People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1897 — Turkeys. [ARTICLE]

Turkeys.

Turkeys are more profitable than bogs and are about as easy to raise. The demand for them is always good and the market is never so overstocked that prices fall low for any length of time. If turkeys are given good care and looked after until they are four or five weeks old they will take care of themselves after that, only requiring plenty of food to promote growth and keep them at the highest point of thrift. There is a notion abroad that turkeys are delicate and hard to bring through the perils of infancy. This is only true when a fiock has been inbred until its stamina is injured and its vitality run down to the danger point. In breeding turkeys new blood should be introduced every year and care should be taken that the new blood is from vigorous stock. Another mistake is in breeding year after year from yearold hens. The custom of selling off the old hens because they are a little heavier than the pullets of the previous season is a most reprehensible one, as young turkeys from pullet’s eggs are never as hardy as those hatched from the eggs of mature hens. Turkey hens should be kept until four or five years old, as they continue to produce eggs for several years. It is best to use a young tom on old liens than to keep the old tom and breed pullets to him. There are several breeds of turkeys of white, the bronze variety is the most numerous and most popular. For a few years the white Holland has been growing in favor because of its domestic habits and the fine quality of its flesh. The advantage of the bronze is in its rapid growth and the great weight to which it attains the first season but this is offset by its wandering habits. The white variety is much sought after in some markets by housekeepers who do not care for a very large roast but are particular about the appearance and quality of the food they place on their table. A flock of turkeys may be fattened on corn alone and will become very fat and juicy if fed all they will eat for a few days before they are sent to market. They are great insect hunters and will keep a farm clear of grasshoppers when all other means fail. We have known one man to sell over S4OO worth of turkeys in one season which had been reared principally on grasshoppers on his own and his neighbors’ farms. One year when the ’hoppers were particularly bad the neighbors were very glad to have a. thousand turkeys run over their meadows and through their corn fields.—Farmer’s Voice. Minutes seem like hours when a life is at stake. Croup gives no time to send for a doctor, delay may mean death, One Minute Cough Cure gives instant relief and insures recovery. The only harmless remedy that produces immediate result. Sold by A. P. Long.