The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-11-18
THANKSGIVING TURKEY.

THANKSGIVING TURKEY.
A Kentucky Turkey Pen Ships Thirty
Thousand Birds to Market.
Few of us who visit around the
Thanksgiving board pause to think of
the vast number of turkeys that are
necessary to supply the demand on
this National holiday.
The origin of the turkey is lost in
the traditions of the red man, who
hunted the wild bird long before the
pale face had domesticated it or made
the famous proposition, after a days
hunt, in which buzzard and wild
turkey constituted the amount of
game killed.
"Now you take the buzzard and III
take the turkey, or I'll take the turkey
and you take the buzzard."
And thereupon the maxim arose;
"He never said turkey to me once"
This 'favorite bird, which is an
American production, when properly
combined with the necessary auxili-
aries of oysters, roasted chestnuts,
cranberry eauce and the succulent
celery, makes a savory dish, in the
full praise of which all words ignomin-
iously fail.
The following figures from an inland
Kentucky town, one of many which
help to supply the sitY markets with
Thanksgiving turkeys, will give some
little idea OF the extent OF this branch
of industry, and of the methods en-
ployed to prepare the turkey for the
market and the cook.
The young brood of turkeys is to
the farmers wife her chief source of
revenue for the. autumn and winter,
therefore she guards them through the
dangers attendant on turkeyhood with
Jealous care, and usually drives
shrewd bargain later with the buyer,
who begins his riding through the
country as Thanksgiving approaches.
Turkeys are generally bought on
foot, and the prices range from four
to five cents pound. The hocks are
driven to the turkey pens from the
different farms. If the distance is q
long one, and night comes on before
the pens are reached, the turkeys go
to roost at sundown, wherever it may
happen to be, and despite all efforts OF
the driver to urge it on.
Turkeys are kept IN enclosed pens
until they are ready to be killed, but
geese are pastured out on meadows,
and are watched by small boys, who,
with long sticks, keep them from
straying out of bounds.
Ducks, geese and chickens are gen.
orally shipped alive to the cities, but
turkeys are usually killed and dressed
for the market. They are not fed fog
some twelve hours before killing, and
after being picked and cleaned are put
on cooling boards for another twelve
hours before they are packed in cases
for shipment. Two thousand turkeys
or more constitute carload.
In the turkey house are q row OF
boxes with both ends open and mar
rowing toward the lower end. These
are fastened along the side of the wall,
and into them the turkeys are thrust,
head downward, until their heads and
necks protrude through the lower
opening. Then the "sticker," with Q
sharp knife, goes along the line and
cuts the throsts Of each bird, leaving
it to bleed to death, while, trough
underneath it carries off the blood.
The turkeys wings are confined by
the sides of the box 80 that it cannot
futter or struggle, and death does not
seem to be painful to it.
When the turkey is dead, the wings
and tail feathers are cut of and the
body is sent to the picking room where
number of men, women and children
are employed. The turkey is suspend.
ed from q twine cord, and the picker
nimbly uses both hands, literally max
ing "the feathers fly"
From two to four thousand turkeys
are picked day, and a skillful hand
can average fifty or sixty each. Three
cents apiece is paid for picking tur-
key.
Not much of the fowl is thrown
away. The wings are saved and are
sold for fans and other things, the
tail feathers are sent to factories
where feather busters are made, the
quills are ground into pulp and then
pressed into artificial whalebone, and
the loose feathers are used for various
purposes.
When the dressed turkey reaches
the market the prices huctuate any
where from two and half to fifteen
cents a pound, so that the business is
not always paying one.
From twenty to thirty thousand tur.
keys are killed each season and sent
from this one turkey pen, and the
reader may Judge from these figures
how great a number is required to
supply the Thanksgiving board
throughout the country with its great
National dish,