Vol. LXXIII, No. 4271. 
NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 5. 1014. 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE BUSINESS OF TURKEY RAISING. 
Depends Largely on “ Good Luck.” 
T WENTY years of experience in raising poultry 
on our old home farm, and in other localities, 
convinces the writer that there are three car¬ 
dinal rules which must be followed. The first is 
have healthy stock for breeding purposes; next have 
••lean quarters; the third and last is a joint rule, 
and embraces the subjects of regular feeding, also a 
steady and liberal supply of fresh water. These 
rules may be applied to the raising of all kinds of 
domestic poultry. Follow them, and barring epi¬ 
demics, your success is fairly assured. Neglect them 
and the probabilities are that you will exclaim in 
disgust that there is no money in poultry raising. 
In the end, purebred fowls pay best. This has been 
my experience and I have tried both purebreds and 
grades. 
HIGH PRICES FOR TURKEYS.—When you can 
get from 20 to 23 cents 
per pound for turkeys, 
you can readily see that 
you are making exceed¬ 
ingly good returns on 
the capital invested, 
and at the same time al¬ 
lowing fair remunera- 
tion for your time and 
feed. Say your hens 
weigh, on the average, 
10 pounds and your 
toms 20 pounds ( not ex¬ 
travagant figures). It 
is plain that you are in 
a profitable business for 
the amount of money it 
stands you. Twenty 
years ago you could buy 
a tuiuey hen for from 
75 cents to $1, and a 
gobbler or tom for from 
$1.10 to $1.50, say $1.25 
on an average. They 
have more than doubled 
in price since then, but 
the cost of raising them 
has not increased pro¬ 
portionately by any 
means. The prices I 
quote are wholesale, or 
those obtained from 
good commission merchants, should your birds be 
shipped in to the big city markets. 
A GOOD RANGE NECESSARY.—In the matter 
i>f successful turkey-raising, you must be provided 
with good range, as these birds do not thrive in con¬ 
finement. The White Holland does well on limited 
feeding grounds, and the color is much in its favor, 
as the most ignorant sportsman, either white or col¬ 
ored, cannot in any way mistake one of these pure 
white birds for a wild turkey, therefore he can give 
i:<> reasonable excuse for firing at a White Holland, 
lmt can, and often does, put up a good excuse for 
killing the ordinary domestic turkey, when he is out 
for his wild brother on the same range. 
FEED AND CARE.—On our home farm the rule 
was to feed the baby poults the yolk of hard-boiled 
eggs (after the first 24 hours) for the first few 
days when they had “cheeped” their way out of 
their speckled shells; then stale loaf bread, soaked 
in sweet milk, squeezed as dry as possible; later on 
cracked wheat, cracked corn, or rolled oats. The 
flock was kept up each morning till the dew was off 
the grass. There was generally a stir among us 
when a big Summer storm was brewing, and all 
hands, sometimes including the cook, were out in 
field, lot or orchard first to find, and then drive up 
the hens with their precious broods of poults. These 
were hurried to the big hovels, as fast as possible, 
for it was traditionary, that rain did not agree with 
a young turkey until he was at least 10 weeks old, 
and he could stand it much better if he was kept out 
of it until he was three months old; after that he 
was able to brave the elements. It was a pretty 
sight to see a flock of young turkeys after their in¬ 
fantile troubles were over, and they had reached 
the age when they could practically take care of 
themselves, as they ranged over the wheat or oat 
stubble, spread out in quest of grasshoppers and 
other insect pests. In watching them, you could 
figure on many fine dinners during the Winter sea¬ 
son, and in addition to this some cash, when 
Thanksgiving, and later on Christmas arrived, mean- 
THE WHITE MOTHER AND HER BROOD. Fig. 
ing that the city folks would want to remember 
these historic occasions by the purchase of a high- 
priced turkey gobbler or hen. In New York Thanks¬ 
giving is usually a better market than Christmas. 
ONE MAN'S SUCCESS.—The writer had a neigh¬ 
bor who, although not considered a poultry fancier, 
showed his ability as a turkey raiser by the follow¬ 
ing results: Starting out in February with 10 hens 
and two toms, he by careful and judicious methods, 
managed to raise to maturity. 21(5 full-grown turkeys 
that season, and sold them at the following prices: 
$1.25 for the liens and $1.50 for the gobblers (this 
was some years ago). These turkeys were raised on 
an old-time Virginia plantation, where the acreage 
in small grain probably averaged from 150 to 200, 
including wheat and oats, making fine feeding 
grounds for young turkeys. My friend's mode of 
procedure was as follows: When the birds began to 
mate, he let one tom run with the hens for a short 
while, then putting him up, turned out the other 
one. In this way the toms did not fight and a much 
larger number of fertile eggs was assured. When 
the hens showed a disposition to begin laying, they 
were placed in a large pen constructed of fence rails. 
The pen was covered to keep out the rain. Inside, 
comfortable nests were arranged. Gravel was haul¬ 
ed and a pile put in the pen, then quite a lot of half- 
burned oyster shells from an old lime pit were put 
in one corner of the pen. The hens were fed 
screened wheat and corn, and were kept in this in¬ 
closure, all through the laying and sitting period. 
As the young poults appeared in sufficient numbers, 
they were apportioned to the hens in good-sized 
flocks. During the day the poults were put out in 
triangular pens made of boards, and arranged so the 
hens were at liberty, but the poults could not get 
out. Each night all were put back into the big pen. 
Their feed was corn bread fed cold and with onion 
tops cooked in the bread. This feed was given till 
the young ones were about 10 weeks old, and then 
they were given dry cornmeal dough with cut-up red 
pepper mixed in it, and by the time they were 12 
weeks of age they were 
given wheat screenings. 
Until they were about 
the size of an ordinary 
pullet, they were kept 
up at night, and never 
let out in the mornings 
until the dew was off 
the grass. 
During the first two 
or three weeks, the 
young poults began to 
die. but it was found by 
putting copperas in 
their drinking water 
that they immediately 
began to improve, and 
after using this remedy 
for a few days there 
were no more deaths in 
the flock. The cop¬ 
peras was tied up in a 
piece of cloth, then 
placed under the water 
and the cloth tacked to 
the lower side of the 
trough. This simple 
remedy prevented any 
more sickness, and by 
the Fall of the year 
there was, as before 
stated, a splendid flock 
of 216 fine young turkeys. It was naturally robust 
stock. 
RAISING SHOW BIRDS.—The writer was at one 
time interested in White Hollands, and exhibited 
them at the Virginia poultry shows, and State Fair, 
winning several ribbons. This season a neighbor, a 
young girl, sold six of her purebred White Holland 
toms for $5 apiece, and could have disposed of 
many more at the same good price, if she had been 
provided with more to sell. The fact of exhibiting 
your best birds, say a pen of three or four, will ghe 
you a much better chance to obtain higher prices for 
your best individuals, and will serve as an incentive 
not only to breed purebred birds, but also to en¬ 
courage you to keep up the high standard of your 
regular flock of breeding stock. You also have a 
good chance to sell sittings of eggs during the breed¬ 
ing season. I sold over 150 one season at 25 ceats 
each. j. m. bell. 
R. N.-Y.—The great drawback to turkey raising in 
many localities is the prevalence of the disease called 
blackhead. The stock described above is evidently 
free from disease. 
