Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10

n ARYLAND and Virginia are regaining
mn their former place in the Nations
WI turkey industry. Improved farm
management practices, declare State
agricultural college poultry experts, are making
possible the production of turkeys free from
the deadly 'rblack head" disease which has
threatened to wipe out the entire turkey in
dustry.
Time was when wild turkeys ranged freely
over the Atlantic seaboard man shouldered
a gun or fashioned a net and caught his
Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner ON the fly.
In New England, in earlier days, turkeys were
a nuisance, roosting on doorsteps and in back
yards The earlier Pilgrim descendants were
put to it to chase the birds away Now turkeys
are worth almost their weight in gold.
The development Of thickly settled COM
munities drove the birds away until it became
difficult to catch a. wild turkey, and efforts were
begun at DEMONSTRATING the bird These eff
forts were unsuccessful because the birds did
not thrive in captivity, and contracted diseases
from chickens in barn yards BLACK head"
introduced into turkey flock quickly destroyed
the flock, and commercial production became
too hazardous.
The next development was the growing of
huge hocks, in some cases numbering 5000
birds, on the open ranges of the Southwest,
where they were herded like sheep Texas be-
came the Nations leading turkey producing
State. The birds practically fed themselves on
almost free range, cost of production was low
and returns were large, even though in some
seasons Of drought many young poults were
lost through falling into the wide cracks which
developed in a parched soil.
More recently the Northwestern States have
become increasingly interested in turkey pro-
duction under more closely confined condi-
tiOnS, experiments being conducted bV several
of the State agricultural colleges. The Federal
Department of Agriculture also established ex-
perimental turkey farms in effort to combat
effectively the diseases which are peculiar to
turkeys.
These efforts have resulted in the develop
ment of artificial methods of incubation and
brooding in the production of turkeys practi-
cally free froL- parasitic diseases. They have
shown that by the use of proper sanitary pre-
cautions and proper feeding methods turkeys
can be made to thrive in confinement. This
system of turkey raising is more costly than
the free range, but it puts on greater growth
and produces better product, the Investigators
say
Artificial incubation and brooding of young
poults now is fast being adopted by leading
turkey producers. The system requires less
work, prevents the spread of disease from old
to young, and produces flock more uniform in
size and age. Experiments at tn. Minnesota
Agricultural Experiment Station show that the
poults thrive under close confinement on good,
clean soil, and a dry mash of equal parts by
weight of yellow corn meal, wheat n1iddlings,
wheat bran and oat -four, and changed TO
ground oats as the birds grow older
These methods have dealt with the preven-
ton of BLACK head" in turkey f1ocks, but re-
search at the. Missouri College of Agriculture
has been directed at arreSting the disease once
1T Is introduced into a flock. slight surgical
operation is made. upon birds suspected of &C