Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-11-14
RHODE ISLAND TURKEYS.
Why They Are So Good and Where They Are Eaten.
 

Copyright, 1S97.]
 Undoubtedly one of the most deli eious morsels that ever passed the lips of a gourmet is the Rhode Island tur- i key. That statement may be called in question by persons who remember having ordered Rhode Island turkey" in restaurants and hotels and finding l it very little different from any other turkey. But let them know that the announcement of Rhode Island tur- key" on a hotel menu is what lead7 ing poulterer calls poetic license" In fact only one hotel in New York, to the best of my knowledge and belief, has served real Rhode Island turkey in it's public dining-room. That hotel last year had Rhode Island turkey on Thanksgiving day and Christmas, but all through the season, with these eX- captions, even this establishment served Philadelphia turkey to its guests.
 In spite of the fact that New York is reputed to spend more money on luXuries than any half dozen other cities in the United States, not 25 per cent of the output of the Rhode Island turkey farms is shipped thither. Only stray bird or two goes west of New York, and the chief market for the Rhode Island bird is in Providence, Bos- ton and the other cities of New England. The men who handle turkeys in New York say that the taste of the young generation is vitiated. Another reason for the failure of the Rhode Island tur- key to captivate New Workers, so they say, is that the new families leave the marketing to their housekeepers.
 After all, the principal reason for the greater sale of other turkeys lies in their cheapness. The Rhode Island turkey costs 35 cents a pound, while the Philadelphia bird brings 25 cents, and the western bird 15 or 16 cents. Where the palate is not educated to ap- preciate the difference, it is not sur prising that the cheaper bird should find the more ready sale. The Rhode Island turkey costs in the New York market from three to six dollars; the ordinary turkey averages between $1.25 and $1 50
 The superiority of the Rhode Island turkey is largely a matter of science. The Rhode Island farmer breeds and raises his turkeys on correct principles. He continually introduces the wild strain. breeding the wild turkey cock with the tame hen. Food, also, has something to do with the matter. This is in great degree a question of natural local advantage; the Philadelphia chicken, be it known, is actually the New Jersey chicken and the Delaware chicken; and there is some peculiar property in the sand of parts of those two states which makes the Pliadel- phia chicken the finest raised.
 Now the Rhode Island turkey farmer has observed that the wild turkey pos sesses a flavor superior to that of the domestic fowl. That is why he keeps up the wild strain in his stock But it must not be supposed that the do- mestic turkey is merely the wild turkey domesticated That theory was dis proved by the late Spencer j. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian institu- ton. Our domestic bird is really the Mexican turkey which came to us long ago by way of Europe.
 
 the market is in the middle states. Rhode Island ships so tons a year; and at 35 cents a pound, retail; and this adds materially to the wealth of the state. Connecticut is also a raiser of fine turkeys; in fact, the best Rhode Island turkeys are raised along the Connecticut line, and just across the border they raise a Rhode Island" tur- key which is in just as great demand Forty and 45 pounds are not extraordi- nary weights for Characterization Island turkeys. Next in weight and quality is the New Hampshire turkey.
 The factor which contributes most to the superiority of the Rhode Island turkey, according to Rhode Island farmers, is the feeding of the birds IL is well known that the rice bird and the seed bird take their delicious flavor from the food on which they live In fact, these are said to be one with the ortolan, differing from it only by the difference in their diet The Rhode Island turkey is fed on hard Indian corn. Other turkeys as a rule are fed on bar ley, oats and eornmeal. The Rhode Island farmers have no explanation to offer for the difference in effect of diet of corn and a diet of cornmea1. They know that three bushels of meal will put more flesh on turkey than four bushels of corn, and they know from experience that from a corn diet the flesh has fine flavor. So they feed corn to their turkeys and what they lose in weight in proportion to the cost of the feed is amply made up in price.
 The Rhode Island turkey is allowed free range in a good grasshopper coun- try, and is fed not only corR but sweet apples. When about eight months old and fat enough for market, it is shut in coop without food for 24 hours. Then it is hung by a stout cord to beam in the barn; and while one of the farmhands holds it's wings with both hands, another bleeds it at the throat until it is dead. It is not sealded, as is