Evening star., 1894-11-03
PHEASANTS AND TURKEYS.
Game Is I'm Great Abundance This
Year, but Turkeys Are Scarce.

Year, but Turkeys Are Scarce
Game is unusually plentiful at present"
said a Washington dealer to a writer for
The Star. II mean quail, pheasants and
wild turkeys, particularly. The reason, l
imagine, is that the season has been re-
markably dry. Ordinarily we have a good
deal of wet weather in autumn, and many
of the young birds are drowned out or get
wet and die of chill Just at present the
market here Is supplied with all the game
it requires by Virginia and Maryland. In
Thanksgiving week, however, the demand
is trebled, and we have to look to the west.
THE best-flavored pheasants we get, and
the plumpest ones, are from Maryland and
Virginia. But during the entertaining sea-
son i'll Washington we have to send to St.
Paul and Minneapolis for great quantities
of those birds. All Of our outside supply of
pheasauts is got from Minnesota. Many
quail are shipped to us from Texas, and
wild squads are obtained from big pigeon
roost in Michigan. Most of the prairie
chickens are from Montana. They are sent
east in refrigerator cars, being drawn and
stuffed with prairie grass before shipment.
The birds we get from Virginia and
Maryland are mostly shot by countrymen
who are not professional hunters. Many
farmers boys earn a little spending money
at this time of year with the shotgun. Wild
turkeys are sometimes killed on the rooSt,
but most commonly they are bagged from
blinds In the early morning and late after
noon, when they are feeding. They are en-
ticed within range by laying trains of corn
and by initiating the gobble.
Many wild turkeys are sent from Wash
ington to New York, Philadelphia and other
cities. One Wall street broker has a stand
ing order with me for twenty turkeys every
Thanksgiving. He distributes them among
his friends. Certainly, can't imagine a
more peasant and appropriate gift We
ship few wild turkeys also to Europe.
sent half dozen last year to Sir William
Gordon Cumming, and he wrote back that
they arrived in firSt-class shape.
Quail, pheasants and wild turkeys have
been on sale in Washington ever since Oc-
tOber 10, though the law forbids ii until
November l. The authorities, however
wink at the infraction so long as the game
is not openly exposed. You see, the laws of
Virginia and Maryland differ as to the kill
ing of birds. In Maryland they may be
shot after october 10. but in Virginia not
until November /. 1t would be obviously
absurd that birds lawfully killed in Mary
land should not be permitted TO be sold in
the District of Columbia"
A dealer in domestic poultry said:
Tame turkeys are unusually scarce this
autumn. do not know why it is so. Some
times farmers raise more turkeys than
they do at others, and this seems to be an
off year. OF course, the birds are very diff
fcult to rear, and epidemics are apt to car
ry off fockS of them. At the same time,
the demand for them is exceptionally light
in the market. At this time last year we
sold more than twice as many as are sold
this year. Accordingly, notwithstanding the
scarcity, the price per pound is no higher
than usual. AS quickly as cold weather
sets In people want turkeys. They appear
to wait for frosty snap
Said fish man:
"Our business gets no benefit from
Thanksgiving. On the contrary, in the week
of that festival sales of fish decline consid-
erably. l suppose 1t is because fish and
fasting are supposed to be associated"