D>e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
255 
Fifty Indiana Turk eys to the Acre 
ilOW IT WAS BEGUN.-—I am asked 
to explain our method of keeping a 
flock of 1250 turkeys on less than 
30 acres of land, and how we man¬ 
age to keep them healthy and free 
from blackhead and other diseases. 
A word of explanation: I have, been raising 
turkeys for the past IS years, the first 10 years 
of that time it was just a hobby to see how fine 
turkeys I could raise. Then a serious illness came 
and I was compelled to give up my office and take 
up work in the open, so naturally I turned to my 
turkeys, and since then I have devoted all my time 
to them. I have found the subject very interesting, 
much more so than one would imagine. I have found 
that the turkey is a much misunderstood fowl, and 
the methods of raising and caring for them to be 
little known. I was told that turkeys had to have 
range, that they could not be confined. A great 
many persons quit raising turkeys because their 
neighbors objected to their ranging over their lands. 
CARE OF POULTS.—As soon as the poults are 
taken from the incubator we place them in a brooder- 
house that has been located on sweet ground. By 
this I mean clover or Blue grass sod that has not 
been used for turkeys or chickens. They are fed 
often but sparingly. Our main feed is stale bread 
that, has been soaked in sour milk, and as much of 
the milk squeezed out as possible. To this is added 
a sprinkle of clean sharp sand. Grit and charcoal 
are kept before them at all times. Sour milk is al¬ 
lowed three or four times a day, but it is not kept 
before them, as the poult will drink more than is 
good for it. The clover or Blue grass supplies most 
of the green food required. The balance we furnish 
by giving Epsom salts. We feed the stale bread for 
the first 10 weeks and then commence to feed a 
small amount of grain. If there is no shade in the 
runs we provide places for them to go to. 
FEEDING.—Our mature turkeys in the pens are 
fed twice a day, morning and evening. During the 
laying season, from February 15 to July 1. we keep 
is all that he needs, for it is only a slight case of 
indigestion that would develop into something worse 
if the bird was left to his own resources. Often the 
crop is packed with undigested food. If it is it 
must be washed out, as it will not digest, but just 
decay and cause the death of the turkey. I have 
tried every remedy that has ever come to my atten¬ 
tion and I am willing to keep on trying anything 
that looks as if it might be good, but I have never 
found anything that would equal castor oil. Epsom 
salts or calomel pills for a sick turkey. We use a 
lot of cod-liver oil, but it does not take the place 
of castor oil; it is just to give the patient some 
nourishment. 
BLACKIIEAI).—Blackhead is a name that, is over¬ 
worked in the turkey-raising business. It should 
be lazyliead, not because the turkey is prone to be 
lazy, but because the breeder is too lazy to catch 
the bird the minute he sees that it is out of condi¬ 
tion and give it a good dose of castor oil. You can 
take a perfectly healthy turkey and feed it all the 
A Flock of Indiana Turkeys, Fig. 81 
and the owners thought that they had to range to 
live. I am positive our experiments have proved 
that turkeys do not have to have unlimited range, 
and that they do better when confined to very 
limited range. 
HATCHING.—AVe hatch our eggs in incubators 
and find that we can get much better results than 
we ever had with chicken eggs. The poults are 
brooded under hard-coal brooders, the same as 
chickens. We do not allow the poults to range all 
over the farm, but keep them confined to small 
tracts of land, about one-fourth of an acre for 100 
poults, and keep them in this inclosure until they 
are as large as Leghorn hens. Then we move them 
to an inclosure of about two acres for each 100 
turkeys, and they stay there until we are ready 
to place them in our laying pens, which are 50 ft. 
wide by 1000 ft. long, and hold 100 hens. We 
usually transfer stock to the laying pens about 
February 15 of each year. We have now nearly 050 
turkeys that have not been out of the laying pens 
they were placed in last February, 11 months ago, 
and our records show that there have been only 15 
deaths from all causes, and this in spite of the 
fact that a number of the hens are over five years 
of age. These birds will not be out of the pens until 
next July, then they will be through laying, and will 
be transferred to a tract of about 15 acres, together 
with 000 additional turkeys. The pens will be 
sown in rye and made ready for the laying season 
the next year. 
a mash of bran, shorts, cornmeal and tankage before 
them at all times, and liberal feeds of oats in the 
morning and corn at night are given, while charcoal, 
grit, oyster shell and clean water are always before 
them. From July 1 to December 1 we do not give 
them any mash or oyster shell, but continue the 
oats in the morning and corn at night. From De¬ 
cember 1 to February 15 we feed each morning one- 
fifth of a loaf of stale bread to each turkey, and at 
night half an ear of corn on the cob. Nothing else. 
We find that the fowls like the stale bread better 
than anything we can give them. It is not expen¬ 
sive, for I get all I need from the local bakers at 
one cent for a pound loaf. I would like to he able 
to use this feed all the year, but it molds so quickly 
in warm weather that it is not safe to do so. I have 
sick turkeys. Naturally, we could not have 1250 
without some sickness, but it is surprising how few 
sick birds we do have. 
MEDICAL TREATMENT.—About the first thing a 
visitor says on seeing our flock for the first time is, 
“My, what if they should all get sick and die!” I can 
only say that if they do it is my fault, and not the 
fault of the flock. The flock is on such small 
acreage that I am able to see each one twice a day, 
and at the first signs of sickness the patient is 
caught and treated. When the morning feed is given 
the flock always go with the one who has the feed, 
and if any turkey does not come running like he 
was starved to death he is caught right there and 
examined; IK) cases out of 100 a dose of castor oil 
new corn (by that I mean corn that is not entirely 
dry) it will eat, not give it any relief and in three or 
four days it will have one of the most, beautiful cases 
of blackhead you ever saw and will die sure, but 
it could have been saved if taken in time. I know 
that the hallmark of blackhead is the spotted liver, 
but I never saw a turkey that I dissected but what 
had a few spots on its liver, and I know that most 
of them did not have blackhead. The other diseases 
we have, besides indigestion, do not cause us very 
much trouble. Colds usually respond to a liberal 
dose of castor oil. For canker we use a strong anti¬ 
septic to wash the throat and outside of the head. 
Worms are very hard on turkeys, but we have a very 
simple remedy that we keep in the drinking water 
and we have very few cases of trouble caused by 
worms. 
ADVANTAGES' OF SMALL RANGE.—The only 
thing that will put the turkey back on the farm is 
tor the farmer to take enough interest in the matter 
to provide a small tract of land, preferably in tin* 
orchard, and fence it with woven wire high enough 
to keep the poults in and the chicks out. This will 
give the good wife a place where she can always 
look after her brood without having to run all over 
the neighborhood, and if one gets sick it can easily 
be caught and looked after. 1 know that castor oil 
and Epsom salts are old-fashioned remedies, but I 
have tried most of the new remedies, and they 
were not nearly so successful as my old stand¬ 
bys. Last year some one started ipecac 
as a 
