Show the thanksgiving turkey how many people when they partake of a bounteous thanksgiving repast stop to consider anything of the history of turkey the bill 0 fares principal item few indeed and yet an even smaller number senses the difficulties encountered in preparing hiis article for use when johnny maty tommy and harry all clamor for a drumstick before the family is hardly seated at the table modem parents seldom realize that their great grandfathers ancestors over years ago wished too that they might jarve four legs from a single bird to talk turkey from a logical angle one should follow somewhat the history of the fowl itself it will be remembered that three centuries and about 10 years ago governor william bradford of plymouth colony acting in behalf of the pilgrim fathers proclaimed and set aside a period of feasting and thanksgiving to god for his mercy and generosity in sparing the lives of the colonists and providing them with an abundant harvest in accordance with the decree four expert hunters set out one frosty november morning to obtain the necessary supply of wild fowl fortune smiled upon them and due either to exceptionally good aim or the overabundance of game they returned with enough birds to last the company almost a week when supplemented by five deer furnished by indian guests the tur keys served a satisfactory purpose during the week of praying feasting and merrymaking merry making the pilgrims and their redskin friends established the precedent that gave us thanksgiving day it has grown to be an institution embodying some of america s highest sentiments coupling with it turkey in such a manner that the two can scarcely be separated even in the imagination the turkey Is native to the new world the redman roaming the vast wilderness of this continent used the gobbler as one of his main food sources when the first spanish conquerors landed in mexico early in the sixteenth century they found among the indians or that locality domesticated turkeys living specimens were sent back to spain and they soon became domesticated there as elsewhere in europe and asia the countries count riis of turkey and india especially adopted the new fowl and from fiese new points of origin the bird spread over europe faster than fie turkish hordes finally reaching where it was definitely known to exist as early as 1524 there Is still a great deal of controversy tro versy as to how the species came by its peculiar name some authorities claim that people of that day had only a vague idea of where this new type of fowl came from and the british isles called it turkey after the land bearing that name others continued on last page THE thanksgiving TURKEY continued froma first page thought it had originated in india and for this reason in trance it is still called 1 india As a matter of fact the bird probably came by its name from its own characteristic call of turk turk turk wild turkeys which before the white men and their guns came to this continent roamed in countless bands all over eastern united states are the same as the huge birds that were taken by the from mexico millions of these fowls were known to range the north american continent from southern canada south to the territory now called panama and as far west as the rocky mountains As late as 1860 wild turkeys were so numerous that in some counties in north central states they were a nuisance to farmers descending on their newly planted fields like the plague on the ancients and taking all before them with the advance of civilization and the great increase in the planted acreage of corn and overeating over eating was an even greater enemy than the gun to wild turkeys unaccustomed to standing in one place and gorging themselves the race deteriorated when a lazy living was provided by the farmers extensive fields until now the bird is about extinct except in the thinly settled portions of the southwest until recently raising turkeys for market could not be classed as an industry farmers who would bother at all with them merely had a dozen or so running in the dooryard with their chickens ducks and children the birds unless otherwise trained are great wanderers and villagers pillagers pil lagers and just what portion of the neighborhood pi arrela have originated because the jones turkey flock ate all the young lettuce sprouts in the smith garden Is still a matter of conjecture the percentage was undoubtedly high in many cases though smith was a good church member honest and upright up right he would feel no smiting of conscience for making use of the bird he had accidentally killed when he threw a stick in a frantic endeavor to save his last row of carrots the point is this these grievances combined with exceptionally high death rate and gurthet loss from animals and thieves naturally discouraged cou raged many farmers from raising turkeys on a small scale the supply decreased but the demand remained constant or even increased forcing the price in many sections to exorbitant heights here we have a condition existing which lends itself to production on a large scale regardless of uncertainty and rss commercial turkey growing was thus started a new industry sprang up that was destined to compete with other phases of poultry growing as a source of revenue for the energetic and enterprising farmer until recently the industry has grown but slowly largely because prejudice precedent and custom were used rather than scientific research and observation as cures for the many ailments and peculiar characteristics of the turkey old habits and methods of cultivating the birds were clung to and are still insisted upon by many producers nho think the old is sacred and the new dangerous the turkey is a very erratic bird and no human infant ever needed more painstaking cure than a baby turkey it is not only necessary for the grower to use common sense in the handling of the crop but also he must become familiar with the habits peculiar to the birds in order that he may not work in opposition to them mrs turkey is an exclusive fowl and though not nearly as beautiful and headstrong as her vain husband nevertheless she entertains her own ideas about certain private family matters she prefers complete seclusion when laying or setting once started she is a persistent setter so much so that she may forget to take the necessary nourishment and exercise during the long setting period and unless reminded may die or finish the setting period in a very depleted condition the young turkey is a difficult creature to raise it should not be fed at all for at least 48 hours and then only properly and under careful supervision imagine a bird so entirely devoid of anything resembling sense that it will stick its head in a pall of water and forget to pull it out will drown try to picture an animal so dumb that it will lie down and if not forced to get up will stay and die or visualize yourself putting a few hundred boults to bed each night to I 1 insure their safety if you succeed in picturing you have a taint conception of the precocious reasoning of a small turkey after the is a few weeks old it becomes more hearty and Is vastly more capable of taking cars of itself unless allowed to stray too far and be preyed upon by coyotes foxes skunks weasels or owls the aird is a great wanderer and forager and if turned into a stubble field will not only explore its far comers but win feed on all the grain that has been left after tha harvest through proper care breeding and feeding and making certain that turkeys are not allowed to run on ground that has not been contaminated by chickens the size of the domestic bird has not only increased from about 12 to 16 pounds but the losses have been reduced from as high as 80 per cent to as low as 1 and 2 per cent prior to 1922 utah raised hardly enough birds to satisfy the local consumption in the year mentioned however the central utah poultry exchange of sanpete San pete shipped the farst carload to the los angeles market where it sold for spurred on by success the marketing organization scraped together carloads of sorted fowls and sold them out of the state at christmas time since that time the turkey industry in utah with the exception of a few minor setbacks has constantly grown until last year nearly 80 cars of choice standardized birds were shipped to the new york and pacific coast markets with the utah poultry producers cooperative association directing the grading and marketing this year for the arst time in history most of the pools in the seven north and west states deluding utah will be marketed as one unit through the newly organized northwest growers association the 1930 thanksgiving pool marketed through this organization totaled over 65 cars and the christmas pool is expected to more than double this amount surely the holiday bird industry in this section has become a major commercial enterprise |