Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20

S-fE->-6 blTuS II packed close
~ IN barrels, so that at least 1900 cars may
be said now to be transporting turkeys to
their destinations. If placed end to end. a
me OF these cars would be over twelve
miles long. Figuratively, therefore. a solid
phalanx of turkey twelve miles long. five
feet wide and six feet high is rushing along
In search of hungry holiday diners. Nearly
as many men as there are turkeys are re-
CURED to handle this immense amount OF
poultry, and the cubic contents of the mass
Is very nearly foot to each bird or more
accurately, lWo,SO0 feet. IL piled together
In the same proportion, these turkeys would
make column eight times as high as the
washington monument, and a pyramid
made OF them would look well beside the
ancient piles of Egypt. They would prob
ably weigh upward of 10 600 900 pounds.
To Kill few million turkeys and shin
mem thousand miles to market is no light
task, and the old-fashioned methods of
handling and marketing have had TO give
way to newer and more elaborate arrange
ments.
sumed by the American people are picked
up on the poultry farms by buyers who
give their whole time to this work They
are gatnered at the nearest station and
shipped IN carload lots to the poultry fac
tory which the buyer represents The use
OF the word factory in connection with
poultry rs apt to convey a peculiar idea
but in this case it refers only TO a she'd
like structure. half open on The sides in
winch the birds are prepared for market.
In n Turkey Factory.
The birds are stored in a big shed from
which a narrow passageway lust wide
enough to admit them in single file leads
to the factory proper. A driver stationed
among the birds keeps a steady line travel
ing along this chute and prevents them
from becoming wedged in by crowding. At
the end of the passage. where IL opens into
the factory, stands man who holds in one
hand sharp knife that looks like a dimin-
utive ice pick. As each bird marches
through it is seized by this man, who quick
iy dispatches it by a single blow on the
head. He throws the dead birds i'm a heap
at his side, and thence they are carried
away to the scalding room, where they are
placed i'm long tanks filled with hot wafer
Here is where the poulterer's art comes
into play, for the water must be of Just the
proper temperature to give the dressed
birds neat appearance. If II is too hot
the birds have blush tinge. while "A il is
not up to the correct degree the quilts come
out with difficulty and give the body a
'plucked' appearance.
From the Scaldng tanks the birds travel
on to another room. where deft hands and
plenty of cold running water thoroughly
cleanse them Next they are laid out on
long blocks of ice until thoroughly cooled
when they are packed with ice in barrels;
ging, and as soon as weighed are ready for
shipping.
Though this is the ordinary proceeding
the turkeys which travel to quick markets
are sometimes dry picked and do not pass
through the scalding tanks at ALL Under
TINS treatment they will keep longer with
out icing, than when they have been
scalded.
From the factory the dressed turkeys are
shipped in refrigerator cars to their des-
tination in the big cities. Some idea of the
extent of the trade in dressed poultry NAV
be gained from the statement that for the
eight or ten weeks of the holiday season
the receipts in New York city alone run as
high as 10000 cases per week. Each case
or barrel contains about 200 pounds so
that this means something like 6oppOoo
pounds of poultry per week. When one
comes to multiply this by the number of
big cities, he realizes how capacious is the
American man for such delicacies as these.
In Cold Storage.
Though the receipts are fairly steady for
several weeks before Thanksgiving the
great bulk of retail sales are crowded into
the space of a few days. So the problem
of storage must be solved. More than one
half of The poultry that comes to the big
markets in October and early November
travels at once to the great freezing and
storage warehouses. Here ii is first
placed in freezing room, where the tenn
perature is L. or Is degrees below zero and
where men in heavy overcoats and mittens
handle it. When solidly frozen IL is
conveyed to the storage rooms. where. at a
temperature of 10 to 10 degrees above zero
and in cold air kept in circulation by a
powerful blower. IT may be kept for a
year, If need be; at any rate until the mar
lset calls for it. Then it energies as
fresh and sweet as though newly killed.
There are probably 100000 pounds of
poultry in cold storage i'm the different
cities of the country at the present time.
Some of 1t has been there only a few DAYS
some two or three months, but If 1t has
been properly cared for there will be no
difference in quality when 1t is cleared out.
as II nearly all will be within the next few
weeks. 1t is an instructive sight to enter
one OF these mammoth refrigerators and to
view the tons on tons of poultry piled uD
there. The whole thing illustrates as strin-
ingiy as anything can the fact that modern
ingenuity and modern appliances are equal
to any conditions x the requirements of
modern trade may impose. Poultry can be
stored as easily as grain today and Il Is
safe TO predict that however great the de-
mand there will be no turkey famine on
November %.