8 TURKEY CULTURE. 



in a day. I know a fast walker, while in the mountains a 

 few years ago, who every Sabbath took his rifle and fol- 

 lowed the trail of a large flock of Wild turkeys that kept 

 along the mountain side, or on its summit. Yet this hunt* 

 er never caught sight of the birds. A few lost feathers, 

 and an extended list of ruffled grouse and squirrels that 

 he could have shot had he not been expecting each minute 

 to discover the turkeys, was all the reward he got for 

 breaking the fourth commandment. 



In autumn and early winter Wild turkeys are very 

 plump and fat, and are the first game birds of the land. 

 They are juicy and fat from long feeding on beechnuts, 

 chestnuts, acorns, berries, and in the neighborhood of 

 farms an occasional meal of wheat, corn, or buckwheat, 

 the whole seasoned and spiced by the rich insects gathered 

 in the forest, and made tender by the sharp frosts ; and the 

 purest meat food imaginable is produced by such constant 

 living in the pure air and wood-scented forests, with the 

 absence of all filth and vermin. 



The painting of a Wild gobbler made by the great natu- 

 ralist Audubon, is perhaps the best ever made, and will give 

 a good idea of what a fine two-year-old gobbler is like. 

 The hens are less brilliantly colored, but are finely marked, 

 and the "rainbow tints" are more brilliant than the 

 coloring on many Bronze gobblers seen at the fairs and 

 poultry shows. My father shot an old gobbler which he 

 thought would have weighed 25 Ibs had it been fat. It 

 was early in the spring, when turkeys are always lean. This 

 bird, when cut up and salted, filled an empty powder keg. 

 (Kegs hold 25 Ibs of blasting powder. ) A friend of ours in 

 MifElin county, Pa, raised a Wild gobbler which at matu- 

 rity is said to have weighed 32 Ibs. I think this weight 

 was only estimated, and it is known that few people are 

 correct judges of weight. And it may usually be taken 

 with considerable allowance when weights of pure Wild 

 hens are given much above 15 Ibs, and gobblers above 20 



