The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-23

often bruised and injured while waiting
over night to be killed. The turkeys. as
soon as they are received and weighed.
taken TO the killing room The man in
there does not wiring the birds neck-like
rather used to-nor does he lay the fowls
head on a block and cut it off with an AK.
lie uses knife with a long, thin blade,
which is thrust in the birds mouth and
into the back OF its head until the brain
is touched. This kills the turkey instantly
and without struggle. The principal
son that this method of slaughtering is
used is that it saves time. and then the
birds are kept from bruisfng themselves by
jumping around as they do when their
heads are cut off. After the bird is killed
he is turned over to the pickers. who put
him in a large tank of boiling water until
he Is scalded so that his feathers will come
off with little trouble. The head and feet
are left on the turkey after he is dressed.
When he is picked and cleaned he is put
In large tank filled with ice which
freezes him. He is then ready for either
the cold-storage house or market
These large establishments are able to
Rill and dress from 500 to 200 turkeys day.
and from now until Thursday they will he
running their full capacity. AT these poul-
try houses turkeys are bought by the bar
rel. and instead of weighing each bird sep
arately large number of them are
weighed at the same time and the aggre-
gate weight is divided into the number of
barrels all of the turkeys are equivalent to.
GOOD CHRISTMAS DEMAND.
While Thanksgiving day has become
recognized as the real day for turkeys,
and over the whole country the shipments
are larger than at any other time of the
year, the local trade is heavier at Christ
mas. In the East every one will have his
Thanksgiving turkey if he has nothing else
for dinner, but in this section of the coun-
try this is not thought to be- so necessary,
and If man can get a turkey for his
Christmas dinner he feels very we'll con-
tented. There are many people who think
that the turkeys at Thanksgiving are too
young to make good eating, and therefore
prefer the meat of the older birds at Christ
mas. Another thing that increases the tur-
key trade at that time of the year is that
many of the factories and business concerns
give turkeys to their employees, but this
year there will be less of this done than
ever before. The fact is, the custom has
reason that it is becoming unpopular is
that in the distribution Of the fowls many
Of the men became dissatisfied. The rule
was to give the men with the largest fami-
lies the biggest turkeys, but many of those
with small families for some unknown rea-
son did not approve of this. and in many
instances ii was found that the men ex-
aggerated the number of people in their
households in order to obtain the larger
birds. Most of the business concerns will
this year distribute money among their en-
ployes, and from every ,ndpoint this
seems to be the most satisfactory to all
concerned.
The most successful turkey raisers are
colored people. especially those who were
reared on Southern plantations. They con-
tend that the turkey is more of a wild
bird than tame one, and that ii should
be treated as such. They do not take as
strict care of their fiocks as do the aver
age white people, and consequently the
birds have to take care of themselves for
the most part. An Illustration showing the
success that these people have with turkeys
occurred in the southern part of this State
a few years ago. An old negress raised
fifty turkeys on an acre lot, which is con-
sidered remarkable because turkeys have
TO have place in which they can run.
The colored people also go by the signs of
the moon in raising their fiocks, and when
Ii thunders and they have turkey hen
setting on eggs they drop an iron nail in
the nest, which is said to keep the thunder
from killing the young birds in the eggs.
To keep the turkeys from being crooked
breasted they also turn the eggs often when
the hens setting. Many of their ways
and theories may appear absurd to most
people, but nevertheless 1T is they that have
the most success in raising the fowls.