Evening star., 1939-10-29
Turkey for Holiday Season Is Being Streamned for M0der
New Record
Set in Total
Production
Virginia Area Holds
Leadership Among
Great Sources
By Frank Georpe.

ny 1vNUh oeOTxes
Lord Rockingham II waggled his
wattles, spread out his fan and
looked proudly at the admiring
throngs assembled to do him honor.
The occasion was a turkey festival
held recently at Harrisonburg. Va,
to give credit where credit was due
to Lord Rockingham II. himself a
turkey-for having put Rocking
ham County, self-styled turkey
capital of the world, on the eco
nomic map. Turkeys literally rained
from the sky that day. let down by
parachutes over the Virginia coun-
tryside.
Great focks of Lord Rocking
hams relatives are being fattened
now all over Virginia and Maryland
In preparation for this years early
Thanksgiving. The turkeys are
plentiful and in prime condition.
They were Matched early this year,
the weather has been good and feed
has been abundant. Motor trucks
will soon be hauling the big Bronzes,
White Hollands, Bourbon Reds,
Blacks and other breeds of turkeys
to Washington markets.
Industry Grows.
The turkey industry has expanded
not only in Rockingham County in
recent years. 1t has spread out all
over Virginia and Maryland, Penn
sylvania and Delaware and other
States. Last season the producers
in Virginia raised more than $4,000
900 worth of turkeys and Maryland
more than s1.OOO0o0 worth. The
four States-Virginia, Maryland
PENNSYLVANIA and Delaware-pro-
duSed more than 100000 turkeys
and this year the output is much
larger. Rockingham County alone
has more than 100000 turkeys this
season.
The entire country, 1t appears,
has been going in for turkey pro-
ductin. A decade or so ago scien-
fists thought the American turkey
was doomed to extinction. Dread
full diseases, uncontrolled. destroyed
whole f1ocks. New turkey produc-
ton methods were then developed
and now it is as easy to raise tur-
keys as to bring up chickens. The
industry has expanded so the De-
partment of Agriculture recently
announced that this years output
of approximately 100000 turkeys
Is the largest on Government record.
Practically all the turkeys for this
years early Thanksgiving are the
! old-fashioned kind. depicted for
generations, back to the days of
Plymouth Rock, strutting about
with heavy wattles and big fan or
slung over the back of Pilgrim
father carrying blunderbuss. The
domesticated turkey is very like the
wild turkey of former days, but
how long this will continue is prob
lematical. Government geneticists
are trying to "streamline" the tur-
key for modern needs. and they ex-
pect that in about five years the
new characteristics will be fixed.
At Poultry Congress.
The Governments 1914 stream
lined model of American turkey
was recently exhibited at the
Worlds Poultry Congress in Cleve-
land. Representative poultry spe-
cialists from so nations we're there
to see and to hear about Uncle
Sans latest handiwork. The bird
had the head of turkey, but
otherwise bore little resemblance to
the customary Thanksgiving fowl
It's legs were shorter, its breast was
broader. it's keel longer 1t had no
pendulous wattles, no big fan. 1t
was a white turkey.
Everyone knew it for a turkey
because the sign said so. Govern
ment scientists recited its genealogy
and explained there was more than
a little Scotch in this hybrid styled
for the modern small family and
small oven. They said that, in re-
sponse to a growing demand for
small market turkeys they want to
establish in the new turkey the
small size of the White Austrian
variety imported from Scotland
and strains of wild turkeys from
Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan
and Arizona.
The geneticists hope that the new
turkey will inherit the meaty breast
of the wild fowl. And to reinforce
the inheritance for white color, they
are using the White Holland and
two other domestic varieties-the
Bronze and the Black-in the
, breeding program to contribute
early maturity and other desired
characteristics. The new turkey is
scheduled to mature in "a to &c
weeks, the young hens weighing 6l2
to pounds dressed, the young toms
II to 1917.
Government Helps.
The Agriculture Department helps
the producers and consumers of tur-