American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-12-21
Che farmers department,
Poultry Hints for December.

to the fattenlng ana preparing poul-
try for market The first of Noyem-
Der is time to begin to feed some of
the earlier broods of turkeys in or
der to supply public houses and such
families as require turkeys early in
the season; but they are, like every
immature production, inferior in
quality, 10 eat turkey poults is a
wasteful luxury. Those who order
them are occasionally deceived by
small hen of the previous year; nor
are they worse for it, provided the la
dy of house is informed of the circum-
stance. and so enabled to leave due
interim between the killing and the
cooking. When they have arrived
at the desired degree of fatness, those
which are not wanted for immediate
use must have no more food given
them than just sufficient to keep them
in that state, otherwise the flesh will
become red and inAamed and of
course less palatable and wholesome.
But after having attained their acme
of fattening they will frequently de-
scend again, and that so quickly and
without apparent cause as to become
quite thin. Cock birds play this
game oftenor than the hens.
Now, as turkeys are raised, fatten-
ed and destined to grace the head of
the good mans table on Christmas
day, and our Christmas feast would
not be complete without the r0ost
tarhey, their mode Of treatment for
the finale requires some notice. Let
us take young poult Of five or six
months old the first part of .educa-
ton ispaSsed through-what remains?
First, then, it will require a mixture
of vegetables, such as potatoes, car
rots, cabbage leaves, turnip tops and
like, boiled down and given with
meal of various kinds, the whole well
blended with corn, oats, barley, &c.
But, secondly, comes the question,
how to prepare for the Christmas mar
ket Almost every district Of coun-
try has a peculiar mode Of fattcning
turkeys, and every where it depends
on local resources. In one place it
is acorns, beech mast and chcstnuts,
sometimes boiled and mixed with In
dian meal. Others prefer to feed
them every morning for month pre-
vious to killing with boiled potatoes
mashed and mixed with the meal of
buckwheat, barley and Indian corn,
according to their cheapness or abun-
dance, made into paste, Of which the
turkeys are very fond. Every even
ing the remains are removed and
thrown away; thevesscl in which it
was kept is cleaned for the next NOR
ming, because if the weather is warm
the paste is liable to become sour and
cndanger their health, For eight or
ten days previous to slaughtering
time, the turkeys are allowed in the
evening, before going to roost, small
quantity of barley or Indian meal
dough, which, in the course Of that
period, will render them exceedingly
plump, delicious and fat.
Cobbctt says, " as to fattening tur-
keys, the best way is never to let
them get poor with which we CO.
incide. Barley or corn meal mixed
with skim-milk and given them fresh,
will make them fat in short time.
Boiled potatoes mixed with ground
oats and corn meal, will furnish a
change of sweet food which they rel
ish much and of which they may eat
as much as they can. AS with 9TH
ers, the food of this bird must be
kept clean, and the most scrupulous
care taken not to give them on the
morrow the remains of the mixture of
the PRECEDING day. The best diet,
however, is barley and Indian meal
mixed with water, given in troughs
that have fat board over them to
keep the dirt from falling in. A
hearted cabbage may now and then
be thrown to amuse them. Some use
plain oats, but some say barley or
Indian meal is preferable, acting more
qnickly.
"In some forests, where there are
immense quantities of mast, turkeys
will get perfectly fat upon them but
this, though no doubt profitable to the
guide wife, tits by no means pleasant
to every palate after the bird has
been on the spit. Beech mast, how
ever in small quantities, and as the
substratum of fattening, rather i'm
proves the flavor than other wise.
Acorns, which they will swallow
whole, do not come amiss.
A writer in the Germantown Tele-
graph, who had frequently seen char
coal recommended for fattening ami
mails, but who was skeptical as to its
value, satisfied himself with the fol-
lowing experiments
-Four turkeys were confined in a
pen;>and fed on meal, boiled potatoes
and oats. Four of the same brood
were also, at the same time, confined
in an other pen, and fed daily on the