The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-22
Terrible Slaughter of Turks! Thousands
 Die in Great Drive!

Within Uncle Sam's doninions there are about 10O,O0O,0O0 people. and large proportion of these con- fidently look forward to dining upon turkey next Thursday, when the citi- zens of the republic will be duly thankful for the blessings of the past year. The annual slaughter of the turks has been in progress for some days, and the. great drive has aI- ready cost the lives of 'unnumbered thousands of the typicalIy American birds. Those that have escaped will doubtless take but a melancholy in terest in the coming festivities, for they are reserved for the Christmas feast. /
 The turkey is 9 native of the New World, and in justice to him, it is but. fair to say that he has nothing to do with the Ottoman Empire. How he got his name isn't known, although many theories have been advanced. It is certain that the birds at one time known in Europe as turkeys were not such at all but imposters, now known as guinea fowl. The real turkey was introduced to Europe from America in the first half of the sixteenth century. The wild Amer ican birds were first domesticated in Spain, to which country they had been brought from Mexico. The most plausible explanation of. the origin of the name turkey" as applied to this fowl, is that it was derived from it's call-note. which sounds something like turk, turk, turk.a'
 The turkey was we'll established in Europe by 1540, and before the six teenths century had come to a close it had won general recognition as the ideal Christmas bird On this side of the Atlantic the colonists of New England early succeeded in domesti- eating the turkey, to a limited extent, and made it the piece de resistance of the Thanksgiving feast.
 There are two distinct kinds of tur- key, the North American and the Central American. The latter, found in Qua teTnala and Honduras, is small CT and more brilliant of plumage than it's northern relative. The north ern wild turkey is now practically ex- Hnct. The domestic turkey is of sew en varieties, the bronze being the 1 largest and most highly valued, the
 others being the Narrangansett, Bour- bon Red, Black, White Holland, Slate and Buff. The Bronze gobblers us 1 ually weight between thirty and for ty pounds.
 The turkey. still preserves more of its wild nature than any other variety of domesticated poultry. The turk is the true bird of liberty. and he cannot and will not stand confine- l nent. If he is expected to thrive he must be free to roam at large. He | is fond. of providing for himself, and thrives best on a diet of seeds, grass,
 berries, insects and worms. Corn is the food principally given to fat
 ten the birds. If well fed the tur- keys do not roam as much as they otherwise would. but if confined too Eclosely they lose their appetite and
 refuse to eat. The hunger strike I is a. weapon that never, fails to irp-
 press those humans who seek to inn
 prison these birds of liberty.
 i The Rhode Island and Connecticut I birds are usually considered the best
 favored, owing to their diet of chest nuts. The late Horace Yose of Wes- ]terly, R. l., provided the turkey for Ethe White House feast for forty-three | years or more. He sent his prize
 bird each year to grace the Presidents I table, and every President from Grant i to Wilson had reason to praise his
 good Judgment in the selection of tqr- ] keys.