The Fort Dodge Messenger: Sept. 26, 1903

Thanksgiving Day Without Turkeys

To Take Place in Fort Dodge This Year if Present Scarcity Continues.

The Price Will Be High

Scarcity Due to Wet Weather – Other Items of Interest in Markets.

Thanksgiving turkeys will be scarce and high this year, dealers saying that they look for an unwonted famine in the supply of the birds which are the primary requisite to every well ordered Thanksgiving dinner table.

The wet, rainy, chilly weather this summer has been responsible for so much mischief already, it is said to have well nigh exterminated the young turkeys, who are unable to make much headway in dampness. For this reason not near as many as usual of the popular birds are roaming the fields and woods this fall.

Twenty cents a pound was the average price last season but housewives cannot expect to buy them for that figure this fall. Fortunately this condition of affairs is only local, that is in Iowa. The eastern states where the country’s chief supply is raised, has had fine turkey weather this summer, so that the American people in general will not on Thanksgiving have to forego the delights of  the fowl which when placed in a platter on the festive board makes such a harmonious companion piece to cranberry sauce.

Tags: 1903