Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-11-25
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
A Few Thoughts About Poultry
AprOpOs of Thanksgiving Time

Versus Cold Storage PouItry-Christ-
mas Versus Thanksgiving.
NEW YORK, Nov. 24.-[Speciall Here
are few points about turkeys and other
table birds and the markets for the same |
in this big town which may be considered |
appropriate reading at this Thanksgiving
season.
Poultry Slaughter Houses.
In the first place, while hundreds Of
thousands of table birds are brought here
dressed, " in refrigerator cars, other hun
dreds of thousands come alive, quacking,
clucking, cackling, squawking and hiss
ing and six big local poultry slaughter
houses are devoted to their butchering,
the largest being situated on the east side
at the foot of Gouverneur street.
This establishment is controlled by a
firm of Hebrews, and, in accordance with
Hebrew traditions, all it's employees who
do the actual killing are rabbis But al
though every bird killed is slaughtered
according to the strictest Jewish rules,
thousands are afterward sold to Christians
who believe the flesh of birds so killed
more wholesome and desirable than that
of those killed by ordinary gentle meth
DDS Besides. birds not known to have
| passed from life to death at the Jewish
slaughter house may have suffered long
detention in some cold storage warehouse,
| to the supposed great deterioration of their
quality. Hebrew killed birds, however,
are always offered for sale Immediately
after Strengthening, pains being taken
never to kill more rapidly than the market
can absorb them.
| From 5000 to 10000 table birds are
killed every week at this slaughter house,
| the smaller number being the midsummer
| average and the larger one the average in
the winter. More chickens than any other
| sort of poultry are killed. Next come
geese, then ducks, and, last of all, tur-
keys, though the proportion of the last
named is naturally somewhat larger than
usual at this particular season.
This slaughter house is of three stories
and basement. All its floors are of CON
crete, and all it's windows are unglazed.
The killing is done on the two lowest
floors. All the room on the other floors is
taken up by cages for live birds, which are
placed there by the dealers who order
them killed rs their customers call for
them. The cages will accommodate 10, 900
birds perhaps when crowded. but not
more than 5000 are ordinarily in stock.
For slaughter house the entire establish
ment is kept remarkably clean. Friday
is its busiest day. 1t is not open on Sat
urday, of course. The season of greatest
rush is in September, when the chief jew
ish holidays come. 1t is then that the
greatest consumption of geese takes place,
that fowl being preferred by many'for the
piece de resistance of the meal eaten on
the eve of Yom Kippur, exactly as the tur-
key is the favorite bird for the Thanksgiv-
ing and Christmas dinners among Chris
tians
The five poultry slaughter houses con-
trolled by Christians kill about $4,000
birds week.
where New York Gets Its Birds.
Although thousands of table birds of
all sorts are furnished to this city from
this and nd joining states, at least seven
tenths of all the poultry eaten here Is
raised in what New Workers term the
west" though by u large proportion of
the republics inhabitants the states most
drawn upon would be termed east. Pos
sibly Ohio furnishes New York moro
poultry than any other state Next comes
Michigan and then Pennsylvania Mary
land, which no one would term western,
also sends many birds to- this market.
The present season has not so far proved
q good one for turkeys. The quantity
offered is sufficient to supply the de-
mand but the quality is away below
the highest standard. 1t has been toe
warm and too wet in most of the regions
raising birds for the New York market for
the production of the very best. Turkeys
won't fatten well when it Is warm and wet,
neither will their flesh have the most de
0 sirabe flavor. Wholesale prices for turkeys
q here now range from 12l3 to 1872 cents
retail, from II to 20 cents; but these fig
ures will be greatly increased between
now and Christmas, and so will the size
of the birds and the quality of the meat.
Christmas the Great Turkey season.
i The improvement in size and quality
, will be due chiefly to the fact that thu
weather will be decidedly c0oler through
y the remainder of November and all of DE
! cember in every great turkey producing
- region Turkeys, like human beings
. have best appetites when the weather Il
10 bracing. The increase in price will b.
r largely due to the Improvement in quail
ity, but the greater demand will also fig
y ure, for, contrary perhaps to the genera
II impression, the consumption of turkeys /
greater at Christmas than at Thanksgiv
ing.
One feature of the poultry market her
this year that seems to have escaped tn
notice of the general public is the un
usually large nunDer VI primo uuOh
y offered. Dealers say ducks have never be
fore been 81 plentiful. Moreover, thei
quality is Al, but prices are abnormall
low because of the great supply, rangin
from to 10 cents pound wholesale an
from 10 to IA cents retail.
While New Workers are perhaps tn
most critical buyers of poultry to be foun
anywhere and are especially averse to az
cepting turkeys not strictly up to tn
a mark, they have not yet learned to dc
mand turkeys of any particular breed.
is not SO, however, with chickens, tn
Plymouth Rock birds being far and ava
the favorite with all sorts of New Hor
buyers. This may be good pointer
readers who raise poultry and have hitl
erto failed to get the highest prices. III
supply of chickens in this market tn
year is good and the price fair.
y 1t may seem surprising, in view OF tf
fact that New York is undoubtedly I'll
best poultry market in the world, that
large percentage of the birds consume
ut, here are not raised in this vicinity, sine
such birds could be placed on the mark'
more cheaply than those bred hundreds {
miles away, and if killed by the breeder
= could be offered for sale in the retail shoI
much sooner after slaughtering.
Wholesale dealers say, however, that o
90 the whole the advantage is with the MOI
,G ia remote breeder since the grain fed
cheaper to him than to the breeder net