POULTRY LORE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 19

POULTRY LORE.

TURKEY-RAISING FOR BOY AND GIRLS. (MISS H. G. DUDLEY, KENTUCKY.) Turkeys are more interesting than chicke" «. They have sufficient intelligence to enable you to train them to do certain things at certain times. They have affectionate dispositions ; the little ones, I know, love ino when I go to feed them, aud their stately old mothers do not disdain to take a morsel from my fingers now and then, But the old gobbler, I fear, cherishes a life-long grudge against, me for turning him out of the yard when Igo to feed the hens. He has grown so fat and clumsy that there ia danger of his falling ont of the tree some night and killing himself. So I am trying to persuade him toreduce himself. Turkeys are more observing than chickens. Mine make a great ado over me when I ‘ dress up ’ and when Flora, my little coloured helper, gob a blue toboggan cap last winter, the whole flock followed after her and gobbled in the most appreciative manner. Flora was delighted with these demonstrations because they attracted attention to her now cap. According to my own experience, raising turkeys is more profitable than raising chickens ; besides one does not have to be working with them all the year round. Then, too, one feels liko doing something worth while when taking a trembling, helpless little poult, that can be held in the hollow of the hand, and raising him up to be an immense bird that will perhaps weigh when grown, forty-five pounds. In winter, a turkey of moderate size will last our small family a week. It is roasted for the first dinner, sliced cold for the semnd, a leg barbecued with vinegar for breakfast, hashes and stews innumerable, winding up finally with a bowl of delicious soup made fron the bones. Whenone lives on a farm where the turkey o can have an extensive range, there ia no difficulty in keeping them healthy, and if ixa reach of a good market, there ia no reason why there should not be considerable profit in turkey-raising. Even here in the country, a hundred miles distant from a oity, we manago to make it worth our while. ’ Besides the profits which accrue from turkey-raising, many of our farmers actually declare that a flock of moderate size is a benefit to the form on account of their destroying myriads of in-, sects that infest the fields during summer. During March the hens must be carefully watched, as their wild nature then asserts itself, and each one wanders off alone in a different direction in search of some secluded spot .for her neat. In May and June they are sitting and hatoliing. Foe aoine weeks after the young turkeys come off, they need to be closely looked after to prevent their running their silly little heads into all aorta of dangers If a shower comes up, you must rush out and get them up, else you may find after ife only a heap of drowned little poults, with their disconsolate mother standing over them regretful, let ua hope, that she has not choaeix some other place than the ditch iu which to hover them. A turkey hen is very whimßieat in many respects ; she will never go into her coop at night unless compelled to. Mia© will bring up their little flocks to be fed afc sundown, but as soon as they are satisfied tbo watchful mother calls them off with a few well.understood yelps, and hides them in the highest grass accessible, where, if it were not for her curiosity she might sit undisturbed, till morning. But she is ss anxious to waicß xne that she keeps stretching up her long neck now a,nd than so I catch a glimpse of her red head and go after her. When ab length the young brood is old enough to bepermtttad to roost out of doors, then how perfectly delighted they ai'e ! At first ths whole flock comes, borne an hour or two earlier in the evening in order to arrange themselves to their satisfaction on the roostpole. The mother stations herself, in the oaxwo aud stretches oat her wings to their fullest extent, for although the little fellows are mannhh enough to want to go to roost, they still enough to desire the yrarmth and protection of their mother’s soft feathers. When turkeys can have an extensive rango they need but little food at this, age, in addition to the inseots which they are catching all day long in the fields and meadows, only a light supper at night to bring them home. Sometimes, though, they extend their, grasshopper hunt so far that when it catches them they ara nearer a neighbour’s house than their owu, uothoygo and spend the night. This propensity for visiting should be nipped the bud ; if tho flock is not in sight at *,andown, their owner should look for tkem„ until they are found. In the fall the Sioak has increased in size a while their appetites are truly appalling. One can. iorrn some idea of the quantity of grasq a n d insects which they consume by bhe quantity of food that they demand when this supply is exhausted. If it is desired to get them ready for Thanksgiving, they should be liberally fed for about two months before, fa oxtder to hasten development, sothattheip bodies, instead of being covered with pinfeathers, will present in market a smooth, rounded* and plump appearance. There is nothing more unattractive than a skinny* raw-boned turkey, and no sight more appetising than one that is fat, shapely, and synak i metrical, with its yellow fat. shining through its clear Bkin. If the stock ia pure bred, the largest and handsomest should be kept for breeding purposes, and these should not be fattened, bufe simply kept iff good condition, favourable to healthy growth and development.—American Agriculturist.