Show reald read the history of thanks thanksgiving biving turkey how many people when they partake ol 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 eve even smaller number sense bense the difficulties encountered in preparing this article for use when johnny mary tommy and harry all clamour for a drumstick before the family Is hardly seated at the table modern parents seldom realize that their great grandfathers ancestors over years vears ago wished t too oo 00 that they might carve tour four legs from a single bird bid T to 0 talk turkey from a logical angle one should follow somewhat the history of the fowl itself it will be remembered that three con 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 tor for his bis mercy and in sparing the lives of 0 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 on them and due either to exceptionally good lm m or the ovel abundance of game chiy returned with enough birds to last t lie ae crin company pany almost a week when supplemented by five deer furnished by indian guests the turkeys served a satisfactory purpose during the week of praying feasting and 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 ot of americas 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 ot of his main food sources when the first spanish conquerors 1 landed ended in III mexico early in the sixteenth itee nth century they found among the indians ot of that locality domesticated i turkeys I 1 living ments were sent back to spain and they soon eoon became domesticated there us as elsewhere in europe and asia As a the countries ot of turkey and india esp especially delally adopted the new fowl and irom from i these new points of origin the bird 1 spread over europe faster than the turkish hordes finally reaching england where it was definitely known to exist as early as 1624 1524 there Is still a great deal ot of contro 1 1 versy as to how the species came by its peculiar name some authorities claim that people of that day had only a vague idea ot of where this no new w type ol of fowl came from and the british isles called it turkey after the land bearing that name i others thought it had originated in india and for this reason in france it Is still called hindla As A a i matter of fact act the bird probably came by I 1 its is name from its own characteristic call of turk turk turk wild turkeys which before the white men me 1 a and nd their guns came to this continent roamed in countless bands all al over eastern united states are the same as the huge birds that were taken by the spaniards from mexico millions of these fowls were know to range the north american continent from southern canada south to the territory now called panama and as far west as the rocky mou mountains taing As late as 1860 wild turkeys turkey were so numerous that in some countries 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 ot of corn and wheat 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 fa farmers extensive fields until now the wild bird Ts Is about extinct except in the thinly settled portions of the southwest until recently raising turkeys lor 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 pU lagers and just what proportion of the neighborhood quarrels have originated igina ted 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 be 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 the exceptionally high death rate and further loss from anti animals land and thieves naturally discouraged many farmers from raising turkeys on a small scale ile the supply decreased but the demand man remained tried constant or even increased forcing the price in many sections to exorbitant heights here we have A condition con condet diton on existing which 1 anda ads itself to productions on a large sele eccle regardless of uncertainty and risk 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 ot of revenue tor 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 tor for the many ailments and peculiar characteristics ot of the tv tu key old habits and methods of cultivating the birds were clung to and are arc still insisted upon by many producers who wh 0 think the old Is sacred end and t the h e n new ew d dangerous a n the turkey Is a very erratic bird find end no human infant ever needed more painstaking care than a baby turkey it Is not only necessary for the grower to use common sense in the handling of t the lie crop but also he must become tamil familiar aar with the habits peculiar to the birds in order that he may riot not work in opposition to them mrs turkey la Is an exclusive fowl and though 11 0 ugh not nearly as beautiful and headstrong os as her vain husband nevertheless she entertains her own ideas about certain private family matters prefers complete seclusion when laying or setting once started she Is a pers persistent isten setter so much so that she may forget to take the necessary nourishment rind and exercise during the long setting period and unless reminded may die or finish the setting betting period in a very depleted condition the young turkey is a difficult creature to raise it should no not t 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 0 pall of water and forgetting to pull it out will drown try to picture an animal ani so dumb that it will ile he down and if 1 not forced to get up will stay and die or visualize yourself putting a few hundred boults to bed bac each night to insure their safety if you sue succeed in your mental picturing you have a faint 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 ot of taking care of itself unless allowed to stray too far and be preyed upon by coyotes foxes skunks weasels or owls the bird Is a great wander wanderer er an and d forager and it turned into a stubble alel field d w will ill not only explore its far corne corners but win will teed feed on oil the grain that h has A A bee been n left alter after the harvest through proper care breeding and feeding and making certain that turkeys are not allowed to run on ground that has been contaminated by chickens the size of the domestic bird has not only in creased from about 12 to 16 pounds but the losses have been reduced irom 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 ol of anepete sanpete San pete shipped the first carload to the los angeles market where it s sold 0 id for spurred on by success the marketing organization scraped together three carloads of 0 ill 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 ot of choice standardized birds were shipped to the new york and pacific coast markets with the utah poultry producers association directing the grading and marketing this year tor for the first time in history roost most of the pools in the seven north and west states including utah will be marketed as one unit through the newly organized northwest turkey 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 |