Selecting breeding stock 6 Managing breeding stock 8 Breeding pens or enclosures 8 Mating 9 Egg production 10 Care of hatching eggs 11 Feeding 12 Combating diseases and pests 14 Incubating turkey eggs 16 Natural incubation 17 Artificial incubation 17 Raising poults 18 Brooding 19 Sanitation 21 Litter 22 Early development 23 Marking 23 Feeding growing turkeys 23 Feed consumption and cost of growing 28 Equipment for raising turkeys 30 Containers for feed and water 30 Houses and fences 33 Protection against dogs 36 Devices that prevent tail-feather picking 36 Range management of growing turkeys 37 Fattening turkeys for market 38 Marketing turkeys 39 When to market 39 Selecting birds for market 40 Withholding feed before slaughter 40 Killing and picking 40 Cooling 42 Packing 43 Dressed-turkey grades 43 THE TURKEY INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES TURKEY RAISING has long been an important enterprise in the United States because great quantities of turkey meat are required annually and its use throughout the year is becoming more popular. Producers should endeavor to make turkey raising more profitable by overcoming heavy losses from diseases that heretofore have been a serious handicap. The enterprise is very adaptable, extending to practically all parts of the United States. The more important areas of production are the Middle Western, Northwestern, and Southwestern States, where large numbers of small flocks are raised annually on farms and ranches and where there are also many large commercial flocks. The number of turkeys in this country began to decrease about 1890, but by 1910 interest in turkey raising revived, and in recent years the industry has been growing, largely because of increased knowledge of blackhead disease and its control.