94 FARMING IT 



Still another says that an insect known as the 

 borer, equipped with a cast-iron, auger-like pro- 

 boscis, working on a swivel, bores holes in the 

 bird's crop and lets its contents exude with the 

 innocent life of the victim. 



This man affirms that another insect bores into 

 the ears of the young bird and drives it to suicide. 

 One says it is over-feeding, another starvation. 

 One advises leaving the birds to nature, another, 

 highly artificial measures. It reminds me of the 

 old definition of climate as given by our old 

 friend Guyot's "Common School Geography." 



"Climate is heat and cold, moisture and dry- 

 ness, healthfulness or unhealthfulness." I well 

 remember my childish wonder that one term 

 could embrace so many contrary characteristics. 



In thinking matters over, I finally became con- 

 vinced that the opportunity had arrived to make 

 my name, like that of our national emblem, 

 "Known and honored throughout the world." 

 To invent, discover, and develop, to patent or 

 copyright a process for preserving the life of the 

 New Hampshire turkey, was to put it into the 

 power of every farmer to remove the mortgage 

 from his ancestral acres, to put money in his 

 purse, to give his daughters lessons in elocution, 

 and to allow his wife to join the "Daughters," 

 and to live happy ever afterwards. Perhaps as 

 "Shute, the turkey man," my name might go 



