Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/142

 is a dish which is particularly affected for festive occasions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, though they are eaten largely throughout the whole year. The market, however, for turkeys is particularly a November and December market and the large introduction of turkeys in the market is so timed as to furnish them in proper condition for consumption during those two months.

The methods of preparing turkeys for the market, keeping them in cold storage, of hanging them previous to consumption and exposing them drawn or undrawn for sale, are subject to the same remarks as has been made in the case of chickens. Turkeys are said to be more difficult to care for, both on the farm and in the professional poultry factory, than chickens. They are more subject to disease and more difficult to bring to maturity than chickens.

Composition of Meat of Turkey.—The flesh of the turkey was separated into two portions, the white and dark meats, and these were found to have the following composition:

White meat, 55.50        74.70       25.71   18.31    1.31 Dark meat,  54.13        75.76       27.76   16.75    1.15

A comparison of these two analyses show that there is little difference in the content of water in the white and dark meat. The dark meat, as in the case of chicken, has more fat and a correspondingly less amount of protein. The quantity of protein in the meat of turkey is about the same as that of chicken. The white meat of turkey differs from the white meat of chicken more in its content of meat bases than in any other way, except that the meat of turkey contains more fat, especially the white meat, than that of chicken.

Composition of the Meat of Chicken, Turkey, Duck, and Goose.—The composition of the chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and pigeon as given by König is found in the following table:

Chicken (lean),   76.22    19.72    1.42  1.37 "   (fat),     70.06    18.49    9.34   .91 Young cock (fat),  70.03    23.32    3.15  1.01 Turkey,            65.60    24.70    8.50  1.20 Duck (wild),       70.80    22.65    3.11  1.09 Goose (fat),       38.02    15.91   49.59   .48

The above data show that with the exception of the goose the percentage of fat given in the flesh of the animals is very much less than that found in our own work. Even in the fat chicken only a little over 9 percent of fat was found. It is believed that the composition of these fowls as given by the work of the Bureau of Chemistry more nearly represents the average composition in this country than the data taken from König.

Importance of Animal Food in the Growth of Poultry.—Many people suppose that poultry can live upon vegetables alone and this is probably true. Experience, however, shows that poultry does not thrive and fatten well on purely