Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1892 — THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY. [ARTICLE]

THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY.

A Hlatory M th* History and Antecedtmts of a Popular Bird. E When, in the month of November, the fields look cold and dreary, and the “incessant rustles from the mournful groves," then comes to us like a burst of sunshine On *; grayday, that unique droat'on of our forefathers—Thanksgiving day. Tue crowning jov of Thanksgiving is the reunion of friends aud at no time is the satisfaction more complete than when, gathered aroud the table, they look with admiring eyes at that autocrat of the dinuer table, the turkey We are not an inquiring race. It is our habit to eat what is set before us, asking no questions. Yet at might be interesting to -ffggw-sometlii ng of the life and history of —let us whisper it confidentially—our favorite bird. Happily it is a native of America, like ail the early natives of the country, bearing a misleading name. Its ancestors are to be sou n d a way in the west beyond the Mississippi and in the far south. In b ranee it has been coolly assigned tolndiaand is called “Poule d’lnde,” wuilethe more accurate Germans, in calling it “KalekutisohoHahn," locate it in Galicuty, on the western shore of India. A historian of turkeys tells us that it was introduced into England during the reign of Henry VIIL AJ that time the wealth of the country was in the hands of the merchants who traded with Turkey and whose ships sailed the Levant. Consequently, anything that was hew and fashionable, whether earpet or fowl, was dubbed Turkey. Would it not be a patriotic deed to give our native favorite a name more worthy of its land?

A TENDER FOWL. Although the wild birtls are hardy the domesticated inhabitants of the barnyard are tender and difficult to rear. They are the perquisites and care of the farmer's wife and daughters. and no one save a farmer’s wife knows the amount of work and watchfulness they entail. Fron the early sprlug time when, with the inherited wildness of her nature, she tries to hide her nest, often causing long hours el wutehing ep seeking lest the eggs should get “chilled," until in the fa’l the brood passes tnto the hands of the buyer, they are a constant anxiety. A turkey hen lays about twenty eggs, choosing a nest on the ground, for she loves moisture. When the eggs are hatched, the lanky, illshapon birds require food as carefully prepared as for some dyspeptic. Lard, eggs, green food, pepper and meal are mixed jmd fed, yet in spite of all the knowledge of poultry lore some will mope and stand with dishevelled feathers, dull eyes and drooping wings, looking the embodiment of misery until death ensues.— They must be carefully housed till the dew is dried by the* sun or the young will die. A sudden rain storm tuk sail members of the family who are interested out to search for the wanderers. They are not home-lov-ing and will disappear for days and weeks, to be found in the woods or swails luxuriating on grasshoppers enemy. thaJoL.,—:— When the grain begins to ripen they find ..their way to the fields and help thea to the farmer's liking, They frequent the orchards, devouring tipplesan 1 strip~plpg grape vines jalilli a rapiditv unequa led by any small boy. and the worst of it all is that all authorities agree that, fruit makes turkeys poor. They strike up friendly relations with neighboring flocks of the same color and size, thereby making confusion unless precaution has been taken to

MARK THE RESPECTIVE FLOCKS, Either by cutting the wings or by breaking off the first joint of the little toe. - - When the final fattening and preparation for market is over the good wife proudly views her treasures with the creamy, solid meat and tho great seam of tat obliterating all truce of the backbone. It is something to be told at the fireside when Ihe great gobbler reaches the mark of thirty pounds or stretches out toward the forties. While in this country the turkey and Thuuksgiving arc almost synonymous, in Canada and in England it is more closely associated with tho festivities of Christmas. Just before tho holidays large cargoes t*ro killed, fro en and then shipped, puked in their own feathers. There the feathers are put to a variety of uses. The large ones plucked from the wings afe used as points for arrows, being much belter for that purpose than those of eagles, so often celebrated in poetry and song. The body feathers are made into the tail feathers are used for making salmon hies.' At one time Frencn ladies shaded their fa.-es with parasols mude by joining four of the tails together. But this is not all. In Italy the gizzard served a peculiar purpose. An Italian physiologist showed that it w„s powerful enough to grind down the points of needles and lancets placed within it; Since then the Italian dealers have used it in preparing seals and ornaments for sale as antiquites from PompeiL They put them down the git;ard of the live fowl and allow them U» rethere until the grinding action of the horny skin has given them tlie dull corroding appearance that time had stamped upon the real articles.

ELIZABETH P. TODD.