Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1918 — TURKEY RAISING GOOD SIDE LINE [ARTICLE]

TURKEY RAISING GOOD SIDE LINE

Requirement of Range Usually Limits Production of Big Fowls to Farms. BRONZE VARIETY IS POPULAR Birds Are Especially Adapted to Grain and Stock Farms Where There Is Ample Ranging Ground Abounding in Feed. For those who are favorably situated for raising turkeys, a more profitable side line scarcely can be found. Plenty of range is necessary to raise turkeys, So this usually limits the opportunity to the farms. Turkeys are included in the department of agriculture’s program for increasing poultry production, and of the department point out how and where increases can be obtained. Turkeys are especially suited to the grain and stock farms where there is ample ranging ground abounding in such turkey food as grasshoppers and other insects, weed seeds, waste grain such as is left in the fields after harvest, and nuts of such varieties as beechnuts, chestnuts, pecans, pine nuts and acorns. On such farms the present prices of grain affect the turkey raiser but little, for with the exception of what is used at fattening time the feed consumed is largely of such a kind as would otherwise be wasted. Raise More Turkeys.

With but little additional outlay to the farmer many more turkeys could and should be raised, federal special* ists say. The small number'of turkeys per farm in the United States is surprising. According to the census of 1910, which Is the latest that has been taken, only 13.7 per cent of the total number of farms reported any turkeys at all, and on those farms reporting turkeys an average of but slightly over four breeding turkeys was found per farm. Some farms by nature of the crops grown on them or because of unfavorable surroundings are not adapted to turkey raising, but most farms could easily handle, a breeding flock of from 10 to 15 hen turkeys and a tom, raising from 75 to 150 each year at a good profit. Throughout the middle West, where most of the turkeys are raised, it is unusual to see a flock of more than 50 on a farm, although in Texas, where more are produced than tn any other state, flocks of several hundred are rather common. In sections of the Southwest and on the Pacific coast a few persons have, engaged in turkey raising on a large scale, rearing a thousand or more every year. There are not however, enough turkeys raised on the Pacific coast to supply the local demand. This is true also of the Atlantic coast states. Owing to the fact that the Bronze turkey is the heaviest, it is more popular among turkey raisers than other varieties. Since turkeys are sold by weight the heaviest birds bring the greatest returns. When a large number of people are to be served, as in hotels, restaurants, and boarding houses, the demand is for heavy turkeys. For family use the demand is for small or medium-sized birds. Unless they are to be marketed locally among customers who demand small birds. It is far more profitable to raise the heaviest. Regarding other charac’ertstWs. it is quite generally asserted chat the Bronze is the hardest variety.