The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-20
THE TURKEY IN
A NEW LIGHT
is REALLY A CHRISTMAS BIRD.
A MILLION AND A HALF MORE
EATEN THEN THAN AT
THANKSGIVING.

M ny 5OlnG Ch
to Give Everyone of Uncle SANS
sixteen Million Families "a Nation.
al Bird for Thanksgiving-Texa
the Great Turkey state-UncIe
Sans Annual Turkey Crop Val
ued at S25,OOO,OOO.
BY Guy T. Viskniskki.
OF course. the turkey has an ina
lienable right to strut; he has figured
so long as the gastronomic center of
attraction on Thanksgiving. But in
the light Of recent investigation he is
not the whole show that he evidently
thinks he is, and the majority of the
good people of the United States hold
him to be around Thanksgiving time.
In the first place, and astounding as
1t may seem to the small boy who is
already punching extra holes in his
belt in forehanded preparation for the
coming feast, not enough turkeys are
raised in all America to give every
one of Uncle Sans thankful sixteen
million families a national bird for
the Thanksgiving dinner. All told,
the states raise yearly only about six
and half million turkeys on their
five million farms, and if all these
turkeys were killed to make a Thanks
giving festival, some nine million and
half families would necessarily have
to go turkeyless to bed.
2.OOO,cOO Turkeys for Thanksgiving.
But the yearly crop of the national
bird is by no means marketed in toto
around Thanksgiving week. Accord
ing to the poultry statistics of the
country, only about two million tur-
keys find their way into the stomachs
of this happy people during the month
of November, despite the fact that
those of us who are so fortunate as
to get slice of tender breast, or
golden-browned drumstick fondly
cherish the thought that all the rest
of our fellow countrymen, have been
equally favored.
Such sentiment, If at all appropriate,
were better saved for the Christmas
holidays. Indeed, Christmas, not
Thanksgiving, is the real turkey day.
Last Christmas Uncle Sans nephews
and nieces took care of about mill
lion and a half more turkeys than
they did on Thanksgiving. Thus all
except a million members of the an
nual turkey crop are accounted for.
Of these the statistics would have us
believe that half are killed and plucked
to supply the market at other times
than Thanksgiving and Christmas,
while the remaining five hundred
thousand are kept by the farmers as
breeders for the next years crop.
Astonishing Figures About Turkeys.
This remnant of a once mighty strut
ting army is entirely sufficient for
nh kr1V
be counted on to lay about twenty-five
eggs, and every egg to produce a poult.
Over eleven million poults are Matched
annually, a number sufficient to give
all but Ave million families a turkey
for holiday time. But turkeys are
finicky fowl. A thousand and one things
combine to kill them off just when the
farmer is congratufating himself over
the prospects of a fattened purse
around Thanksgiving time. Wet wealth
err, especially, works havoc with the
hocks; q turkey cannot Withstand a
damp spell as do chickens or geese. So
when killing time rolls around with
the first week of November the turkey
crop has been cut almost in half, de-
spite all that the raisers could do; and
they generally strive hard to save their
hocks, for there is big money in tur-
keys for them. During the last decade
the price per pound has doubled, and
the greater part of this money has
found its way into the pockets of the
farmers.
Fortunes i'm Turkey Raising.
And right here it is proper to won
der, in view of the money there is in
them, why the American farmer does
not raise more turkeys for the CASTRO
nomic delectation of his countrymen.
There are five million farmers in this
broad land of vat If the
turkey crop of the country were even
ly divided among the farms there would
not be two turkeys by three and ashalf
millions for each farmer to look after
OF course, adverse climatic condi-
lions keep the farmers in some sec
tions from raising turkeys, but even
where a dry climate is usually assured
many a farmers barnyard knows not
the presence Of the turkey. In fact,
less than two hundred and fifty thou
sand farmers raise the bulk of the tur-
key crop.
This quarter of a million tillers of
the soil are not all residents of Rhode
Island. Turkey tradition would have us
believe so, though, but when we come
down to solid facts we find, alas that
the state whose name appears on the
menu in connection with turkey in
nearly every restaurant in the land
around turkey time grows less than five
thousand turkeys, and they are mostly
eaten within the borders Of the state,
many of whose inhabitants have never
known what a real Rhode Island turkey
tastes like. For five thousand fowl.
even though they weigh from twenty to
| thirty pounds each, are not enough to
go around among nearly half a million
| people.
Texas the Real Turkey state.
Nor do the majority of the turkey
] raising farmers gain their sustenance
from the hills of old Vermont, another
commonwealth prominent in turkey le-
gend. Neither do they make, their
abode in Maryland. New Jersey and
! Northern Virginia, the fame of whose