The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-22
FARM. GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD
SPRING MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS.

SPRING MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS.
Turkeys begin to lay, in ordinary sea-
sons, the last week in March. Their
natural disposition leads them to seek
nests in woodlands, away from the
farm house. This should be prevented.
Their natural enemies are the fox and
skunk. The former steals the turkey,
the latter the eggs; and where these
animals abound, the chance of escape
from the one or the other is about one
in five.
This difficulty must be met at the
outset. The best way is to prepare as
many portable miniature houses as you
have turkeys. They should be three
feet long, three feet wide, and three feet
high, triangular in shape, with an en-
trance at one end.
These should be placed in some local
ity near the house, where the turkeys
are accustomed to resort, and be parti-
ally filled with hay or straw, or leaves
the last being the best. If these
houses can be partially hidden by a
slight covering of brush, or something
of the kind, they will suit the turkeys
better.
Whenever they begin to show a dis
position to wander away 10 find nests,
they must be constantly kept near these
little houses. II your attention is d.
verted from them for half hour, es-
pecially in the fore part of the day, one
of the flock will probably be missing,
and when once they have made a nest.
it is almost impossible to induce them
to lay elsewhere. This care must be
continued for about two weeks: mean
time each of your hens has selected her
house and begun to make her daily de.
posit of an egg.
eggs should be taken from the nests
each night, and the product of each bird
kept by itself. The vigOr of the mother
will sometimes make days difference
in the Matching; and each turkey should
have her own eggs.
Four weeks from the day the turkey
commences sitting, the young will APP
pear. At the outset, they are very
weak, but they will grow stronger
without food for at least twenty four
hours, when, in the middle of the fore
noon, or later in the day, they should
be removed from the nest and placed
in little enclosure, made by setting up
on the edge four boards some ten or
twelve feet long, in the form OF a square.
They should be fed with coarse ground
Indian meal, mixed with curdled milk,
at the beginning, and at least every AL
ternate morning for six weeks. Each
night, for the first week, they should be
carefully driven into their respective
houses, now removed within the board
putting boards cleated together against
the opening. When they are a week or
ten days old, they may be allowed the
range OF some lot near the house, on
pleasant days, but should always be
driven up and be put into some tight
o'clock in the afternoon, and never be
let out In the morning until the grass is
nearly if not quite dry, and not at all
on rainy or cold misty days.
Six weeks after being Matched they
will need little food outside of what
they pick up during the day, but your
care with regard TO driving up must
never be relaxed. Instances have been
repeatedly known where single fox
has killed forty young turkeys in
single night, and the nights that your
turkeys are left out will be the nights
wherein Reynard will make his visits.
When they are eight weeks old the
habit of coming upi in the afternoon will
be fixed. They should then be carefully
driven into a roost near the house, and
when once they get accustomed to the
roost, and are always found there at
night, you can calculate with almost
absolute certainty the number of birds
that you will have for the Thanksgiv-
ing or Christmas market.-HeGrth and
Home.
THE GARDEN IN APRIL.
Little is gained, but much vexation
and disappointment result often from
planting tender vegetables in the gar
den or elsewhere too early. The ground
must have time to thaw, settle and be-
come warm; and If the garden 10 nat
urally we'll drained, or has been under
drained thoroughly, these conditions
are much earlier attained than other
wise. Having so often urged the neces-
sity or importance and economy of a
good garden in connection with the
farm and household, 1t Is unnecessary
to further allude to it here. Those who
have epioyed the products of a we'll