The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02

young turkey is moisture. II a chick up
to four weeks old vets it's feet its grave
may as well be dug without delay, for it is
pretty sure to need one.
But this difficulty is not an insurmount-
able one. Farmers who have found turkeys
worth raising-and they are well worth it
at present prices provided they car be
reared without too great an outlay-have
decided that it paid to keep the chicks under
cover and on board floors until they were
able to withstand variable New England
weather.
At two months old the turkey is a lusty
long legged fellow, able to hunt his own
g~rasshoppers and learning to roost high.
AT three months he is a good sized broiler
And IL is to he broiler that many turkeys
are going nowadays, as the result partly
Of a new taste which has pronounced a
brOiled turkey chicken a dish BETTING an
e~picure's table and partly because OF the
farmers conviction, bred OF costly ex-
perience, that he can never get the turkey
to maturity.
II is at the broiling stage that the drea d
~blackhead disease appears. Examination
Of diseased birds under the microscope
reveaIed the fact that blackhead was caused
by a minute ~protozoan. The common
name arose from the appearance Of the
turkey affected, its head actually becom-
ing black.
The scientists have decided that the
proper name OF the disease Is infectious
entero-hepatitis. II In indicated not only
by the black head. due to suspended circula-
ton, but by intestinal sores and by white
spots on the liver. It is an ailment very
similar TO appendicitis.
Early experiments demonstrated that
many Of the chicks sickened within twelve
days of the hatch and that most Of them
died in from four to six weeks. II was
learned also that the p~rotozoan which
caused the disease gained access to the in
testines through the food.
The next step was the formulation Of a
theory, not yet altogether established but
we'll on the way to IL, that II turkeys are
kept on ground which has not been devoted
to turkey raising and are provided with
food which has not been contaminated
they will be free from the disorder. To
this end birds Matched artificially ave been
placed in pens on ground which it was GER
tain had not before been given over to
poultry, and distant q mile or so from other
turkey pens, and the results nave been
highly satisfactory.
80 carefully was this plan carried out that
even the z before they were placed
In the Incubator, were washed in an alcohol
solution so that by no possibility could the
protozoan be transmitted unless il were
contained within the egg, which IL con-
Sidered impossible.
The results Of this experiment nave sur
passed expectation. In n case Of one
lock Of 1O0 only two were lost from black
bead when from two TO three months old.
In another Instance in which equal care
was taken the mortality was greater, and IL
IL thought the germs OF disease were carried
in a gale. In still another case in which
the loss was great IL was traced to the food,
which was furnished from a common stock.
Il h believed at the experiment station
that the investigators will soon be able
10 tell the faT-.ers OF the State how To re-
store the tuI1ey TO It's former high economic
place n chat the almost forgotten gobble
will again Do sweet music in agriculturaI
ears. II this end n accomplished IL will
no longer q necessary TO pay IS cents .
pound for the adornment Of the Thanks
diving table.