Vol. LXV. No. 2968. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 15, 1900. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR. 
A WOMAN AND HER TURKEYS . 
How They Are Raised. 
r \ he first requisite for successful turkey raising is 
good stock. I would not advise too large hens; those 
weighing about 10 pounds have done the best with us. 
I lie gobbler should be large and compactly built. Do 
not have the male and female bird closely akin. Tur¬ 
keys do best when away from other poultry. Last 
W inter I kept eight hens and one gobbler; from them 
I have now 120 good birds. In the Spring I give mixed 
grain, all they want, also grit and oyster shells; keep 
them in the house forenoons and make some nest boxes, 
putting in nest eggs for them. They will find the nests 
and nearly always lay in them. After they have laid 
one or two eggs in these nests they can come and go 
as they please, as they will continue to lay there. This 
saves the hunt for hidden nests, and does away with 
all danger from skunks and foxes, and not to forget 
the crows. I carry the eggs to the house every day, 
leaving only the nest eggs. I write the date on every 
egg, place the eggs in a 
box of dry bran in a cool 
place, and turn them every 
day. The first turkey that 
wants to sit gets from 15 
to 19 of the oldest eggs, 
and so with the others. 
If there are more eggs 
than the turkeys cover I 
set them under a hen, and 
put the little ones with the 
turkey as soon as hatched. 
When they are all 
hatched out and dry I 
take them off the nest and 
grease them on the head 
and under the wings with 
lard and a little kerosene 
mixed together; this will 
kill the lice, should there 
be any. I put the old and 
young in a coop; leave a 
little opening so the little 
ones can come out when 
they want to. The first 
week I feed dry bread 
crumbs and hard boiled 
eggs mixed together, and 
moisten with milk; give 
them milk to drink, and a 
little cut grass and grit. 
Feed three times a day. 
I gradually replace the 
bread crumbs and eggs 
with boiled cracked corn and mixed hard grain. 
1 never keep them confined in the coops more 
than a week. They are not let out in the morn¬ 
ing until the sun is well up, and have their 
breakfast before they start off. They will usually 
come up at night themselves, when they are fed again. 
I simply drive them to the house. They must be kept 
dry, for the first six or eight weeks they are very ten¬ 
der; a cold shower would kill them. As to keeping 
them in the habit of coming home at night to roost, 
anyone who has handled turkeys knows how they will 
become attached to their attendant; for this reason I 
always claim they should be taken care of by the same 
person, and he or she should have a call of some kind 
and use this call ^it time of feeding, and as you throw 
the feed down just use your call while they are eating.. 
In this way they learn that this call means something 
to eat. After you have them out on the ranch, it mat¬ 
ters not where they are, if you give them that call 
they know that it means something to eat, and • they 
will come flying in a hurry to get their share; be sure 
not to disappoint them. By this practice we keep them 
under full control and are not troubled by their going 
to roost out all over the farm and in trees. I feed 
them a little in the morning before they go out, and 
all they want at night until I fatten them for the 
market; then I feed three times a day, such as corn, 
oats and buckwheat. a. j. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
MAKING OVER AN OLD BARN. 
One of the most difficult, and when accomplished, 
the most unsatisfactory things ever attempted is to 
remodel an old barn or set of barns and make new 
ones of them. I have had two or three such experi¬ 
ences, and have never been pleased with the result. 
Let us take this problem of H. L. C., page 818, for 
solution. A barn 30 feet wide is not wide enough for 
tv/o rows of cattle, and is wider than necessary for 
one. Now if lie puts these barns end to end he will 
have a 30xl20-foot barn. This means 300 feet of out¬ 
side to keep in repair, with same amount of wall, and 
with wind exposure. If he places these barns side by 
of outside, or reduce it from 300 to J80 feet, saving 
40 per cent in cost, a big item with present prices of 
lumber. He will also save same proportion of foun¬ 
dation and same in wind exposure. It will cost some¬ 
thing additional for roof, but he will much more than 
double the storage capacity above stables. While a 
00x60-foot barn is not an ideal shape for housing 
stock, it is far preferable to 30x120; the stock can be 
better arranged, it will save steps, be kept much warmer 
and I would so place those old barns. 
Now as to the internal arrangement. He is going 
to use a silo, a very wise thing, and he should plan to 
save every step possible. So, in the first place, he 
should put silo at one end and in middle, and through 
the middle run an eight to'12-foot alley, more or less, 
having silo opening into the side. From one end of one 
barn cut off 20 feet for his horse stable. This will 
leave the whole of one side of barn and 40 feet from 
other for his 30 cattle stalls or three feet four inches 
for each, which is ample; in fact, cattle do very nicely 
with three-feet width of stalls. I would advise 
that he put wall under barn at least nine feet 
high; and if of stone would plaster both sides, 
as it is impossible to point a wall so as to 
make it wind-tight. Surely he should plaster inside if 
he ‘‘points” the outside. The fact is, while it will 
take more mortar to plaster the wall than to point, it 
will not take as much time and on the whole will not 
cost any more. The walls will probably be two feet 
thick; this will leave 54 feet in the clear with posts for 
support through the middle. He can leave a wide 
space behind cows, giving plenty of room for clearing 
out manure and still have room through the middle 
for calf pens, or for a sick cow. This nine-foot wall 
affords ample air space, and will allow of using the 
overhead track for running car for removing manure. 
It will also allow for overhead tracks for feed car 
inside. Most assuredly cement is by far the best and 
also the cheapest for floors; and if he has plenty of 
bedding it will be entirely satisfactory under cows. 
1 lie manure gutter should be wide enough so lie 
can use a scoop shovel for cleaning, and it is better to 
have a hardwood plank— 
say oak—bedded smooth 
down in bottom or the ce¬ 
ment will keep him poor 
by wearing out shovels. 
This gutter should be at 
least eight inches below 
floor on which cows 
stand, and only four below 
floor behind it. This pre r 
vents cows from standing 
with hind feet in gutter 
and at same time is much 
easier cleaned than trough 
eight or more inches be¬ 
low where attendant 
works. There is not the 
least danger of stable 
odor in milk, if stable is 
properly ventilated and 
the floors above are en¬ 
tirely tight, and hay 
chutes are kept closed ex¬ 
cept when being used. 
One thing more is of 
vast importance. There 
should be abundance of 
light. There cannot be 
too much. I would have 
at least a third of the 
space on south, east and 
west sides windows, and 
plenty on north side. If 
necessary to keep stable 
warm use double windows. But use the windows any 
way and then keep them clean. I am not in love with 
any kind of stanchion. I never saw one which I would 
be willing to have fastened about my neck. I much 
prefer individual stalls or neck chains even, but “no 
stanchions in mine.” The automatic watering device 
is all right. More cows fail to give maximum quantity 
of milk from lack of water than from lack of food. A 
cow, when possible, will drink a dozen times a day. 
They want a little and often. j. s. woodward. 
A FARM NEAR THE NORTH POLE. 
I appreciate your efforts to make a good paper, es¬ 
pecially the Hope Farm Notes; they give the touch of 
home so much enjoyed by bachelors, at the “front” 
like myself. I hold the “honor” of running the far¬ 
thest north ranch in British Columbia, latitude 59 de¬ 
grees 45 minutes, elevation 2,300 feet, but the crop 
consists chiefly of wild hay, which sells for $40 to $50 
a ton in limited quantities; Timothy $80 to $140 a ton, 
but it does not seem to succeed here. It exists, but will 
not make even part of a crop, The soil is good and it 
A FLOCK OF TURKEYS ON A NEW YORK FARM. Fig. 417. 
side, he will have the same area, but will save 120 feet 
