Evening star., 1924-11-23

n00 fat gobbiers and hens in nearby
Maryland and Virginia are killed and
dressed for the use of many thou
sands of Washington families which
celebrate the feast day of the early
Pilgrim fathers in an appropriate
manner
If, pcrchance, you have motored
along some of the wooded highways
of Virginia and Maryland these last
few weeks, you may have come
across tiocks of sleek feathered tur-
key hens headed by naughty toms
which scampered to the shelter of
neighboring thickets as your car
whiZzed by.
Ever since George Washington and
EEnfant. the French engineer. es-
tablished the boundaries and boule-
wards of Americas most beautiful
city, the huSbaadmen and farmers
over radius of 100 miles have year
ly raised their flocks of turkeys.
Their surplus fowls have always
been marketed n Washington, Bal
timore and Philadelphia.
Washington has been foremost in
the celebration of Thanksgiving Day
ever since the President of the
United States, by official proclama-
ton, began to set aside the last
Thursday in November as one of
our outstanding national holidays
ana least days
1t is the ambition of every Wash
ington household, from the occupants
of the White House to the dwellers
in the most modest suburban bunga-
low, TO partake of turkey on Thanks
giving.
During the last few years the
great gobbler for the Executive
Mansion has come all the way from
Chicago. A certain girls club of a
oil frocy ~ III ltGh
ment has presented the White House
with Thanksgiving poultry. This
gobbler has ridden in state in a
straw-lined crate by motor all the
way from Chicago to Washington.
The trip is usually a nonstop run,
crew of drivers and mechanicians
being carried, as we'll as all essen
tial fuel, oil and other motoring ac-
cesSories.
1t is we'll that President Coolidge
is careful about what he eats, for
were he to attempt to enjoy the
dainties and delicacies that are sent
to the White House at Thanksgiving
time, his digestion would soon be
ruined. Fat turkeys and porkers,
pumpkin pies, prize winning cakes
and pastry. preserves and other
gifts of the festival season are de-
livered in great profusion at 1900
Pennsylvania avenue during Thanks
giving week.
:: x x i
THERE is a special romance at
tached to the Thanksgiving holi-
day at the White House this year. for
a fine old New England family. bred
and raised close to the latitude where
the Pilgrims enjoyed that first
Thanks giving banquet more than
three centuries ago, now occupies our
most famous national mansion.
The turkeys which graced the
boards OF. the pioneer settlers of rock
ribbed New England S04 years ago
were wild members OF that poultry
species which fell before the marks
manship of the sturdy Pilgrims and
their swarthy friends, the American
savages, who were guests at Amer
ica's first Thanksgiving dinner.
That epochal banquet, where red
men mingled with the adventurous
whites, was more effective than any
pipe-of-peace ceremony ever cele
brated in cementing the bonds of
friendship between the American abo-
risines and the European emigrants
who first built crude cabins in the
vicinity of Plymouth Rock.
1t is not likely that any Washing
ton families will eat wild turkey
this Thanksgiving Occasionally some
hunter will claim that he has shot
wild turkey in some of the isolated
woodlands of Virginia and Maryland.
but for the most part such fowls are
birds which were originally members
of a domesticated flock. but which
strayed away from home and reverted
back to the turkey tribes primary
principles of existence.
Yes, there are some wild turkeys
still at large in the United States.
The highlands of Kentucky and Ten
nessee boast some. Large fiocks of
wild turkeys still roam the Ever
glades of Florida, the land of our last
frontier. On the thicketed hammocks
and upland of the Everglades the
gobbler families live and multiply.
Hunters who venture the vicissitudes
of that tropical wilderness are always
sure of bringing home bag of
turkeys.
The turkey tom and hen are the
most curious and inquisitive members
of the feathered family. They even
forget their innate timidity when the
secrets of something unusual pique
them. Everglade hunters, including
the remnant Seminole Indians, capt.
talize on the inquisitive instincts of
the turkey family.
Usually the turkey gobbler selects
a well located cypress tree as the
home of his family. The hunter who
locates such a tree merely stands
there motionless until the turkeys
return to the tree to roost. If he
doesn't move, the fowls will grad
ually edge up so close that he can
almost touch them.
When you pay so or 60 cents
pound for your Thanksgiving turkey,
do not vent your Indignation at the
high prices on the farmer who raised
the birds Ordinarily the producer
sells his fat turkeys on the hoof in
the country for prices much lower
than those which the ultimate con-
sumer pays. Young turkeys are very
hard to raise, particularly during a
wet season like last Spring and Sum-
mer, when copious and continued
rainfall drowned out the turkey pros
poets of hundreds Of Maryland and
Virginia farms.
TURKEYS can be raised success
l. fully only on farms where plenty
of range and woodland are available.
Naturally the turkey Is a roamer.
The birds will not stand confinement
even during the peak OF the fatten-
ing season. Pen up a flock of tur-
keys several weeks before Thanks
giving, in order to feed them literally
on corn, and in a few days practically
all Of the fowls will become sick
and "off feed" The turkey requires
freedom and the opportunity to range
and rustic over large areas in order
20 achieve maximum gains in live
weight and fowl contentment
1t Is a painstaking task to care for
the baby turks" during the first six
to eight weeks of their lives. They
must be protected against abrupt
weather changes. They must be
carefully and regularly fed Birds
of prey will attack and kill them at