[New England Farmer.]
HOW TO RAISE TURKEYS.
The best feed for young turkeys and ducks is yelks of hard-boiled eggs, and after they are several days old the white may be added. Continue this for two or three weeks, occasionally chopping onions fine and sometimes sprinkling the boiled eggs with black pepper; then give rice, a teacupful with enough milk to just cover it, and boil slowly until the milk is evaporated. Put in enough more to cover the rice again, so that when boiled down the second time it will be soft if pressed between the fingers. Milk must not be used too freely, as it will get too soft and the grains will adhere together. Stir frequently when boiling. Do not use water with the rice, as it forms a paste and the chicks cannot swallow it. In cold, damp weather, a half teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper in a pint of flour, with lard enough to make it stick together, will protect them from diarrhea. This amount of food is sufficient for two meals for seventy-five chicks. Give all food in shallow tin pans. Water and boiled milk, with a little lime water in each occasionally, is the best drink until the chicks are two or three months old, when loppered and buttermilk may take the place of the boiled milk. Turkeys like best to roost on trees, and in their place artificial roots may be made by planting long forked locust poles and laying others across the forks.—American Agriculturist.
HOW TO RAISE TURKEYS.
Keep the turkey hens tame by feeding them close to the house. Have two or three barrels in sheltered corners containing plenty of straw or leaves for them to lay in. Gather the eggs every evening, as turkey eggs are very easily chilled. Keep the eggs in a woolen cloth on end and turn them every three days. Set the first seven eggs under a chicken hen, as they get too old before the turkey hen will go to sitting. Make a board pen ten or twelve feet square and twelve or fourteen inches high. Put a coop in it and put your hen and turkeys in it. Feed the hen with corn and the turkeys soaked wheat bread (corn meal will kill them), until they are a week old (I feed five or six times a day). Then feed wheat until they are big enough to eat corn. Give plenty of fresh water in a shallow vessel. Keep the mother in the pen until they are large enough to fly over the top of the boards. Let them out awhile about the middle of the day. Shut them in at night. A turkey hen does not like to be shut up, but have a good big coop for her and she will go in. Don't let the little turkeys get their backs wet until they are feathered. The turkey hen will sit down when night comes just where she happens to be, but if you drive her home a few times she will come herself after that. Always feed them when they come home, no matter if they are full of "hoppers." Have your No. 2 pen in the orchard under an apple tree where it is shady. Have the turkey hen's pen close to the chicken hen's pen, so that when the chicken hen weans her turkeys, they will soon learn to go with the turkey hen. Give them a dose of black pepper in their feed every cold rain. And never, no never, get excited and in a hurry while working with turkeys if you don't want them to get wild and fly all over the plantation. Three or four weeks before selling, feed all the corn they will eat.
FOOD HINTS.
Restrain your desire to count your young turkeys, and let them alone for twenty-four hours after they get into this world. Remove them to a clean, airy, roomy coop, and give them boiled eggs, stale wheat bread crumbs just moistened with milk or water, "Dutch" cheese, or a mixture of all these.
For the first two weeks feed entirely with the eggs, bread, curds, cooked rice and cooked oatmeal. About the third week commence feeding cooked cornmeal; and from that on they may have any cooked food that would be suitable for chickens of the same age. Season all food slightly with salt and pepper, and twice a week add a level tablespoonful of bone meal to a pint of feed. Never feed any sour food or sloppy food of any kind, except sour milk, and never feed any uncooked food of any kind until after they have thrown out the red on their heads. Feed often, five or six times a day, until after they are three months old; then, if insects are numerous, you may gradually reduce the number of meals per day to three or even two.
After they are three months old they may be given wheat, cracked corn, etc., but not whole corn until they are five months old. Keep the coops dry and clean, and the turkeys out of the dew and rain until they are fully feathered, and have thrown out the red. Dampness and filth will kill young turkeys as surely as a dose of poison. For the first few days confine the poults to the limits of the coop and safety run; then, if all appear strong and well, give the mother hen and her brood liberty on pleasant days after the dew is off.
If they get caught out in a shower, get them to shelter as soon as possible; and if they are chilled take them to the house and thoroughly dry and warm them. See that the little turkeys come home every night. The turkey mother must, for the first few nights, be hunted up and driven home. After they are three months old, turkeys are quite hardy, and may be allowed range at all times. If turkeys that are well cared for, and have always seemed all right, show signs of drooping when about six weeks or two months old, give Douglas mixture in the drink or food, and add a little cooked meat to the food once a day.—The Practical Farmer.