The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-09-29
TO FATTEN TURKEYS
Approach of Thanksgiving Day
Brings Matter Up to Farmer.
Demand Is for Plump, WcII-Fattened
Birds, and Extra Effort Required
to Produce This Kind VIII Be
Well Repaid.

With the approach of Thanksgiving
and the holiday season, the attention
of all who raise poultry naturally
turns towards the fattening of the
surplus stock, including all the tur-
keys not to be kept over for breeding
purposes. All poultry in proper con-
dition sells well at this season, but
turkeys, particularly, sell best of all.
And of all poultry none pays SO well
key, for the larger the birds are the
more we can realize a pound for them.
writes w. F. Purdue in Ranch and
Range. This being a fact, in the first
place every effort should be made by
all turkey growers to raise only large
birds for the market, as large as is
possible to do so without injury to
the breeding stock. 1t is possible to
get turkeys too large for breeding pur-
poses and the turkeys that are over
grown and leggy in appearance do not
make good market turkeys. There
fore, good judgment should be used in
breeding, the object being to breed
birds as large as possible and at the
same time avoid breeding overgrown,
gangling birds. Inbreeding seems to
ruin the vitality Of turkeys quicker
than any of our domestic fowls, and
this should be guarded against. The
birds need good, strong blood behind
them to carry them through.
None should be marketed but we'll
fattened turkeys. The demand is for
plump, well fattened birds, and the ex-
ira effort required to produce this
kind will be well repaid. 1t costs no
more to make pound of turkey meat
than pound of pork, and the former
commands a price greatly In excess
Of that of the latter. Turkeys that
are not large enough to go on the
market for the Thanksgiving trade
should be kept over for Christmas,
when the late and small birds ought
to be in prime condition. The Christ
mas market generally caters more any
way to smaller turkeys, yet plump and
well fattened, while the Thanksgiving
market demands the largest and best
turkeys produced.
Turkeys intended for the market
should be allowed a limited grain ra-
ton for the first ten days, gradually
increasing the food until they are COM
fortably on full grain ration. If the
flock contains many late fowls, which
should first gain in size and frame,
sometimes before the actual fattening
process begins they should be fed
such food as will develop bone and
muscle. Corn, oats and wheat in
equal quantities supplemented by some
kind Of animal food, if insects are
scarce, such as beef scraps or even
sweet skimmilk, is good ration for
this purpose. This will produce bone
and flesh, aiding nature to develop
them into properly filled out birds.
They should not be overfed at this
period, only giving them enough feed
to keep them in a growing, thrifty
condition. If this Is followed with the
small birds, or even with the whole
flock so long as the feeding is not
overdone, they can gradually be
brought up to full grain ration with
out danger of any serious results fol-
lowing. 1t frequently happens that
feeding turkeys a full grain ration at
first results in crop bound or indiges-
ton, which brings about serious
trouble and very often loss of some
of them.