The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-10-29
BENNINGTON, VT, Oct. 20, 1912.
WHERE THE TURKEY TRoTs

Vermonters who visit the large cit
rs and note Vermont turkey" on the
ills of fare of swell hotels and res |
aurants are inclined to view the an
with suspicion, and right |
Y so. for there are comparatively few
turkeys raised in Vermont nowadays.
Time was when nearly every Yer
mont farmer or farmers wife raised
. flock of turkeys every summer and
here are men still living who can re-
member when in the fall of the year
hundreds of thousands of Vermont
grown turkeys were bought by spec
ulators and driven on foot to the city
markets.
All this has been gradually chang
ing for many years. The decrease OF
the farming population in this state
and the decreases which have proved
fatal to young turkeys have combined
to drive the business of turkey rals-
ing out of the state, and the bulk OF
turkeys, which supply the markets
nowadays, come from the middle ana
far west. A few years ago Michigan
was the center of the business, but OF
late California has become one OF the
principal turkey producing states.
There still remains, however, one
section of the state of Vermont where
m a
extent. and that is in the central part
of Orange county, in and around the
town of Chelsea A good many thou.
sand turkeys are still raised in this VI
cinity and, while the business is still
precarious there is a good margin OF
profit when the birds escape disease,
and the foxes which form one OF the
greatest menances TO the turkey crop,
| was guest over last Sunday at
the home of Ernest A. Corwin OF
Chelsea and had a chance to see
something of turkey farming at first
hand. Mr.. Corwin was member OF
the legislature of 1910 and one OF the
leading members of that body. He
lives in the village of Chelsea, where
he conducts a large general store and
buys farm produce for shipment to
Boston. Chelsea is only 20 miles from
Montpelier by road, but to get there
by regular lines of transportation
means to go TO South Royalton, by
rail As miles, and then ride IA miles
by stage to Chelsea. Williamstown,
distant ten miles, is a nearer railroad
point. but the train service from VIII.
Jamestown is very limited.
Sunday afternoon Mr.. Corwin and
myself enjoyed ride over the hills
in the western part of the town OF
Chelsea, and II is in this part of the
town that the most turkeys are raised
We saw fiocks ranging in size from
half dozen up to over 200. lnas'
much as these turkeys will be worth
from $3.50 to "a each during the com
ing month, it can be readily seen that
a farmer who has hundred turkeys
to market has very considerable ad.
dition to his income, especially as the
turkeys range the woods and pas
lures and pick up the greater part OF
this living, after the first of July
One of their principal articles of diet
is grasshoppers, so that they do an
additional good in clearing the farms
of these pests, which II undisturbed
eat more grass than all the stock in
the pastures.
This part of Orange county con
sists largely of high rounded hills
with large areas of fairly level land
and in many cases the hills are cult
waited to their very tops, The land
scape is vastly different from that Of
Bennington county, where the hills
are practically all covered with forest
There is no timber to speak of in this
section except hard wood and the
hard wood is largely maple, and ma
pie sugar is one of the leading prod
ucts of the section. The farms in this
vicinity are from 1900 TO 1000 feet
above the sea level, but the land IL
rich and much freer from stones thar
are the uplands in the south part OF
the state.
Turkeys seem to do best on the
higher lands, but of those Matched a
man is fortunate If he raises a hall
to maturity. Dysentery and disease
known as "blackhead" are exceeding.
ly fatal to the young turkeys until
they are nearly half grown and often
wipe out entire fiocks. These are not
the only troubles though, for the
worst drawback of all is the foxes.
which are numerous among these big
round hills, and foxes have been
known to take as many as 40 turkeys
out of a flock in a single day. Farm
ers in this part of the state do not
think much of the law providing a
close season on foxes, and would
much prefer bounty on the animals.
Fox skins are valuable, but IL takes
time and skill to kill foxes when their
pelts are good, while bounty encour-
ages the farmers boys to dig out the
young foxes in the summer when their
skins are Of no value.
The turkeys from this section are
largely sold on special order at a
fancy price. and comparatively few
go into the oppn mprket There ara