Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1902-11-20
The Presidents
| t1rkey z zsss.3 '; 6'3:!' MAN,


Henry R. Palmer in the Ladies' Home
Journal: Horace Nose of Westerly, r. L.,
who sends a turkey every year at Thanks
giving and at Christmas time to the presi-
dent of the United States, has been in the
turkey business for forty years. He be-
gan when he was a very young man, for
he Is still under the 60 mark. He was
born in Westerly, and his neighbors for
miles around know him as man of much
shrewdness and Kindness of heart. Every
year the country hears of the fat bird
that goes from Rhode Island to grace the
presidents table: but it does not learn
of the thirty or forty turkeys that Mr..
NoSe sends to the poor and deserving of
his own neighborhood. nor does it know
that Mr. Nose numbers the largest hotel
in New Yorw city among his customers.
Unlike the president, the big hosiery Is
not on the free list
1t will surprise most people who have
heard of Mr.. Nose to be told that he does
not raise turkeys-that is, he confines his
connection with the business to whole
sale dealings, and has only a general eN
officio interest in the birds that strut
every summer over the rocky pastures of
the Narragansett region. Farmers in the
district tributary to Westerly contract
with Mr.. Nose for their entire flocks. and
while the bird that goes to the president
is always packed in box bearing the
Westerly express label, it may be that 1T
was raised several miles away, or even
on one of the turkey farms in Connecticut.
Mr.. Nose has been dubbed the turkey
king" and he deserves the title If famil-
iarity with the business of raising turkeys
Is sufficient warrant for bearing It, All
through the summer and fall he makes
occasional visits to the farms in the vi
cinity, keeping a watchful eye on the
many nocks. estimating the total yield OF
tho neighborhood and eagerly scanning
the strutting companies for the coming
champion the distinguished member of all
the featherly tribes that is to raise event
ually to the dignity of a place on the
white house dinner table.
On these journeys through Turkeyland
Mr. yose drives some of the fastest
horses to be found in the state He is an
expert liorseman as we'll as poultry man.
and Is better known locally as a dealer in
western stecds than as turkey fancier
He Is of good height and heavily built
with gray hair and heavy gray brows and
big mustache tnged with white. You
see at once that he is the possessor of
great nervous force. He has much indi-
viduality, knows just what he wants, and
wastes no time in getting 1t. Going to
son, he gets up to go to work at o'clock
In the morning.
When Mr.. Nose began the custom of
sending turkey to the president he had
no motive other than the desire to send
q Thanksgiving bird to the man who
writes the Thanksgiving proclamations
The pioneer turkey went to President
Grant in 1873. 1t weighed sc pounds. and
ELECTED the first of the courteous notes
that have been coming ever since in ac
acknowledgement from the executive man
sion.
Following tho precedent OF nearly thirty
seasons the prize turkey of all his focks
will be sent to the president for Thanks
giving day this year.
Is the Rhode Island turkey better than
all Its feathered rivals? 1t has national
reputation, but the fact Is that In the
veins of that Narragansett bird runs the
blood of Virginia. kentucky and Iowa
stock. Rhode Island IS a small state and
1t would not do to breed and interb breed
its fiocks to the exclusion of all other
strains So. although the turkey that
goes to Washington is bred on Rhode Is
land soil. or In Connecticut, 1T is sti!l a
true representative of turkey natonalism
The Rhode Island turkey Is bred and fed
like any other His chief diet Is corn
supplemented by the varied food he picks
UP for himself. Four or five weeks before
the fatal day In late fall he is subjected
to a special fattening process, but there
is nothing strange nor unusual about 1t.
Rhode island and Connecticut turkeys
ere sent by the ton every year TO all
parts of the country, though chiefly to
Boston, Providence and New York. Tho
Boston birds are shipped minus their
heads and feathers, hut the New York
turkeys go forth in all the glory of beals
and wings. Mr.. Nose has sent as many
MS 200 at one time TO Europe, and has even
included South Africa In his shipments,
so, If the American eagle is our national
bird. tho American turkey may perhaps
be called the International bird