. After you have driven her home 
a few nights she will probably come without any urging, especi¬ 
ally if you always give her a good meal after she gets into the 
pen. 
Should a sudden shower come up while your young Turkeys are 
out foraging, turn out and drive them to their coops. If any 
get chilled and refuse to eat take them to the house, dry and 
warm them thoroughly, return to the mother, and give all a good 
feed with plenty of red pepper or ginger mixed in. After they 
have thrown out the red young Turkeys are hardy, and will stand 
almost anything.— Fanny Field (in American Prairie Farmer). 
TOY PIGEONS. 
ORIENTAL TDEBITS OR TURBITEENS. 
Some ten years ago the curiosity of Turbit fanciers was excited 
by rumours that there existed in the East Turbits of such deep and 
rich colours that the very best English birds and the soundest in 
colour would pale beside them. We must confess to having once 
been somewhat sceptical as to the marvellous superiority of these 
foreign strains. At last one or two gentlemen, who happened 
both to have business in the Levant and to be Pigeon fanciers in 
England, imported a number of these oriental birds. Their colours 
were indeed startling to our English eyes—deep red with a glow 
on it resembling burnished copper, intense black with a purple 
sheen, and yellow as sound as that of a Swallow, yet brighter. 
But their form and markings? Well, these were not at all what 
Turbit fanciers hoped for to improve their strains, and at once 
showed the breed to be practically another sub-variety, which 
soon were named Turbiteens. 
Turbiteens are for the most part plain-headed ; some have been 
imported with peaks, and these are more valuable to English 
fanciers, though we believe not more prized by their breeders, as 
having one more point in common with Turbits, and so affording 
more chance of good results from a cross. They are decidedly 
coarser than highly bred English Turbits, resembling in size 
the larger shell-crested Turbits imported from Germany. Their 
heads are rounder and more like English Owls ; their eyes are 
frequently “ broken ”— i.e., of two colours curiously divided ; 
their wings marked like Turbits, but their heads also (unfortunately 
for English fanciers) marked with a small coloured semicircle 
on the forehead and a large circle on each side of the face. They 
have feathered feet and hocks, and the latter are generally coloured. 
We have, too, seen them with coloured tails like some Turbits of 
old, now talked of but never seen. Their gait is proud, and their 
heads are generally thrown back. Their breasts are frilled, but 
we have never seen one with anything like a full double frill. 
The first importation came from Smyrna, and made, as might be 
expected, quite a sensation among English fanciers. As is the 
case with imported Owls, many of these Turbiteens were irregularly 
marked ; but such as had the desired markings clearly defined 
and were good in head properties, especially if a good pair of 
them could be matched, commanded "high prices. A beautiful 
pair of Blacks came into the possession of a renowned dealer and 
exhibitor, and for a while seldom failed to score victories in the 
Variety class ; but fashion is fickle in Pigeons as in other things, 
and we have seldom seen them of late in the prize list. After a 
time another importation followed, from Egypt as we were in¬ 
formed. By this time many Turbit fanciers were desirous of 
securing them in hopes of infusing their colour into their Turbit 
strains, for in addition to its brilliancy, report was rife that this 
colour did not fade, like that of the English Turbits, from ex¬ 
posure to sun and wet. High prices were asked for single birds. 
We succeeded in securing one, by no means a model bird as a 
Turbiteen, but on this account perhaps the more useful. He was 
a bright red, peak-crested, the only one of his colour we have 
ever seen with a peak, with little feather on his legs, and to a 
great extent devoid of the Turbiteen head markings. We mated 
him first with a famous Bed hen, and subsequently with a Yellow. 
His produce, always Bed, were in the first generation quite as 
much marked as himself, but mated again with a pure Turbit 
produced in the second generation birds almost equal to their 
grand-parent in colour, yet in many cases with no trace of the 
foreign marking. They have often stood in the prize list; and 
their colour, and that of others produced in like way by other 
fanciers is, we believe, far richer and sounder than anything that 
had before been seen in Turbits. 
We must not, however, mislead young fanciers into thinking 
that all difficulty in the introduction of such alien blood is so soon 
overcome, or that we can retain all the desired points of each 
breed and discard the undesirable ones. In the third and fourth 
generation birds which have but one-eighth or one-sixteenth of 
Turbiteen blood often show as much marking as the original cock, 
and the curious eye of their quaint ancestor sometimes reappears. 
We have since had other Turbiteens, but the result of crossing 
them with Turbits has not by any means led to such satisfactory 
results ; indeed, we have generally stamped out all trace of them 
and destroyed their produce. We remember one in particular, a 
black-shouldered cock with black tail, which we had much reason 
to think was picked up in Tangiers; he was small, and had a 
perfect head and peak, save that the latter was set too low, 
but all his produce were intensely coarse and lacked all his 
beauties. 
We should add that the original Bed bird once paired himself to 
a Black, and their produce were spangled almost like Satinettes. 
Such has been our experience in Turbiteens—not a very extensive 
one indeed, but enough to show a young fancier that the experi¬ 
ment of crossing them with Turbits is very interesting, and that 
it is possible to improve greatly the latter breed by a series of 
judicious matches. Colour and hardihood we have certainly 
gained ; in occasional foul feathers and wry peaks we have 
certainly lost. The chief interest of pedigree-breeding lies in 
selecting the few from the many. If all produce came perfect 
our pursuit would be almost at an end, and the necessity of 
rejecting many birds with faults of feather or form only leads us 
to prize more highly those at length obtained as the reward of 
patience, in which the chief beauties of two races are really 
brought together.—C. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE,LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long.0°8'0" W.; Altitude.lll feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
Rain. 
1881. 
May 
1 Barome- 
! ter at 32° 
1 and Sea 
1 Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 
1 
29.685 
53.3 
47.6 
S.E. 
49.3 
62.4 
42.3 
115.2 
37.4 
0.100 
Mon. 
2 
29.024 
53.6 
4'».6 
N.E. 
49.6 
59.5 
46.3 
95.4 
43.4 
0.139 
Tnes. 
3 
29.948 
44.6 
40.0 
N. 
49.1 
54.3 
41.4 
106.7 
41.3 
— 
Wed. 
4 
30.004 
49.7 
45.3 
S E. 
47.* 
54.4 
32.2 
85.6 
24.7 
0.017 
Thurs. 
5 
30.202 
53.6 
49.7 
W. 
47.6 
65.7 
401 
116.0 
34.4 
_ 
Friday 
6 
30.265 
59.5 
547 
S.W. 
49.6 
70.0 
50.0 
123.3 
46.3 
_ 
Satur. 
7 
30.672 
59.7 
52.7 
N.E. 
51.4 
70.4 
45.3 
120.7 
39.3 
— 
Means. 
30.051 
53.4 
48.5 
49.2 
62.4 
42.5 
109.0 
38.4 
0.256 
REMARKS. ‘ 
1st,.—Cool and showery ; bright sunshine at intervals ; wet evening. 
2nd.—Overcast, but fair till 6 P.M.; rain till 9 F.M. 
3rd.—Cool and overcast, brighter after 5 P.M. 
4th.—Cool and showery; fine latter part of the day. 
5th.—Mild and fine throughout, with bright sunshine. 
6th.—Much wanner ; bright morning ; overcast in afternoon ; fine evening. 
7th.—Hazy at first; very fine bright warm day. 
A fine bright week with, as is usual in May, a great range of temperature, the 
average daily range for the week being 19-9°. Sharp white frost on morning 
of 4th—G. J. Symons. 
