Milford chronicle., 1920-11-05
MEETING CITIZENS DEMANDS
FOR THANKSGIVING TURKEY
SIX WEEKS IN NOVEMBER AND DECEM-
BER CONSTITUTE THE DURATION
OF MARKET FOR TURKEYS.
PREPARING THE TURKEYS
HOW TO KILL AND DRESS TURKEYS
PROPERLY ON THE FARM.
SHIPPING THE BIRDS.

The American public demands tur-
key for Thanksgiving, and gets it US
ually if it is humanity possible. On no
other festival of the year do the peo-
pie of this country feel it necessary
to have any one kind of meat, but
Thanksgiving without turkey is like
Hamlet without the ghost to most Am
orleans. Many serve turkey at Christ
mas and Yeark's also, but after the
holiday season is past the demand for
turkeys is usually small. This makes
the marketing season for turkeys very
short, running as it does from the
middle of November to the latter part
of December.
Marketing Turkeys
Most turkey raisers sell their birds
alive to poultry dealers, who either
dress them or ship them alive to city
dealers. Farmers near the city mar
kets. and particularly those in the
Middle Atlantic and New England
States, often dress the turkeys and
either sell them direct to the consum-
er or to city dealers. In some sections
shortly before Thanksgiving there is
held what is known as turkey day. On
the day before this event every tur-
key grower in the neighborhood kills
and dresses his turkeys, and the fol-
lowing morning brings them into
town, where they are bid on and pur-
chased by buyers, the birds going to
the highest bidder.
In sections where turkeys are
grown in large numbers, as in Texas,
dressing plants have been built by
poultry dealers, who buy the birds
alive and dress them for the various
city markets. In such cases practical
ly all the turkey raisers sell to these
dealers, who often send buyers out
into the country to gather up drove
of several hundred birds by stopping
at each farm as they pass, weighing
whatever turkeys the farmer may have
to sell. and adding them to those al
ready collected. Six or eight men
can drive a flock of 1000 turkeys 10
or IL miles a day. AS soon as pos
sible after the turkeys are received
at the dressing plant they are killed,
dry-picked. cooled, and packed in bar
rels or boxes for shipment.
Turkeys to be killed and dressed
on the farm should first be deprived
of feed for "a hours, but given plenty
of fresh clean water in order to clean
the crop and intestines of all feed.
When ready to kill, the bird should be
hung up by the feet; holding the bird
in one hand, sharp, narrow-bladed
knife is used to sever the veins in
the throat by making a small cut in
side the mouth on the right side of
the throat, at the base of the skull.
After making this cut and bleeding
begins, the knife is thrust up through
the groove in the roof of the mouth
and into the brain at the back part
of the squll. The bird gives pecu-
liar squawk, tSe feathers are loosen |
ed by a quivering of the muscles, and
death is instantaneous.
In dry-picking, the feathers should |
be plucked Immediately, ard if the /
bird has been properly stuck they /
come out very easily. The tail and /
large wing feathers are removed first, /
after which the body feather are pull /
ed out. When the turkeys are to be /
marketed locally or are to be shipped
but a short distance, they are cooled
to a temperature of about $50 F. by
hanging in the open air, provided the
hey are plunged into ince water and
Kept there until thoroughly cooled.
Shipping Dressed Turkeys
After cooling they are packed un-
lrawn in boxes or barrels. 1t is in
advisable for the producer without
proper refrigerating facilities to ship
dressed turkeys, as losses from i'm
proper cooling and from their being
to warm weather during tran
lit are liable to occur. Aside from this
t is seldom profitable to ship turkeys
my great distance except in carload
OTIS; when this is done the turkeys
ire cooled to $50 F., packed in boxes
n barrels, and shipped in refrigerator
ars.