The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-01-26
Turkey Raising
Becomes Profitable
Continued from Page -

of turkeys that beginning at Christ
mas time they sold a total Of $500
worth of the birds. The chief and
his assistant are serving life terms
for taking human lives and their
work with the turkeys has become
IN important part of the revenue OF
the institution.
A few years ago Blackfoot man
was warden at the peniteniary and
he took to raising flowers on the
grounds and pushed that Enterprise
with great interest during his admin
istration, the prisoners doing all the
work.
Some years ago the penitentiary
herd of milk cows was found to be
turning out rather unsatisfactory
amount Of milk and butter and they
called the prisoners all together and
inquired II there were any dairymen
among them. A man rose and said
that he had had quite an extended
experience in operating a dairy in
Wisconsin and. understood, the BUSH.
ness quite we'll. The warden held
q conference with A.m and 1t was
arranged that he should take the
management Of the dairy herd in
every detail and should be given as
much help as he wanted on his plan.
He said he would not like to take
| the management of the herd unless
he had absolute control of It and
had the backing Of the management
Of the institution In putting the dairy
herd into profitable production. He
said 1t would take some time to do
that and they should not expect i'm
mediate results.
Hc was given full charge Of the
dairy herd with all tho help he
wanted and gradually increased the
product until they had all the milk
they needed for the prisoners, made
all the butter that was needed to
supply them with butter for break
fast, now they sell. enough butter
to supply the soldiers home. Before
they got the dairy herd to producing
properly, they supplied syrup on the
breakfast table and 1t took IS worth
of syrup every morning, about $3.50
worth Of syrup for q month. Now
the prisoners have butter in the
place of syrup and it Is much better
and 1t costs them very little to pro-
duce the butter. The investment in
the dairy herd and the investment
in the farm that produces the feed
for the herd is about all it costs.
The production of the dairy herd
from the same number of cows is
said to be about four times what it
was before they got the real dairy
man to take charge of them and this
item ought to be of some value to
/ farmers of Bingham county who are
wondering whether their cows are
profitable or not.
We heard another penitentiary
story recently that runs like this.
1t was costing $1,000 a month for
coal for the prison and less than a
mile away was saw mill where a
great deal of saw dust and waste
from the mill were being thrown
out. They had plenty Of labor about
| the institution and somebody sug-
gesed that the prisoners might just
as we'll be hauling saw dust and
| waste from the mill to use and
waste the mill for fuel and save
the cost of the coal. A work.
ing squad was organized accordingly
and they hauled saw dust and wood
all summer and fall and stored it
in such a way that they could use
1t for fuel and it lasted we'll into the
winter, saving $1,000 a month on the
coal bill.
Some observing fellow noticed
that the electric lights were not
turned off when they were out of
service or not needed and said that
a great deal of money might be
saved on the light bills. The sug-
gestion was taken and acted upon,
they installed meters to measure the
consumption of the electric current,
lights were turned off whenever they
were no longer needed and they re-
month to about $50 month. The
duced their light bill from $500 a
prisoners themselves took a lively
interest in reducing the light bill to
as low point as possible.