THE BRITISH AMERICAN.

£0.13

140 ' THE FARMERS DEPARTMENT. P 0 U LT R Y.

The Tarkcy,( .Mclcagn's Gout coo, [4,) is a native of America and was intro uced into Eu. rope by the Spaniards, according to London; though some authors say that the turkey de- rives its name from the country from which it was ﬁrst im ) rted.

Breeding.- One turkey cock is sufﬁcient for six hens or more, and a hen will cover from 9 to 16 eggs. according to her size. The hen is apt to form her nest abroad in a hedge, or un- der a bush, or some other insecure place. She lays from eighteen to twenty-ﬁve eggs or up- wards, and her term of incubation is thirty days. She is a steady sitter, even to starva- tion, and therefore requires to be regularly supplied with food and water. Buffon says that she is the most affectionate mother, but Mobray observes that from her natural heed- lessness and stupidity she is the most careless of mothers, and being a great traveller herself, will drag her brood over ﬁeld, heath or bog, never casting aregard behind her to call her straggling chicks, nor stopping while she has one left to follow her. The turkey differs from the common hen in never scratching for her chicks, leaving them entirely to their own in. stinct and industry, neither will they ﬁght for their brood, though vigilent in the discovery of birds of prey, when they will call their chick- ens together by a particular cry, and run with considerable speed. Hence when not conﬁned within certain limits they require the atten- tion ofa keeper

Turkey chicks should be withdrawn from the nest as soon as hatched, and kept very warm by wrapping them in ﬁannels, or putting them un- der an artiﬁcial mother in a warm room or other warm place. Various nostrums (sa s London) are recommended to be given and one at this season, as a pepper corn, and a tea spoonful of milk, immersion in cold water, 81c. Mobray wisely rejected all these unnatural practices, and succeeded by giving curd and hard eggs or curd and barley meal kneaded with milk and renewed with clear water rather than milk, as he found the last often scoured them. A sort of vermicelli, or artiﬁcial worms from pulling boiled meat into strings he found beneﬁcial for every species of gallinaceous chicken. Two great objects are, to avoid superﬂuous moisture, and to maintain the ct ost cleanli- ness for which purpose as little s pfood is gi- ven as possible. A fresh tnrf of short sweet grass should bedailygiven as green food, but not snails or worms, oats nettle seed, clover, rue or wormwood. .s recommended by the elder housewives. Water is generally preferable to milk. When the weather is favourable the hen is cooped abroad in the foreaoon. During the rest of the day and night, for the ﬁrst six weeks, she is kept within doors. After that the hen may be cooped a whole day externally, for another fortnight, to harden the chickens : and afterwards they may be left to range, within certain limits, being fed at going out in the mor- nin and returning-in the evening. Their ordina- ry ood may be that of common cocks and hens. They will prefer roosting abroad on high trees in the summer season, but that cannot gene- ragy, be permitted without danger of their loss.

ensuing. London says, sodden barley, or barley and wheat meal mixed is the most ap- proved food for turkeys, and the general mode of management is the same as that of the com- mon cock sad hen. They are generally fed so as to come in at Christmas, but they may be fat- tened early or late. Sometimes, though rarel they are caponiaed. The living and dea , weight of a turkey are as 21 to It.

R. Weston, an English writer of reputation, in awork entitled Tracts on Practical Agricul. lure and Gardening has the following observa. tions on fattening turkeys as well as other poultry?

‘ Boil some rice in water gently, till it be plumped up, and very tender;add about two ounces of very brown sugar to every pound of ricejust before it is boiled enough: let the fowls be fed with it three times a day; in ten or twelve days they will be fat, but if they were in good condition when put up to fatten they will be ready in seven or eight days; they must by no means have any water given them in summer; too much rice must not be boiled together, because of its soon turning sour; nor is milk so good for that season as water only ; besides, the milk is very liable to make rice burn to the pot.

‘Frequently offal rice is to be bought very cheap of the grocers in the city. The rice causes the ﬂesh to he remarkably white, and to have a ﬁne delicate ﬂavor.’

Mr. Cobbett in a work entitled Cottage Eco- nomy, makes the following remarks:

‘ The great enemy to young turkeys (for old ones are hardy enough) is the wet. The ﬁrst thing is to take care that young turkeys never go out on any account. even in dry wea- ther, till the dew is quite ofthe ground; and this should be adhered to till they get to the size of an old partridge and have their backs well co- vered with feathers, and in wet weather, they should be kept under cover all day long.

‘As to feeding them when young, various nice things have been recommended. Hard eggs chopped ﬁne with crumbs of bread, and a great many other things; but, that which I have seen tried, and always with success, and for allsorts of young poultry, is, milk turned into curds. This is the food for young poultry of all sorts. Some should be made/rah everyday and if this be done. and the young turkeys kept warm, and especially from wet, not one out of a score will die. When they get to be strong, they may have meal and grain, but still they always love the curds.

When they get their head feathers they are hardy enough; and what they then want is room to prowl about. It is best to breed them under a common hen, because she does not ram- ble like a hen-turkey; and it is a very curious thing that the turkeys bred up by a hen of the common fowl, do not themselves ramble much when they get old ; than which a more complete proefofthe great power ofhabil, is not perhaps to be found. And ought not this to be a lesson to fathers and mothers of families? Ought not they to consider that the habit which they give children are to stick to them during their whole lives?

‘ The hen should be fed eXceedingly well too while she is sitting and after she has hatched; for, though she does not give milk she gives heat; and let it be observed that, as no man ever yet saw healthy pigs with a poor sow, so no man ever saw healthy chicken with a cor hen. This is a matter much too little thought ofin the rearing of poultry; but it is a matter of the greatest consequence. Never leta poor hen sit; feed the hen while she is sitting; and feed her most abundantly when she has young ones: forthea her labor is very great; she is making exertions of some sort or other during the whole twenty-four hours; she has no rest; constanly doin something or other to provide food or safety or her young ones.

As to fattin turkeys, the best way is never to. let them e poor. Cramming is a nasty thing and quite unnecessary. Barley meal mixed with skim milk, given to them fresh and

fresh will make them fat in a short timmed carrots and Swedish turnips will help and 1-,". nish a change of sweet food.

SALT IN RURAL ECONOMY.

The importance of salt to animal: is so gene. rally admitted, that I shall not here dwell a; great length upon it. When animals are in a wild state, it is observed, that at certain periods of the year they seek the salt watei“ or salt spring inland with avidity : and every fax. mer observes that his cattle, horses, kc” are remarkable fond of licking the salt earth of the farm yard, stables, &c. in Spain they give their sheep salt with great regularity, 112113,. in ﬁve months to one thousand sheep; as such, fearlessly assert, that the importance of salt for cattle is incontrovertibly established, how. ever imperfectly it may be practised. I sub. join the statement of Mr. Curwen, M. P. for Cumberland. He employed salt to his live stock dally for years;—for horses, he gives 6 02.; per day; milch cows, 4 oz.; feeding oxen, 6 oz.; yearlings 3 01.; calves l 02.: sheep 2 to 4 oz, per week—if on dry pastures; but if they are feeding on turnips or coles, then they should have it without stint. Some give it to llVe stock on a slate or stone~some lay lumps of in the cribs or mangers. It is a fact indisputably proved. that if sheep are allowad free access to salt, they will never be subject to the disease called the rat. Is not this a fact worthy of the farmer’s earliest, most zealous attention? Some recent experiment also- lead me even to hope that 1 shall one day or other be able to prove it to be a cure for this devastating disease. I have room but for one fact Mr. Rusher, of Stan- ley Gloucestershire, in the autumn of 1828, purchased for a mere trifle, twenty sheep; de- cidedly rotten; and gave each of them for some weeks, an ounce of salt every morning. Two only died during the winter, and the surviving eighteen were cured and have now (says my in- formant) ‘lambs by their sides.’ Mr. Butcher, now of Brook Hall, Essex, for years employee" salt for his cattle and sheep; on his farm near Burnham, in Norfolk. One ofthe ﬁelds was so very unfavorable for sheep, that before he used salt he had lost ten or twelve sheep in a night when feeding on the turnips; but after he adopted salt, he never lost one. He used to let the sheep have the salt without stint; and he remarked, that the sheep always comsumed four times more salt on this particular ﬁeld, than when feeding on any other on the farm. Mr. Butcher one year let this ﬁeld to turnips to a neighbour, who did not use salt; and consequently, after loosing ten sheep the ﬁrst night, gave up the the ﬁeld in despair. Sir Jacob Astley, of Melton Constable, in Norfolk, gives aboutatable spoonful ofsalt per week to each of his foxhounds. It keeps away distempers, preserves them in the best health and vigor. Al. though the use of salt for live stock is now be- coming quite general, yet the enlighteued faro mer must not suppose that its introduction, even for that important purpose, was the work of the day. The very magistrates were or posed to its use; for, only a few years since, some honest farmer’s servants were taken be- fore a justice of the peace at Winchester. char ed by their ignorant master, [withnhe drea ful crime of iving his horses salt in their corn. ‘ I should n t have suspected it said the farmer, ‘had not my horses’ coats become so ﬁne lately.’ ‘Salt for horses 2’ exclaimed the indignant magistrate; ‘ canany thing be more poisonous? Let the rascals be committed to Bridewell for a month.’

Engluhpapcr.