PRICE, THREE CENTS 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 11, i 
piled one upon another. The turkeys seem to do 
better if not fed while sitting. Those occupying nests 
near together are looked after daily to see that they 
return to their own nests. Mr. Tucker at first experi¬ 
enced some trouble in having turkeys come off with 
the few first hatched, those late in hatching being 
left to their fate. This was partly overcome by set¬ 
ting eggs of the same age. By feeding hens with 
dough when the eggs are due to hatch, they are also 
contented to stay on the nest longer. 
When the turkeys are a couple of days old, and 
seem quite strong, they are placed in a basket, and 
with the hen removed to a remote part of the farm. 
Triangular pens, made of three boards, 12 
feet long and one foot high, are placed in 
the fields, where it is intended the flocks 
shall stay until nearly grown. 
ber of nests are made for the hens by placing barrels 
by the walls and fences near the house and barns, or 
by laying wide boards against the walls. In them is 
placed leaves or cut straw. The turkeys readily take 
possession of these, although some persist in seeking 
out nests of their own. This is usually allowed unless 
a swampy location, or one too far away is chosen, 
when the nest is broken up and the hen induced to 
choose another. 
Sometimes several lay in the same nest. To pre¬ 
vent this, a nest in which a turkey has commenced to 
lay, is, after she has deposited her egg, shut up for 
the remainder of the day to keep out intruders. If 
RHODE ISLAND TURKEYS 
THE GROWING OF A THANKSGIVING DINNER. NEW VIGOR 
IN WILD BLOOD. 
Some Helpful Experiment Work. 
Two weeks ago we referred to some work done at 
the Rhode Island Experiment Station in breeding half 
wild turkeys. Older readers will also remember that 
last fall we gave a few facts about turkey-raising on 
one of the islands near Providence, R. I. It was from 
this island that the turkeys for the White House 
Thanksgiving dinner were sent. The matter is brought 
to mind bv an excellent bulletin by Samuel Cushman 
of the Rhode Island Station, and it is pro¬ 
posed, this week, to give a synopsis of what _ 
he says abcut this peculiar Rhode Island 
industry. We must say that in these prac¬ 
tical efforts to improve the turkey stock of 
his State, Mr. Cushman has entered upon 
a legitimate and helpful line of experi¬ 
ment work, though it may be in one sense 
out of the usual work at the stations. 
Briefly restated, the facts are that the 
turkey growing industry of Rhode Island jrfSH 
The chief 
They are 
not located near together lest the different 
flocks attract each other’s attention. But 
four or five of the pens are put in a 20-acre 
field. The little turkeys or poults are put 
in one of these pens with some dough, and 
the hen is gently placed beside them. In 
releasing the hen, Mr. Tucker takes pains 
to step quickly back toward the wind, 
i that, if frightened, she may go in a direc¬ 
tion in which the cries of her young may 
be heard and bring her to them The pens 
are removed to fresh ground frequently. 
Care is taken that the pens are placed on 
ground free from hollows that hold water, 
for some turkeys when hoveriDg their 
brood in such places will remain in them 
while they fill with rain and the brood is 
drowned. After five or six days, when the 
young are strong enough to follow the hen 
-without being worn out, and have become 
so familiar with the attendant that they 
will come when called, they are let out of 
the pens and allowed free range. 
In feeding and looking after this number 
of turkeys, the attendant, usually one of 
Mr. T.’s daughters, has to walk about three 
miles to go the rounds. Until four weeks 
old their food consists of corn meal mixed 
■ with sour milk, and they are given sour 
milk to drink, no water being given them. 
When four weeks old, cracked corn is 
mixed with the meal, and the quantity is 
gradually increased until at eight or ten 
weeks old their feed consists of cracked corn 
BgjSpH moistened with sour milk. To June 1 they 
are fed three times, to July 15 twice a day. 
After this Mr. T. used to give them no feed 
until they commenced to come to the house 
in the latter part of September, when a little 
who’e corn was given them daily, but of 
late years he has thought they did not get 
enough without it, and has continued the 
whole season. In November they are given 
all the corn they will eat. They like north¬ 
ern white flint corn the best, fatten most 
’• rapidly on it, and the quality of the flesh is 
also finer when it is given. If fed new corn 
exclusively, they have bowel trouble. Mr. T. usually 
gives old and new corn mixed for fattening. 
When the young turkeys get to be the size of quails, 
two hens and their flocks usually join forces and roam 
together until fall. In the fall the sexes separate, 
the gobblers going together in one flock and the hens 
in another. About Thanksgiving the litters hatched 
in the latter half of May, weigh, gobblers 18 to 20 
pounds, and hens 10 to 11 pounds each. Mr. T. does 
not care to raise seco id litters. When he has them, 
it is because the hens have sto’en their nests. He has 
cousiderable loss amoag late turkeys, and if such 
birds are kept over winter they get sick more readily, 
has been gradually falling off. 
reason assigned is that the young birds die 
from a seeming lack of vigor. The Experi¬ 
ment Station people considered that this 
loss was largely due to the fact that the 
blood had become weakened by too close 
inbreeding—just as families of cows or 
sheep have failed in vigor from the same 
cause. To remedy this, it was proposed to 
use gobblers of different and stronger 
blood, but these were hard to get, because 
families of turkeys had not been separated 
with the care bestowed on other birds or 
animals. To overcome this difficulty, it 
was necessary to procure a wild gobbler 
and breed him to domestic hens. This was 
done—a gobbler being raised from wild 
turkey eggs found in the woods. After a 
great deal of trouble and patient waiting, 
this gobbler mated with the tame hens, and 
some of the eggs were hatched as well as 
eggs from other gobblers with more or less 
wild blood in their veins. Now, the Station 
proposes to sell these part wild birds for 
breeding purposes, charging only a nomi¬ 
nal price. 
An Island of Turkeys. 
As an illustration of the usual methods 
of caring for turkeys, Mr. Cushman gives 
an account of Mr. Gsorge Tucker’s place 
on Prudence Island. This is this place de¬ 
scribed in The R. N.-Y. last year. There 
are no foxes, skunks or weasels on the 
island : 
In 1888 Mr. Tucker raised 225 turkeys 
from 2’2 hens ; in 1889, 30G from 28 bens; in 
A Turkey Seed and Some Breeding Stock. Fig. 239 
RnooE Island Thanksgiving Dinners on Foot. Fig. 240, 
