The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1912-06-21
CARPENTER HAS
CLAIMS TO TITLE
Of TURKEY king

James M. Carpenter on Willow
creek. above Middleton, is entitled to
the title of Turkey King" Mr.. Car
penter raised about seven hundred
turkeys last year and is at it again
this season. His hatch this time is
not so good as last year, but his drove
is going to be wonder even now.
These turkeys are all brought into
the world by means of incubators,
after the preliminary work has been
done naturally. They are then nursed
very carefully until they are able to
jump fifteen inches high, when Mr..
Carpenter forms them into one mas
ter drove and launches out in the sage
brush. Steadily he drives them along
while they fill themselves with grass
hoppers. In good grass hopper sea-
son this trip takes him about 3 miles
from home. He makes two round
trips daily. Thus each turklet travels
IL miles a day. Each morning he
feeds them just enough grain to teach
the birds where to come when they
head in that direction. In times when
the hopper crop is light or not yet
ripe. the herder must travel much fur
Their down the valley. At this writ
ing the hoppers are about an inch
long and the crop is abundant. The
turkeys are little young yet to get
away with the saw-tooth edge on
many of the hoppers legs, for this
matter must be we'll guarded by the
skillful herder as he moves judicially
over the sage brush tracts.
There is a difference between the
green hoppers and the ripe ones. The
young hopper is not made of the same
food stuff that he turns to be when
he is two months old His bones get
harder too as age comes on, but this
works automatically, for the turkey
gets so he can handle sitter bone as
he himself gets two months of age to
his credit. There are many spiders and
bugs also which are picked up by these
rapid-6re mouths as they travel over
the territory.
In this way Mr.. Carpenter can raise
a turkey worth $l.75 by feeding him
fifteen cents worth of grain and doing
about nine dollars worth of work and
worry.
Mr.. Carpenter does good deal of
trained nurse work at night when his
turkeys are at certain age They
have all sorts of diseases that must
be looked after. The least cry at
night which reveales to the trained
ear that somethoing is wrong, must
be answered. for the young turkey
is certainly tender insect to handle.
He doesn't care straw whether or
not he grows to manhood and woman
hood, no matter how much this state
thinks of his being enjoyed up to a
few days of Thanksgiving.
Last year Mr.. Carpenter got close
to $40 per head, but lost thirty cents
each by not dressing them for ship
ment. This year he expects to get all
that is coming to him,
The coyotes are sadly disappointed
when they find a powder gun trailing
along with that delicious bunch of
birds and the tempers are sorely tried
when they know they must bite the
dust it they undertake to bite the in
nocent little things. A skunk don't mind
turkey dinner either, and hence the
feathery creature must be housed a,
night and carefully guarded in the day.
He must get just the right kind of
drinking water at the correct time of
day and must get exactly the proper
amount and take it precisely in the
natural way. Mr.. Carpenter thinks
the machinery of the turkey is the
most delicate piece of machinery i'm
aginable. His fowls soon learn his
voice and they obey his will, for he
sees that they do. A man should not
put in his time with less than 1000
turkeys, for this number will only
clear him about $500 per day while he
labors with them.
The turkey business would come as
refuge to many of the 32O-acre
in the state, for grass
hoppers inhabit those regions as well
rs that of Willow Creek. There is
no danger of overs stocking the turkey
markets. for Thanksgiving and Christ
mas are sure to come.
A young turkey never has any sense
It all and his father and mother let
him come by it naturally. A bunch oil
turkeys that have been we'll herded
nay be driven as far as a hundred
niles to market.
A CARD. s