The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-04-27
Center Piece of White House
Thanksgiving Dinner From
Little Rhody.
HOW THEY ARE RAISED
Young Turks Are as Tender as a Child
and Only by the Most Careful
Handling Are They Brought
to Maturity.
From the Kansas City Star.


To raise d child is easy compared
with raising a Rhode Island turkey
No delicate baby requires more atten-
ton or more careful feeding and nurs-
ing than an infant turkey in Little
Rhody.
In the first place the infant turkey
cannot stand cold. If he catches cold
he dies. Curdled milk should be the
principal food of the infant turkey, and
there is an old belief that in childhood
the turkey must have a plentiful sup
ply of grasshoppers. Som modern tur-
key raisers do not believe much in the
grasshopper diet and give meal and
corn to the young turkey-corn entirely
as he gets older. A turkey should al
ways be fattened ON corn and not on
meal. as the corn gives 81 firmer con-
sistency to it's flesh. In the fall months
the turkey should have a plentiful
supply of Talnlan sweetings and other
sweet apples, as this diet adds MATER
tally to the birds flavor when he comes
to be roasted and eaten.
The Rhode Island turkey properly
brought up, is never stuffed artiicially
that it may take on fat. The object
is to produce a firm, finely favored,
luscious, flesh, and not Il great fabby
mass of fat. Not that the turkey should
not be fat at all; it must be well fed
n have fat, but fat of a firm texture
,HA AeoAAS i1Iooos NV, III
time 1T is Matched until the festive sea-
sons of Thanksgiving and Christmas
arrive, the turkey is watched and tend
ed and fed with the greatest care.
Though in spite of everything. many
die, Il few survive and these grow
plump n are black and shiny OF plum
age.
The milk on which young turkeys are
fed should be curdled with rennet.
Even if the milk is already sour the
rennet should be added, as it somehow
'rectif1es" the milk and is q preventive
for the "gasps' and the Intestinal trou-
BILE called "black-head,' which carries
off SO many of the oun 1t is thought
by ''old-timers" in Rhode Island that
the failure of the modern turkey rails
ers In the state always to-obey the rule
concerning the remnet in the young tur-
keys curdled milk is one of the causes
of the threatened extinction of the
breed.
AS a rule, the turkey which dies from
the "black-head" does not turn black
birds that this symptom is noticed at
all, n not always in them. But such
is the name of the disease which
threatens to do for the Rhode Island
turkey what war and firewater did for
the Rhode Island Indians. his loving
ne1ghbors who almost worshiped him.
Proper Way to Slaughter.
\ oAhSyS SNSll 1AllOu 4SldllO luTkeVS.
are sometimes sent to market with
their plumage on, but they should not
be. A properly prepared Rhode Island
turkey should be slaughtered after the
old formulas old as the Indians
Thomas Hazard, the we'll known
shepherd Toln,' who was an author
ity on such matters:
He (the turkey) should be shut up
and kept without food for eighteen
hours: Then suspend the sacred crea-
ture from a pike above, carefully, by
a stout cord or string tied around both
legs. and, holding the head downward.
reverently but quickly cut asunder the
tugular vein. and just as soon as the
breath leaves, pluck off the feathers
before the body gets cold. This done
remove the crop and entrails without
loss of time, restore the liver and gig
card. when the latter has been cleansed
OF Its graVelly contents and it's inside
skin. Then tie a string around both
wings and both legs and hang him up
IN q cool, dry place for two or three
days.
This is the only true way Of prepar-
ing a Rhode Island turkey and the bird,
though superior at all times and un-
der all conditions to any of Its species,
Will not be quite he same if killed in
any other manner.
The best known raiser of Rhode Is
land turkeys is Mr.. Vose of Westerly,
and Mr.. Vose raises precious few tur-
keys. He is a David Harum, shorn of
all David Harum's quaintness and
keeps a livery stable in Westerly. He
lives on a farm near Westerly village
which. by the way is a small city-and
the farm, under Mr.. Vose's directions.
runs a milk route. Vose achieved fame
and maintained it by sending a Rhode
Island turkey every year just before
Thanksgiving to the president. a Gus
tom which he began in General Grants
first term.
Vose was a great admirer Of Grant.
and having on hand a particularly fine
specimen Of what every Rhode Islander
believes to have been the real bird OF
yove." he sent 1t on to the White
House. Being a good republican, and
the national administration having had
only wv lapses from the faith since
Grants time. Mr.. Vose has continued
The yearly Offering, though IL in xhis.