Turkey Farming 1931

Mary Alice, Baby Marie, and Frank with turkeys ready for the Thanksgiving market 1931.

From Nona's book, Westside Pioneer Farmers, p. 18-19:

"During our first year on the ranch, 1931, we went into the turkey business. The poults were sent by rail from the Imperial Valley and Frank and I would pick them up at the railroad station in Fresno. We converted some of my father's labor camp houses into brooder houses. We had baby turkeys everywhere, even in pens on our sunporch. We sold live turkeys for 25¢ a pound and turned such a good profit our first year that we went into the business on a larger scale during the next year.

Not all went well for us as gobbler growers, however. We vaccinated 5,000 turkeys on a hot summer day for chicken pox but the combination of the heat and the vaccine weakened the young turkeys, and many of them died. That same year, as the Depression worsened turkey prices dropped to 11¢ a pound and we ended up losing money on this venture. We ate a lot of turkey in those years."

This is a Bronze Turkey, the breed of choice in the 1930s.