The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-07-05
.sM THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.
What Well-known Roanoker Has to
Say on the Subject
Washington Post.)

that the poultry crop represents more
money than any other crop in America
and it is equally true that it yields the
largest profits for the least outlay. The
poultry industry, and the interest in
thoroughbred stock are constantly in
creasing, as is attested by the vast
amount of capital being invested in this
line in the North and West. confident
ly assert that two thirds of the poultry
output of this country is lost through
mistaken methods. The average house
wife will tell you that She loses year by
year more than 30 per cent of her hatch
ings, and in Roanoke county as well as
throughout the State ut large, for the
last two years two-thirds of the young
chicks have dropped and died.
From early boyhood was devoted to
hunting and. having plenty of leisure
my taste was freely INDUCED in this
direction, not more for the sport than
for the opportunity it offered of watch
ing quietly in the forests the habits of
game, especially of the feathered tribe
and chiefly of the wild turkey and par
fridge | soon discovered that their
habits, their thrift and rapid growth and
the methods of the mother birds with
their young were wholly different from
those employed by the best poultry keep
ers, and that the former raised 05 per
Stnt. vi llltlI young, Willie Int average
housewife only raised about 80 per cent.
. After years of closest attention to this
subject | have ascertained beyond ques-
ton that the wild turkey, the partridge
and the robin aid other birds hatch and
raise about 80 per cent. of the eggs layed
Indeed, if any are lost at all it is through
accident, such as hawks. snakes foxes
and such enemies. None droop and die
On the other hand l find from diligent
inquiry of the best poultry managers in
the country that they can only have
Matched about % per cent of the eggs
! set, and raise about 81 per cent. of the
| broods hatched Many of the housewives
| throughout the South have informed me
| that they had to abandon turkey raising
| because they could have no success.
| Now tine domestic fowl is analogous in
structure and constitution, and naturally
subject to the same physiological or
| hygienc laws, and it is reversal of the
economy of nature that the one should
| iveaaa thrive while the other droops and
dies. The truth of this proposition has
| for years been demonstrated under the
system of management herein set forth.
The writer has proven beyond question
! that under the same conditions and
| methods that nature uses with the wild
fowl, the domestic fowl will thrive in
| like degree, for they are made of the
same feather, fiber, and flesh.
Having determined several years ago
to make IL test case, | obtained permits
sion of my mother to take entire charge
of her young turkeys, this being consider
ed the most delicate and difficult to rear
of all poultry. She did not suspect my
purpose of discarding all the favorite and
time honored methods of the oldest house
wives. She furnished me the conven-
tional close hovel along with the follow
ing instructions to aid me in my under
| taking She said, The young turkey is
| such II tender weakling you had better
remove them from the nest when only a
few hours old and lift them carefully, as
they are easily injured. Keep them snug
~ wrapped in warm flannel taking them
gently out for an airing during the
second day and to learn them the use of
their weak little legs and to teach them
now to eat They will never eat until
several days old and then the yolk of a
hard boiled egg with tender onion top cut
small enough for them to swallow will
tempt their dainty appetites, and when
they have learned To eat pretty well
season an egg cuStard with a bit of black
pepper and thicken il slightly with the
soft crumbs of egg bread. Feed them five
or SIX times day until they are three
weeks old. Give them sweet milk daily
and always keep them dry. These We're
the instructions given me. When / an
nounccd to my mother that | would
| neither feed them nor confinc them in a
howell, or adopt any of her instructions,
and that / would in the conformity of the
usage of nature make them roost in the
open air twenty feet above the ground at
three weeks old, She almost Withdrew her
consent and it was difficult to persuade
her TO allow me To carry forward my
| views, a. She insisted that not one would
survive.
|, however, persevered in my methods
1 and ut the close of the season ! returned
her the five original hens accompanied by
IL flock of sixty five fine, hardy healthy
well grown turkeys, such as could never
been produced under any ether system
Not one dropped or suffered from the
gapes or sniflles, or any of the ailments
so common and fatal to turkeys reared ON
the old plan. This is game in which
"hands of is the best motto. | repeated
the experiment year after year with SINH
lar success until fully established the
integrity of my plan. This new departure
may seem eXtravagant and hazard
Gus, but the "truth of the pudding is in
the eating and if you will only give this
line of management II fair trial you will
realize double the product with one
fourth the trouble and expense.
Take the eggs of tame turkey hen
that has been reared on this hardy plan
the eggs the product of perfectly healthy
parents---an place them under the sitting
wild turkey hen and she will raise flock
equal in health and constitution to her
own brood. Money spent in buying pre-
pared chicken food, poultry powders and
various remedies and preyentives advcr-
tiSed to deceive the credulous, is lost.