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Show MORE TURKEYS ARE NEEDED Only Truly American Bird, Yet Few of Them Are Found on Average Farm Kills Many Insects. Turkeys are as natural to this whole country as the Indians and buffalo. Wild plums growing along our streams are not more at home than the wild turkey Is almost anywhere in this western country, and, as a rule, animals, plants or plums that are natural nat-ural to a country do better, ono sea-Bon sea-Bon or year with another, than outside out-side things and animals "brought in." When we came to this country we found turkeys and corn. There were neither of these things In the old world. The turkey is the only truly American fowl, and still on most farms we find almost every bird known to Europe and few or no turkeys. tur-keys. Meats of all kinds are high now, and in the Judgment of many are going go-ing to be higher, snd the turkey when well bred and well grown Is a great meat maker, and more than that it makes the most of his own meat. We know that many farmers object to turkeys on this account, for they think or imagine because a turkey likes to ramble far afield, that it must be doing lots of damage to the growing grow-ing crops and particularly to the corn and small grain after It is ripe or In the shock, says the Dakota Farmer. Now the fact that a turkey goes far for its feed is one of its strongest pcints. Most of the year it is sub- , Bronze Turkey. listing on insects that, if left to themselves, them-selves, would later do more real harm to the growing crops than all the tur-keps tur-keps of several farms could do to the ripened grain. Again, we always expect to finish our farm animals on grain of some kind, and does It really matter so much if our turkeys finish themselves on our grain before we have been put to the expense of threshing or husking husk-ing it? For our part, we never begrudge be-grudge any fowl what It helps itself to as we have never found it profitable profit-able to keep a hungry bird around. The only trouble with this roaming habit Is when one is near another's fields, and turkeys forever seem to delight de-light in staying across the road on other land than their owner's. In such a case, if th neighbor cannot ba induced to keep about as many turkeys tur-keys as one wishes to keep, it is generally gen-erally best to abandon turkey growing to those who are more Isolated, or to plan som way to shut them up at such times as the neighboring grain Is most exposed. Happy Is the turkey grower whose farm Is so located that his large flock of turkeys will not get beyond his home acres, j When It comes to growing turkeys, volumes have been written, and will ! continue to be written, upon how to ! handle them, but we have found that after once well hatched and started out, th le;s "handling" the better. We shall have more to say about this part of the business later, and would like to hear from as many of those who have succeeded with turkeys a can find time to write to us. One thing is certain; it pays much better to grow some of the large standard varieties than it does to grow culls and mongrels. Five to ten pounds used to be considered good birds, but 30 to 40-pound birds are not uncommon nowadays. |