November 11 
and as disease spreads very quickly among turkeys, 
he looks upon them as disease breeders. 
Mr. Tucker prefers birds with short legs, as they 
have the plumpest bodies. His turkeys are a mixture. 
Many are of a light gray color similar to Narragan- 
setts. There are also buff, brown and dark ones. He 
prefers the brown and gray to the black as they look 
better when dressed. He finds medium weights sell 
best except at Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year. 
with domestic flocks, sometimes after killing the do¬ 
mestic gobbler, are on record. Such matings have 
always been satisfactory. For practical purposes a 
quarter wild cross is better than one with more wild 
blood. Half-wild crosses are said to do well if they 
can have a wide range, but they are not suited to 
woody countries or easily kept in small places. Half¬ 
wild birds often disappear in the spring and do not 
return until fall, when they bring back a brood of 
nearly full-grown birds. The wild blood seems to 
give the birds an astonishing ability to take care of 
themselves, and the older the bird grows the more it 
shows the wild blood. The flesh of these crosses is 
superior io that of the domestic turkey; having the 
cracks between the boards on all sides, and roosts 
placed in the center, had been used, we think the re¬ 
sults might have been satisfactory. Probably this 
house was so small that on mild, still nights the tur¬ 
keys were too warm, while in windy weather the 
drafts from one direction were more objectionable 
than exposure on all sides would have been. It will 
be used in the future for catching and temporarily 
confining turkeys, and for setting turkeys.” 
A PRACTICAL MAN AND HIS COWS. 
SELECTING COWS WITHOUT A BABCOCK 
Do You “Know” About Your Business? 
In every line of business there is some sort of book¬ 
keeping, because it is the only way to measure the 
profit or loss on the business done. So universal is 
this practice that a man in trade who kept no books 
would not. be given a dollar's credit anywhere. A 
farmer runs his farm ; it is his factory for the products 
he sells. How about bis profit or loss ? His books 
should tell the story, but do they ? Has he any books ? 
Does he know what any one product costs him ? Does 
he know even which is his best cow ? Ask him, and 
he says, “ That big black and white cow is the best ? ” 
Why ? “ Oh : she gives 20 quarts a day, and no other 
gives over 16 quarts.” Question him farther and you 
learn that the big cow goes dry four months, but he 
has two or three “ part Alderney ” that never go dry, 
yet don’t give over 14 quarts a day. As to which cow 
gives the most or the richest milk in the year, he 
doesn’t know. He never bothered to test his milk ; 
rather guessed his cows were as good a lot as most 
folks had, etc., etc. Now, friends, why not know 
something ? Take the cows ! Some of them are pay¬ 
ing a profit, some come out even, and others are surely 
eating their heads off, or destroying the profits some 
other cow is making, yet all consume the same quan¬ 
tity of feed Which is which ? A “ guess” won’t do 
A Wild Gobbler. Fig. 241, 
“I Selected, the Cows Did the Rest.” 
“Mr. C, how did you manage to win that $100 
prize ? ” 
“ I did not win it. I only selected the cows whose 
record won the prize. All I had to do was to copy 
from my books the quantity of milk each cow gave ; 
that was simple for I record the weight to an 
ounce of every milking of every cow every 
day of the year. It is the same for feed, care, 
etc. Then the price for which the milk was 
sold completes the statement.” 
“ Doesn’t this take too much time?” 
“ That is for every one to decide for him¬ 
self. I know it pays me. Here I ha?e a spring 
Half Wild, 
Pure Wild. 
once a year foot up everything ; I don’t need 
to guess at a point, and so I decide which 
cows I can ‘ spare ’ to my advantage. I should 
say that I have a graduated tube of glass in 
which I set some of each cow’s milk from four 
to six times in a year to learn the per cent of 
cream in her milk.” 
“Would it not do as well to weigh only 
one day’s milk say once a month, or once in 
two weeks ? ” 
“ I can answer yes to that, because I have 
taken my year’s record of a number of cows, and 
added the weight of the milk given on the first and 
fifteenth of each month and multiplied it by 24, and 
the result did not vary in any case over 40 pounds, in 
some cases not 10 pounds ; so that method would seem 
to be accurate enough for all practical purposes.” 
The Feed and the Model Cow. 
“ What do you feed ?” 
“ Plenty of good pasture or good clover hay, and 
always some dry feed. I always milk in the stable, 
and put the grain feed in the mangers so that every 
cow will and does go direct to h6r siall. Of course I 
give very little on flush grass, but I increase gradually 
as the pasture fails, unless I have green corn fodder, 
Domestic. Half Wild. 
Turkey Gobblers at the R. I. Experiment Station. Fig. 242 
