Show i j yr S i lN f S 'S No 0 M. M r 1 ke C 1 y Th Ld a N g. g J q F 8 j J. J G J i f o urA NY Mt 7 i y Game and Poultry Experts J h. h JI y I if Say That in Another Twenty wee lift 4 1 1 r i uw Years Yea rs the National Natto Va Bird Birdas Ff r Y x May Be as Extinct as f c M W y J the Buffalo alo II A. A f. If I 14 Li M t J I. I i. i 1 i W 1 e j F c k F of 2 r r tt With the passing assin of the Turkey wh what t bird beast beas t ia K or fish will fill the thon- thon e h honored hon hon- f. f F. F f ored ogee place la ce a ag at e. e annual annual 4 1 g nual festival I r. r y i iFf r Ff S i K i I R f A 1 A 3 r R M nY ar hi E J d s A r rEN rR rn I R n EN the baby who next Thursday scuffs his wee buttoned shoe shoe shoe-on on the j rung of his high chair and pounds the enameled tray before him With the drumstick drumstick drum drum- ti- ti stick of the Thanksgiving turkey has hask k grown to manhood and attained the ther r position of importance back of the knife ing-knife wi will l there ther be any bird to toI I carve canoe Oh there may be a goose or a duck duckor or a chicken or two of course But will there be a gobbler gobbler-a. gobbler a great brown de de- fowl owl stuffed with chestnuts chestnuts chestnuts chest chest- nuts or onions or whatever dressing r the famil family li likes es best the crisp skin fairly fairly fairly fair fair- ly bursting over the firm finn white breast 1 No cry the members of the tha National Nation Nation- al Poultry Butter and Egg Association as IU they go over the records of their tur tur- raising key-raising members Twenty years ears from today the turkey will be as extinct extinct extinct ex ex- ex- ex as the American buffalo unless som somebody body does something about it 7 In the Eastern and Middle Western States the turkey production has fallen more than 50 per cent since the war while hile even eyen in Texas where the farms are being cut up into small parcels the gobblers gobbler's sun is setting Alton Briggs of Boston former secretary secretary secretary secre secre- tary of the association urged that every turkey be saved at all costs I am sure the American and Congress are too patriotic to allow the turkey to follow the buffalo says Mr Briggs Congress saved Plymouth Rock Pock it must save the turkey Congress must care for the bird as it has for the Indians If this is done w we e shall have our Thanksgiving turkey for some time timeto timeto 1 to come But if not other members hasten to add little Jimmy and Mary Lou who squabble happily over which ones one's turn it is to have the wishbone this year will be telling their respective families two decades hence how once upon a time the last Thursday in November used to mean turkey turkey and and then go on onto onto onto to explain to the wide-eyed wide circle exactly exactly exactly ex ex- what sort of a thing that fowl was Maybe they will hava hav to promise to take benighted youngsters to the nearest natural history museum to show them thema a stuffed bird Unfortunately the ta te teis is something no museum in the world will be able to preserve THE HE first mention of ot the American i. i turkey in history was made in 1525 by one Oviedo who thought they were n a variety of peacocks s and commented upon t the e vast numbers of them in tho the new wilderness Four hundred years i j a af 4 f Ff a. a y IOrI t I J The monarch of the flock will no nomore nomore nomore more gobble defiance defiance defiance de de- de- de fiance strutting at the head of his flock 1 i later National Research Councils census census census cen cen- sus bureaus and State legislatures vie with one another as to who can devise a plan to protect the disappearing national bird From officials of the United States Department of Agriculture comes the disturbing news that there is a steadily decreasing annual crop of domesticated turkeys The crop of 1922 was not half as large as On One reason advanced for the ebb of ot the turkey census is that development of intensive agriculture and the increasing density of population on farm land is reacting unpleasantly on the king of birds Turkeys like to roam at their own sweet will and they enjoy foraging for their own food when one farmyard abuts more or less closely on another's the gobblers are wont to ignore little things like metes and bounds set out in deeds and to strut about on neighbors' neighbors property Poaching by birds is no more popular among farmers than poaching by people and vigorous objection is raised so 50 that at length it is found advisable advisable advisable ad ad- to give up turkeys altogether Then there is the extreme delicacy of young turkeys to be combated Blackhead Blackhead Blackhead Black head and are arc two disease diseases peculiar to this bird and almost invariably invariably ably fatal Blackhead for instance may attack one member of a flock of half halt halfa a hundred and within forty eight hours the entire fifty will have succumbed Whether or not these diseases develop because of the condition of the average barnyard is a moot question If every farmer took care that his barn barnyard ard was wai clean supplied plenty of fresh water waler for the birds to drink and a dry place for the young during bad storms it is predicted that the turkey census census' would g go up instead of down in short or order er Toward the latter part of winter or early spring turkey hens begin laying iW yC xa Q r k Y K ya l lx x No m more o 0 r e colorful i sights sight can be be- imagined imago imag imag- o ined fined than that af afforded afforded afforded af- af forded by a flock of I 1 It t turkeys S n x J V. V 3 T f 2 r J a Fr Rr The day before Thanksgiving the markets are filled with birds awaiting mothers mother's skill and and they dont don't lay their eggs in nice comfortable selected nests provided provid d by bythe bythe bythe the thoughtful farmer They slip out and hide among patches of weeds or bushy thickets sometimes near x home sometimes full fulI half a mile away And the ambitious turkey-grower turkey has the role of Sherlock of-Sherlock Holmes thrust upon him Deterioration through inbreeding is the greatest foe of the turkey industry and it bas lias been brought about by the hee heedlessness of the farmer about infusing infusing in in- fusing new blood into the flocks For generations turkey growers in many of ot our Eastern States Stales have borrowed a male bird from a neighbor or lent their o own year ear a after ler year giving no thought to the inevitable consequences until in some localities it is difficult to find any unrelated st stock ck This total disregard of the fundamental laws of nature has in some sections reduced t tie the e condition of turkeys almost to a state of imbecility imbecility ity ly and has so undermined the vitality o of the birds as ns to make it difficult to rear a tenth of the number oo of hatched What's to be done Copyright 1023 1923 by J Le ledger Jer ier Co Co I d' d ir 5 e EY k 3 s A t V Vr rS r- r S k rr f Y V J t tL L wi Wild turkeys are the select of their race having survived through generations generations generations genera genera- by reason of their superiority to others of their kind Therefore say experts experts ex ex- such a bird as a father is is invaluable invaluable invaluable able to the future of a flock His offspring offspring offspring off off- spring when he mates with tame tu turkey key hens are bigger and hardier than ordinary ordinary nary turkeys Furthermore their meat has a better flavor To obtain breeding stock is a n matter of no serious senous difficulty in sections of the country where the wild birds bird roam Tho birds are caught without injuring them in a kind of trap built of ordinary fence rails and about twelve h feet square Beneath Beneath Beneath Be Be- neath the lowermost rail on one side the ground is hollowed sufficiently to admit turkey a and corn is s sprinkled in the hollow with a trail of the same attractive cereal leading from the outside to the inside Picking up the corn the birds with lowered heads find their way into inlo the pen but when they have eaten all the grain they raise their heads and never think of looking low do down doD D for for- fora a place of exit It seems a mean advantage to take of the tho intelligence of a noble noble bird But by this scheme for some twenty years wild gobblers have been annu annually Uy obtained for turkey farms in Rhode Island The wild turkey and the prairie chicken retreat before civilization while their near relative the Virginia quail adapts itself to man changed conditions The he only possible salvation of the wild t r 1 r tu turkey key w v a Q C survey lies in its partial domestication 1 In early Colonial days birds of this r species were very numerous in Massachusetts Massa Massa- Massachusetts 0 1 and so tame that flocks of them used to strut about the Commons in the i neighborhood of settlers' settlers homes They have been extinct in New v England for more than half a century and in other other other- parts of th the country they have become so wild as to be hard to shoot They are not naturally shy and it ii is thought that it should not be difficult to propagate them under conditions of semi semi- F N l 1 domestication protecting domestication protecting them and helping helping help help- tr tring ing out their food supply while interfering interfering inter inter- fering with their liberty as little as pos pos- sible I. I ft LI I THE HE readiness of the wild turkey to accept domestication is evidenced by bythe the fact that notwithstanding its acquired ac ae- shyness it is forever mixing itself Itself It it- self up in barnyard affairs Every now j jand and then a gobbler of the woods annexes annexes annexes' a flock of tame hens after knocking out their less vigorous leader and marches marchei off with them f 7 Sandy well-drained well alkaline soil ii is II y the best for the raising of turkeys and for that reason the farms of the East are at a disadvantage In sandy soil soU water is quickly drained off the young may enjoy the benefit of a sand and bath soon after a shower without injury to himself In a clay soil unless watched with wilh an eagle eye the baby turkey soon succumbs to cold for dampness is fatal to him A clean barnyard is however half th the a battle If II farmers would note that fact w and carefully store it in a section of ot their minds devoted to the things that are not to be fo forgotten n on any account the gloom story about turkeys might brighten and the ch children of title Jimmy smile about the might Thanksgiving ing a aboard board upon the succulent foundation of the feast even even twenty five or thirty years year h hence ence Because of the decreasing production of turkeys on farms the business of raising turkeys on a large scale may develop develop de de- into an important and interesting form of ranching As yet however tur tur- i is in its infancy In the unsettled unsettled unsettled un un- un- un settled f foothills of California and in certain ry tarn tain sections of Arizona a few persons have hae engaged in this industry to the extent ex- ex extent ex ec- tent of raising a thousand or more turkeys turkeys tur tut keys each year Here the range is unlimited un limited and the natural food of the tha j turkey such as grasshoppers and other other- insects green vegetables and the seeds of various weeds weeds and grasses is abundant Advantage is IS also taken of the turkeys turkey's 11 I relish for acorns and where these are arB c I plentiful but little grain need be used t for fattening in the fall These large large flocks of turkeys are managed much like r 4 herds of sheep being taken out to the tha range early in the morning and brought home to roost at night They are ago herded during the day by men either on foot I or on horseback and by dogs specially trained for the work r r |