AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the Farm, Garden, and Household. 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF M A N . "—WASHINGTON. 
Volume XLI.—No. 2. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1882. 
New Series— No. 421. 
A PAIR OF BRONZE TURKEYS .—From THE Flock OF Wm. CLIFT, Mystic Bridge, Ct .—Drawn and. Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
The Bronze Turkey is the most beautiful and 
desirable of the breeds of turkeys now com¬ 
peting for popular favor in our country. We 
do not claim for it that it is larger than occa¬ 
sional specimens of the wild bird, or of the 
other breeds, black, white, buff, slate, or the 
Narragansetts.” The size of the turkey de¬ 
pends not only upon the stock bred from, and 
the regular feeding, but upon age, which 
gives the wild birds a great advantage. Nine- 
tenths at least of all our domesticated turkeys 
are slaughtered before they are ten months 
old, and very few see the close of their sec¬ 
ond year. The wild bird does not attain its 
full size until the fourth or fifth year. Rare¬ 
ly, the hunters bring in old cocks weighing 
from forty to fifty pounds, and the incident 
generally finds its way into the papers as an 
unusual occurrence. Two and three-year-old 
cocks of the Bronze breed are frequently re¬ 
ported as weighing 40 to 45 pounds, and the 
extreme weights of older birds are about 50 
pounds. Heavy weights, we are inclined to 
think, depend quite as much upon regular 
good feeding as upon stock. The full feed 
of birds, reserved for breeding, is generally 
slackened as the laying season approach¬ 
es, to prevent their too early laying, in the 
Northern States. There is much differ¬ 
ence in the stock of Bronze turkeys, depend¬ 
ing largely upon the skill of breeders. Some 
are careless of the reputation of their flocks, 
do not change cocks often, and fail to feed 
well. Their flocks soon degenerate to the 
level of common birds. Others spare no 
pains or expense to breed from heavy birds of 
mature age, which uniformly produce large, 
well-formed turkeys of the most perfect plu¬ 
mage. The Bronze type, we are inclined to 
think, is the first remove from the wild vari¬ 
ety. A native cock, kept with bronze hens, 
brings a progeny with some of the character¬ 
istics of the sire. The half-breeds bred to a 
bronze cock produce a still farther remove 
from the wild type. In three or four gener¬ 
ations the Bronze type becomes established, 
and, with care, may be perpetuated indefinite¬ 
ly. The highly bred Bronze stock attains ma¬ 
turity much earlier than natives, and, during 
the first year, will average from one-lialf to 
a third heavier. Our artist has given the gen¬ 
eral appearance and bearing of this breed, but 
no art can convey to the beholder the proud 
strut of the cock, as, with expanded tail and 
lowered wings, he seems to jar the ground; or 
the brilliant bronze hue of his plumage, which 
glistens in the sunlight like burnished gold. 
Copyright, 1882, by Orange Judd Company. 
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
