If you have no place free of grass, you
can start turkeys with difficulty. Feeding is of the greatest
importance. For the first week I have found wheat bread moistened in
water the most satisfactory. If you can feed them by sunrise for the
first three or four weeks, you need lose hardly a bird. Each evening
try and call them nearer and nearer home, so that you will not be
troubled with their wandering to the neighbors'. As early as possible
train them to roost high, so as to be out of danger at night. Bird
dogs are often very destructive to turkeys, at times destroying a
whole flock in a single night. Fatten with corn. The turkey crop ought
to be one of the most profitable on our farms.
Dr. G.G. GROFF.
Pennsylvania.
GRAHAM.
Turkeys want care, especially for the first two or three weeks. I feed
graham and wheat bread, made by scalding the flour, making a very
stiff dough, and baking in a hot oven; soak over night in cold water.
I also give them plenty of young onions, cutting them up with
scissors. Be careful not to let young turkeys out in the morning while
the grass is wet. After the birds are two weeks old I feed wheat, but
no corn until they are about a month old. I like hen mothers best, for
turkey mothers are rangers, and do not take kindly to being kept in a
coop. The bread will keep a week if made right, but do not soak more
than will be wanted in a day, as it soon sours.
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