1 Nov., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 477 
for them, and bread, oatmeal, and pollard, scalded with milk or water, may also be 
given. Turkeys require a certain amount of animal food, such as boiled liver, 
and chopped-up meat. Cabbage and lettuce should also be given. Many 
people keep their turkey chickens too much confined. This is a mistake. They 
should be allowed all possible freedom, being housed during inclement weather. 
Size and weight count for everything in the turkey on the English market. A 
fair turkey-gobbler, under twelve months, should weigh about 12 Ib., and hens 
7 1b. These weights can, however, be much increased by judicious feeding. 
Ducks. 
In the last issue of the Journal we gave a description of the Messrs. 
Baynes’s duck farm at Belmont. The ducks are being bred for export, and 
are fed and treated with that object in view. Ducks mature very rapidly. 
‘Ten weeks are sufficient to produce birds fattened for the market. Aylesburys 
and Pekins are the best, and good crosses are:—Aylesbury drake with 
Pekin ducks, and vice verséd; Rouen drake with Aylesbury or Pekins, or 
Pekin and Aylesbury drakes with Rouen ducks. Drakes should be over nine 
months old to ensure fertile eggs, and six or seven ducks should be assigned to 
each drake. Ducks intended for market should not be allowed near water. 
Por duck-rearing on a large scale incubators are almost a necessity. If no 
incubator is used, hen turkeys or common hens should be taken for sitters. 
Straw should be freely supplied to the pens in which the ducklings are placed 
to supply warmth. Beyond this they require nothing but frequent feeding. 
Feed eight times a day. As the ducklings grow the feeding times may be 
reduced to six. Give very little moisture in the food, which should consist of 
chopped liver, wheat, barley, pumpkins, and lucerne boiled. For dry food, 
pollard and oat-dust. Supply plenty of oyster-shell grit. Water-troughs 
should be placed in the pens and yards, covered with wire-netting to prevent 
the birds getting into the troughs and fouling the water. 
THE FOOD VALUE OF VEGETABLES. 
Tomatoes rouse torpid liver and do the work, ordinarily, of a doctor’s 
prescription. 
Lettuce has a soothing, quieting effect upon the nerves, and is an 
insomnia remedy. 
Celery is an acknowledged nerve tonic, and is more and more used in 
medicinal prescriptions. 
Onions are also a tonic for the nerves, but people will be forever prejudiced 
because of their odour. 
Potatoes should be eschewed by those who “ have a horror of getting fat,” 
as that is one penalty of eating them. 
Parsnips, it is now contended by scientists, possess almost the same 
virtues that are claimed for sarsaparilla. 
Beets are fattening, and. even a moderately-learned man will understand 
that it is because of the sugar they contain. 
Ordinary Lima beans, some one has said, are good 'to allay thirst, but the 
same can be said, with equal truth, of a pitcher of water. 
Asparagus is efficacious in kidney ailments to an extent that is not yet, 
perhaps, thoroughly appreciated. 
Cucumbers, aside from sunbeam emitting properties known to readers of 
facetious paragraphs, contains an acid that is helpful in some cases of 
dyspepsia. 
Parsley will assist good digestion, like cheese and nuts, but a quantity in 
_ excess of ordinary capacity has to be consumed. ‘Therein lies the joke. 
Pumpkins are an ingredient in a patent medicine that is guaranteed to 
cure quite a variety of ailments flesh is heir to, but the world is increasing in 
inhabitants who do not believe all they hear.—E. H. Noyes, in ‘* What to Eat.’ 
Lip 
