first three of the daily meals should be of cooked potatoes and corn meal, or of corn meal scalded with milk or water, and the last of whole corn, varied with wheat or buckwheat. Always use corn a year old; new corn causes much trouble and may kill them. Give the first meal as soon as possible after daylight, and the last just before dark. Feed each time all they will eat up clean, but leave no food by them. Feed the pounded charcoal occasionally, and keep a supply of gravel where they can help themselves. Twenty days of such feeding will put turkeys that have been growing and in good health, in the best possible condition for market. In Rhode Island, turkeys are not fed much in September and October, but in November they get all the whole old corn they will eat, but are kept away from barns and buildings.

TURKEY BROILERS FOR FANCY PROFITS.

Turkey raisers who are located near summer resorts where the wealthy congregate, can probably make a market for turkey broilers. At places like Newport, and similar resorts, there is a demand for such birds in July and August. They may be sold when they weigh from one and one-half to four pounds each, and bring from $1.75 to $2.25 each. They are generally sold by the price or pair, instead of by the pound.

Near by raisers can control this trade, because turkeys at this age cannot be shipped long distances. If dressed, they are so lean and tender that they do not keep well. If placed on ice, they become discolored in a very short time.

Where more young turkeys are raised than can be brought to maturity without overstocking the place, it will be wise to seek such a market for the surpius, or for all of them, where disease is almost sure to kill them off after they become larger.

CATCHING TURKEYS IN THE FALL.

Beginners, especially, have much difficulty in securing their turkeys when they desire to kill and market them. A bungling and unsuccessful attempt to catch a flock may make them so suspicious that they cannot be surrounded or approached the remainder of the season. Repeated attempts to catch them increases their wildness, and fre

RHODE ISLAND.

quently the only way to secure them has been to shoot them. This is more apt to be the case if the stock contains wild blood. Old hands at the business have learned by experience the proper course to pursue. The usual plan is to get the birds into a barn or carriage shed and shut them in. In order to do this they are fed for a long time in front of or just within the place in which they

feed is placed within the familiar with it that they The feeder takes pains not

are to be caught. Later, the building, and they become so are unsuspicious when within. to appear to notice or watch them, and moves about very slowly and quietly. When they are to be caught, the doors of the building are suddenly closed, or a covered yard of wire netting is built in front of the building and closed when all are in. Usually when they find they are confined, they become frightened, and fly back and forth, or huddle up in corners, and sometimes many are smothered beneath the pile of frightened birds. In flying back and forth against the netting, their wings become bruised, and their appearance when dressed is injured.

To overcome this drawback, certain raisers have improved the usual makeshift catching place by building a long, low, dark pen back of the barn or shed. This pen extends alongside of the building, and is at right angles with the entrance to it, and at the extreme end is about two feet high. Up to the time of their being caught, the end is left open and the birds frequently find their way through it. When closely approached from the front, when feeding in the building, they rely upon this means of escape and are not frightened. When they are to be caught, only what the pen will comfortably take, are driven in. They do not discover that the end is closed until it is too late to try to turn back. The turkeys that are not to be caught are first driven away, otherwise they may be alarmed and become unmanageable. No turkey that is thus caught and has learned the mysteries of the trap, is ever allowed to escape, or its suspicions would be communicated to the others. When shut in this pen they are quiet, and when a man goes to catch them there is no struggle; he simply reaches out and takes them by the legs. The pen is too dark and narrow for them to fly, and too low for them to crowd one upon another.

KILLING AND PICKING.

Poultry shrinks about one-third in dressing. If you make your own prices, bear this proportion in mind. Live turkey at twelve cents a pound is nearly the same as sixteen cents dressed, not reckoning the cost of labor in dressing. If you market your turkeys where you get eighteen cents dressed, you cannot afford to sell them alive for less than thirteen and one-half cents a pound, unless you deduct cost of dressing, which is worth about eight cents per head.

Deprive the birds of food and drink for twelve hours previous to killing. This length of time is sufficient to empty the crop, which is necessary to have the dressed turkey keep well. If starved for more than twelve hours, the birds begin to pine, or shrink in flesh, giving them more or less of a woody appearance. The length of time they are confined without food beyond twelve hours, will affect the appearance of the stock. Kill by bleeding in the mouth or neck, and pick clean, but do not attempt to stick poultry in the mouth unless you understand it, because, if not properly done, they will only half "bleed out," and when being picked, the blood will follow every feather, giving the bird a bad appearance, and rendering it almost unsalable. Never stun them by knocking on the head or pounding on the back, as it causes the blood to settle, and injures the sale of the stock. If you sell the birds with the heads removed, kill them by beheading, leavnig the neck as long as possible.

Have two stout cords hang from a joist or horizontal pole overhead, with a loop in the lower end of each. Place a loop over each foot of the turkey, and have the body hang at a convenient hight for you to pick, standing. After killing, hang the body quickly, and remove the feathers before the body gets cold; pull out tail and wing feathers clean. Practice will soon perfect you in this, so

that you will have all done, the intestines drawn and all, while there is yet heat in the body.

For the Boston market it is fully as well to leave head on and entrails in, on all turkeys up to the regular Thanksgiving shipments, but no turkeys should ever be scalded for this market. Never remove liver, heart or gizzard. For the New York, Philadelphia and Chicago markets, turkeys should never, at any time or at any season, be drawn or headed, and scalded stock will sometimes sell fully as well in those markets as dry picked.

PACKING AND SHIPPING.

In packing turkeys, assort them carefully, putting the large ones, also the small ones and any old bulls, each by

FIG. 22. TURKEYS PACKED FOR MARKET.

themselves, and mark the number of turkeys in the package. During Thanksgiving week, large fancy turkeys, weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds each, generally command the best prices of the year. The market is then usually filled with "fair to poor" stock, which goes at low figures; but even ten-pound turkeys, fat and well dressed, bring good prices, unless, as is sometimes the case, warm, rainy weather demoralizes the market. Make your packages as uniform as possible. Nice boxes of regular dimensions are much better than irregular ones. We subjoin a cut giving best sizes used for turkeys and chickens, and showing style of packing generally preferred by our customers