The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1914-11-12
EMMETT TURKEYS FOR
THANKSGIVING
Seven Thousand Being Killed
and Dressed for Coast
Trade

This is turkey week in Emmett,
and before Saturday 10000 pounds,
or three express carloads, will be on
their way to Portland for the Thanks
giving trade on the coast. The fowls
are fat, juicy and tender Since the
young turks were old enough to run
about they have roamed the hills
around Squaw butte, feasting on
grasshoppers and sagebrush, and their
flesh has a delicate flavor from eating
sagebrush that is both charming and
appetizing.
The fowls have been bought by
the Union Meat Company of Portland,
through their local agent, Henry Goul,
and that company has sent several of
their representatives to receive the
birds and superintend the killing,
dressing and packing. This work is
being done at the Fruit Association
packing shed, and it has been busy
place. Over a hundred people-men
and women and girls-are employed
there. Sixty are in the picking de-
partment. Others are packing.
While some turkeys were received
Monday, the rush did not begin until
Tuesday. AT 10 o'clock Tuesday
morning a long line of wagons full
of turkeys were in the street leading
to the sheds, awaiting their turn to
unload This condition continued all
day and well into the night. AT 2
o'clock in the afternoon 1900 dressed
fowls were hanging from rafters in
the big packing shed and several
hundred had already been put into
crates.
The company has contracted for 49,
600 turkeys at Is cents pound live
weight, or total sum of approximate
" $4,000. About 1000 will be taken
now for the Thanksgiving trade and
the balance for the holidays. The
turks will average II pounds each.
Some of them weigh as much as 20
pounds. These are the choice ones, (
are packed separately and sell at
fancy prices.
The sight at the packing shed is
interesting and somewhat grewsome.
There is blood everywhere, on the
walls and floor and every worker there
is spattered with it. 1t drips from the
long lines of naked bodies hung on
the rafters and everyone who passes
underneath is spotted with the red
drops. At quitting time at night the
feathers were knee deep all over the
floor where the pickers had been at
work. The live birds are hung from
the ends of ropes attached to the raf-
tiers above The butcher" jabs a
sharp pointed knife into the turkeys
mouth, severing the jugular vein. An
other jab of the blade is made
throught t he head into the brain.
This last stroke paralyzes the mus
cles of the body and the feathers are
easily plucked.
The company has imported an ex-
pert picker, H. Lowe of Detroit, Mich,
who is called "Pat" for short. Pat
has been at this business since he was
boy, and he is probably 40 years old.
He calls himself professional. He
can without any apparent effort strip
a big turkey in two minutes. He
doesn't take off all the fathers, how
ever. The pin feathers and strag
glers are left to six assistants, and he
keeps them all busy. He is very
adept He makes a few "swipes"
with his big hands and the turkey is
practically stripped. Mr.. Lowe says
many attempts have been made to
pick fowls by machinery, but none
has been successful. The difficulty
seems to be to make machine that
will adjust itself to the varying size
of the fowls.
Several of the local pickers are
fast and make good wages. The COM
pany pays pickers 10 cents fowl.
After being picked, and as soon as
the bodies are cold, the turkeys are
packed in long crates, u to a crate
Below is given partial list of
those who marketed turkeys here this
week and the number of fowls sold:
C. NJ. Hull 900
w. r. Hall. $50
Dave Martin .............,.....5 $50
W. l.. Nicol. ............... $50
j. NJ. Walker. ................. 80
C. c. Linden. ............ =. 300
Mrs. F. B. Turner. er.......3 300