The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-11-20


some of the fancy turkey raisers are
credited with fattening their Thanks
giving offerings on milk and chest
nuts and other delicacies but they get
enough higher prices TO recOmpense
them for all that.
And do you know. gentle reader,
what proportion OF profit you return
TO the poultry grower when you pur-
chase your Thanksgiving bird al %
cents per pound, or, mayhap, you have
in a moment of extravaganza paid as
high as 80 OF 40 cents per pound, as
has been done on some Thanksgiving
weeks when turkeys were not as
plentiful as they bid fair to be this
week. Yet in the face of the fancy
prices that confront the ultimate con-
sumner no less an authority than the
experts of the department of agricul-
ture have declared that turkeys can.
if grown in a favorable locality, be
made 20 return profit 10 the grower
if sold as low as eight cents per
pound, live weight and if they bring
price three or four cents per pound
above that figure, as they usually do,
there is every reason why the turkey
grower should feel well satisfied with
his occupation.
Now. as a matter of fact, il is an
unheard of corner Of our country
where turkeys do not nowadays bring
two or in emergency, even three
times the eight cents that Uncle
Sans expert has set down as a basic
figure. OF course, the price asked by
the producer ought 10 be a good mar
gin lower than the prevailing quo
tatiOn in the retail market. since al
most an turkeys are handled through
commission merchants. and they must
make something out of the transac-
ton. But YOU would be surprised
What a small proportion of the final
selling price goes TO this middleman.
Naturally, the commission man be-
ing paid on the percentage basis is
eager TO get as high a price as pos
sible for the turkeys intrusted TO his
care, and he viii plead eloquently for
many minutes to win an advance OF
One-half a cent per pound. and then
regret after the sale has been made
that ne did not hold out for a fun
cent
Another factor that helps TO put the
price Of turkey above even that OF
porterhOuse steak is found in the cir
cumstance that nowadays a large pro-
portion OF the turkeys for city mar
kets are shipped by express. and ex-
press is. of course. a much more. eX-
pensive mode of transportation than
freight or the Old-time farm wagon
vending its way to a nearby town.
Just at Thanksgiving time when tur-
keys are coming TO market in carload
lots many OF the birds yet make the
journey by fast freight, but under
such conditions a man must be sent
along with each carload TO feed the
birds, so that in the end it is not so
much cheaper than TO send by ex-
press, when the transit is accom-
plished in a few hours and no feed
ing en- route is necessary.
And. speaking of turkeys by the
carload, what a tremendous business
this turkey purveying has become.
considering that a good many Of US
never think of eating the bird except
on the three or four holidays when il
is a traditional obligation. At Thanks
giving the turkeys displayed for sale
in any large city easily overshadow IN
every sense every other eatable on the
market In ChicagO-which may GER
tainly be cited as a typical and rep
resentatiye American city. II any one
is-there has been received during the
Thanksgiving rush as high as 700, GOO
turkeys, valued at upward OF s1,4OO,-
600. AS many as $4,000 OF the birds
were received in the Windy City in
one day last year, which, II we esti-
mated that each bird weighed 20
pounds. would total the enormous
bulk Of more than 22O tons, or enough
10 tax the capacity of more than 90
of the largest automobile trucks now
employed by the express companies
for the delivery OF turkeys and which
rush the birds from the railroad
yards to the commission houses in the
shortest possible time.
A scant score OF years ago, when a
metropolitan firm received a whole
carload of turkeys from one shipper,
the event was hailed by the newspa-
pers and public as a sort OF eighth
wonder OF the world. Now, as has
been explained, the receipt of carload
lots OF turkeys is an everyday event
in our big cities at Thanksgiving.
Uncle Sam, who complies the only
really authentic statistics on turkey
raising throughout our whole country.
has no very recent figures on the sub
ject. The United States census bur-
eau is sizing up the situation in The
poultry field right now ard will have
an impressive array of facts 10 ser
before the public ere another Thanks