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Show TURKEY OUR NOBLEST BIRD. Crossing with the Wild Species to Improve Market Product. The most notable American bird it tho farm category is tho turkey, growing grow-ing as he does to tho great weight of 30 and even 40 pounds, and losing nothing in flavor and toothsomencss. Likewise, tho most regal ot our remaining re-maining game girds is his blood brother, broth-er, tho wild turkey, from which ho has descended. There is perhaps no Instance where domestication has stored so little in imprpvement as with the turkey. In fact, in somo respectB tho taming and breeding havo hurt instead of helped the species. , No prize domestic gobbler Is over so beautifully marked or so resplendent resplend-ent with feathers ot black shaded with rich bronze and Illuminated with a lustrous finish of burnished copper as Is tho typical wild turkey, while tho vigor hnd vitality of the wild bird is such that to this day wo strengthen tho most vlrllo of our bronzo turkejs by an infusion of tho wild blood. Khodo Island stands for the best In turkoy production. Tho last census cen-sus shows lesB than 7,000,000 turkoys in tho United States nnd only about 5,000 produced annually In Rhode Island, Is-land, yet, according to a turkoy export, ex-port, if all tho turkeys of tho country coun-try were of such good quality an Ilhode Island's, their total value would bo doubled. According to tho department ot agriculture, ag-riculture, tho growing of turkeys has greatly Improved during the last few years as a result of a determined effort ef-fort on the part of producers of "standard bred" stock to demonstrate that it is much moro profitable to use pure breeding stock than the smaller and less vigorous stock ot times past. The wild turkey is also being used to Instill further' new vigorous blood into the bronxe flocks. Inbreeding Is the fatal defect among the practice of many turkey growers. The fact that turkeys will from the tlmo that they are six weeks old until un-til winter gain the greater part of their entire living from bugs, insects, grasshoppers and waste grain assures their existence during this period at littlo or no cost to tho grower where there is a sufficient range for the birds. |