The one great essential on the part of a person raising or attempting to raise turkeys is patience, or persistency, whichever you care to call it. To anyone thinking of starting in this work I can only say that you will meet with plenty of difficulties and much that will discourage and dishearten you, but when you remember that each failure or discouragement means just that much more added to your knowledge of, and experience in this work, it should give you heart to keep on, and if you do keep on and on, using each little bit of experience thus gained and using it to good effect, in the end success is bound to come. I am going to tell you a few of the discouraging things that happened to me, and also of my method of raising turkeys, a method based on long experience and perfected in the face of many discouragements, and I hope that in the telling, you may learn something that will be of benefit.

I started with twelve turkey eggs. Had I known then how hard they are to raise, I wonder if I would have attempted it? I hatched out eight turkeys from that lot of eggs, and I raised just one. I named her Hen-Hen, and she is on my place today, and is at the head of all my flock.

The following year I hatched out over thirty turkeys, and only succeeded in raising four. My work was then carried on on low land. The next year, I put old Hen-Hen on higher ground, where I am raising all my flock today. She hatched out fifteen turkeys, and I raised all but one. I killed off some of the young toms, and kept all the pullets, all of which I still have, and they are splendid, strong stock, short-legged, heavy and a splendid bronze.

I then sent to Kentucky and brought out some of the best stock I could find down there, and then began my battle to raise turkeys. I had very good success, that is, as far as I went. At first, I knew hardly anything about the proper way to feed, and the right food to give my turkeys, but as the years went by, my experience in feeding taught me a great deal.

BREEDING

Now I will tell you in as concise a way as possible, the method I consider proper in raising turkeys. In the first place, it is necessary to have a good, strong two-year-old hen to breed from with a tom that is no relation whatever to the family. One of the foremost things you must be particular not to do is to inbreed. I much prefer a common hen to put my first hatch of eggs under; that will give the turkey hens a much longer time to lay. I consider it better to put my turkey hens on my June eggs. I put fifteen eggs under a turkey hen, and eleven under a common hen.

When the little turkeys come out, I disinfect their heads and under the wings with my own salve. Have you ever seen a little turkey that has a cold in its head wipe its beak under its wing? I have many times found the feathers under their wings matted as a result of this ill-bred habit of theirs. That, of course, is not a healthy state for a young bird that is growing, and that is the reason that I disinfect with my salve under their wings and on their heads, and they always seem brighter afterward.

I have good, strong runs, 5 feet long and 4 feet wide, with high coops and thorough ventilation from the top, which carries off all the impure and overheated air, and keeps the temperature normal at the bottom of the coops for the little turkeys. On hot days I cover my runs with burlap.

The turkeys must be kept clean and dry and their straw must be well aired every day. Once a week, I wash out the bottom of the coop with disinfectant, and put in clean straw.

I give them all the lettuce they can eat three times daily, as the secret of raising turkeys is to keep their bowels in good order, and the droppings a bright green. Just as soon as I see a little turkey with its wings drooping, I take it away from the others and treat it as described on page 82.

I have invented my own pills for the cure of blackhead and they are now being largely used by turkey raisers all through New England.^[1]

When my little turkeys are about three or four days old, I give them Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed, and a little skimmed milk with a good solid feed of lettuce—all they can eat. At noon, I feed them lettuce again and clean water containing tincture of iron, 4 drops to each gallon of water. At night, I feed them bread soaked in milk and lettuce cut up fine with an onion and a shake of red pepper. After having dry feed all day, they relish the soft feed at night. There is no reason why, if you use my method in raising turkeys, and have your runs on high ground, you cannot be successful.

If the turkeys are raised in the right way, they are no harder to raise than chickens. When the pullets are about four months old, they should be given epsom salts twice a week (a small teaspoonful to a gallon of water). This keeps the turkey in good condition and the blood cool. Also a tablespoonful of sulphate of iron in a pail of water should be left in some place where they can drink it. Keep them good and dry until they are ready for shipment, for turkeys are subject to blackhead until they are one year old.

I will be only too glad to give any information in my power to people who are interested in this subject. While the Experimental Colleges have put out some bulletins on the care of turkeys, the person that is going to issue a report on the raising of turkeys must get out in the field and be with them from the time they are baby chicks until they are ready to be disposed of, and then it will be many years before he will know all there is to know about turkey raising. I have spent years on my turkeys, and I think that I am now in a position to give any information that any grower may require in regard to this matter.