New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1919-11-21

The mother turkey of the woods keeps her
children under control and ut her side until mid
winter. BY that time the brood is full grown.
The young gobblers. Mr.. McIlhenny says, then
leave their mothers and sisters and form bachelor
clubs among themselves.
Turkey society in the forests, from December
until early in the spring, is made up of three di-
risions-tlle old hens and young hens the young
%gobblers, and the old gObblers. At mating time,
in March, there is a reunion. 1t is then that the
old %gobblers strut and gobble and call to their
plural wives as well rs to the hunters.
At the moment the hens begin to set. the old
%gobblers, In couples and groups up to 20, again
sequester themselves from all but their own
society. So they live, summer. autumn and win
ter. They never fight except when they are show
ing off TO the ladies and then their combats are
not mortal. The rules of their contests of
strength permit showing, pulling, pecking and
wing-beating.
They are brave birds, as the McIlhennys, all
famous hunters, will testify. Furthermore, they
are wise birds. 1t is the exceptional hunter who
gets a sight of them in summer. They are not
afraid, however, of the farmer who is blowing,
husking corn or reaping.
Notwithstanding the spectacular enterprise of
turkey ranching in Texas and California on a
grand scale. the old farm must still be relied
upon for most of our Thanksgiving and Christmas
turkeys, says James Hamilton Byrd in Grit. On
thousands upon thousands of farms, as a side
issue to her regular work, 1t is common practice
for the farm wife to keep a half a dozen or per-
haps a dozen turkey hens and a gobbler from
which TO raise a flock of 40 to 80 turkeys.
Early in the spring the turkey hens begin lay
ing. Then comes the ~broOding season. By OctO-
Der l the young turkeys have grown 20 be big.
rangy birds. so now the fattening or finishing
process is begun. Little do they know as they are
being fed more and more of the farmers corn
every night of the diabolical intentions of their
OFT, Aattpr hu1f Ton 1ay or xvo uraakS ha-
fore marketing they are literally Toasted on grain
stuffed three or four times a day-until just be-
fore the enactment of the tragedy of their young
careers they should be as fat as butter balls.
Although turkey ranching in Texas and Cali
fornia has almost reached the proportions of a
new and spectacular industry. by far the greater
number of turkeys are raised on the farms of the
middle West-Ohio, Indiana. Illinois. Kentucky.
Missouri and Iowa. New England. long famous
for Its turkeys. raises comparatively few, al
though its reputation still fingers. Some of the
big turkey ranches have a thousand or more tur-
keys, and some of the turkey drives to market
are most extraordinary sights. The focks of the
middle West are usually less than a hundred.
Still 80 to 20 fine gobblers and hens weighing
from II to % pounds each is not a mean sight
and represents indeed no small value.
There are still millions of acres i'm Texas, Okla
homa and New Mexico where the wild turkey
breeds plentifully. and where turkey hunting is
great sport. But OF 1ar more importance TO the
turkey market is the 'still hunting which is
carried on in the spring in many places to secure
eggs or possibly the very young birds * order to
raise the pure wiid-blood turkey and introduce it
into tame focks. The tame turkey has degener-
ated until il is no longer the virile bird it was in
the days of our pilgrim fathers. but the wild
turkey is subject to no known disease. On some
of the forest reserves the government is protect
ing the wild turkey for this important purpose
of using it as a breeding stock.