on any account, except in dry weather, till the _dew be quite off the
ground_; and this should be adhered to till they get to be of the size of
an old partridge, and have their backs well covered with feathers. And, in
wet weather, they should be kept under cover all day long.

172. As to the _feeding_ of them, when young, various nice things are
recommended. Hard eggs chopped fine, with crumbs of bread, and a great
many other things; but that which I have seen used, and always with
success, and for all sorts of young poultry, is milk _turned into curds_.
This is the food for young poultry of all sorts. Some should be made
_fresh every_ day; and if this be done, and the young turkeys kept warm,
and especially _from wet_, not one out of a score will die. When they get
to be strong, they may have meal and grain, but still they always love
the curds.

173. When they get their _head feathers_ they are hardy enough; and what
they then want is _room_ to prowl about. It is best to breed them under a
_common hen_; because she does not _ramble_ like a hen-turkey; and it is a
very curious thing that the turkeys bred up by a hen of the common fowl,
_do not themselves ramble much when they get old_; and for this reason,
when they buy turkeys for _stock_, in America, (where there are such large
woods, and where the distant rambling of turkeys is inconvenient,) they
always buy such as have been bred under the hens of the common fowl; than
which a more complete proof of the great powers of _habit_ is, perhaps,
not to be found. And ought not this to be a lesson to fathers and mothers
of families? Ought not they to consider that the habits which they give
their children are to stick by those children during their whole lives?

174. The _hen_ should be fed _exceedingly well_, too, while she is
_sitting_ and _after_ she has hatched; for though she does not give
_milk_, she gives _heat_; and, let it be observed, that as no man ever yet
saw healthy pigs with a poor sow, so no man ever saw healthy chickens with
a poor hen. This is a matter much too little thought of in the rearing of
poultry; but it is a matter of the greatest consequence. Never let a poor
hen sit; feed the hen well while she is sitting, and feed her most
abundantly when she has young ones; for then her _labour_ is very great;
she is making exertions of some sort or other during the whole twenty-four
hours; she has no rest; is constantly doing something or other to provide