TURKEYS 93 



charge of the flock, and to hold the proceeds for 

 her personal use and adornment. 



To this circumstance the beautiful sables that 

 have been handed down in country families owe 

 their origin. Our grandmothers, great- and great- 

 great-grandmothers developed great fleetness of 

 foot in avoiding the lightning charge of irate 

 cock-turkeys weighing forty or more pounds, 

 and a wide range of geographical knowledge in 

 seeking and housing the immature flocks when 

 a rain-cloud appeared on the horizon. 



Indeed, many of our long-distance pedestrians 

 and short-distance sprinters of to-day have come 

 to their full powers by a careful cultivation of a 

 direct inheritance from athletic great-great-grand- 

 mothers. But of late years turkey-raising as a 

 local industry has not flourished, and the New 

 Hampshire turkey is almost extinct. 



What is the reason ? One has it that the in- 

 creasing liberality of the modern farmer hus- 

 band is such that his wife obtains her heart's de- 

 sire simply for the asking, and is not obliged to 

 raise live-stock for a living. Another, that mar- 

 riages between the different sexes in the turkey 

 family have been allowed within those degrees 

 of consanguinity that in the human species are 

 prohibited by law, and the result has been the 

 production of a race of turkey degenerates pre- 

 disposed to paresis, suicide, and kindred ills. 



