LASSIE leads
а Лоск
of turkeys from the range to the feeding pens. All Lassie has to do is to bark and the
birds obediently follow him from the range. Lassie is one of the labor-saving "machines" the Goodings
thought up.
1 Dog, 3 Men, 16,500 Turkeys
NEW BERN — The Good¬
ing boys. E. L. and W. B..
can smile at the talk that you
can't go into business because of
scarcity of labor.
The two young men operate the
largest turkey farm in North Caro¬
lina. shipping this year 16,500
birds — and they do it all with only
one helper.
The secret is their ingenuity
which keeps them constantly
scheming to turn the labor over
to automatons. They even have
a dog trained to "herd" the flocks
in from the ranges. The turkeys
develop such a fondness for Lassie
that all he has to do is go out and
bark at them, and they follow him
right to the pens. Feeding, water¬
ing, heating — all are done by ma¬
chinery.
E. L. Gooding got into the busi¬
ness during the depression. In
1934, four years after being grad¬
uated from North Carolina State
College, he started with 125 tur¬
keys. The next year he had 500,
and the next 1.000, and so on until
his present pre-eminence in the
field. This year his brother joined
him in the enterprise, and they
share the work.
В I/
KILL SH AH I* i;
The Goodings have their own
incubator and brooder house, with
radiators beneath the wire flooring,
thermostatically controlled. All
they have to do is start the heat
and’ forget about it. From the incu¬
bators come 3.000 poults each five
days during the hatching season.
Each year. 1.500 of the finest hens
and 150 prime gobblers are re¬
served for breeding.
Since turkey-eating is a tradi¬
tional holiday custom, production
is carefully regulated. First poults
come from the incubator in late
March and April and are ready
for the Thanksgiving market. The
next hatch (late April-early May)
are put on separate ranges and
reach market for Christmas.
As soon as the 7 to 8-weeks old
poults are placed on range, they
are stuffed with high quality, nu¬
tritious growing mash, supple¬
mented by grain. During the peak
of the season, it costs $230 a day
for feed, representing a whole car¬
load, not counting local grain. To
save double loading, feed is left
in the car on a siding, and taken
by truck to the automatic feeders
each day.
Generously fed and watered and
carefully guarded against disease,
the average hen gains 18 pounds
in the 210-day feeding period: the
toms, 25 pounds. By changing
ranges in the clean pine forests
every year, the Goodings have cut
the mortality rate down to 2 per
cent during the range period.
An auxiliary income to the poul¬
try farm is the sale of eggs. The
1 ,500 selected hens produce around
4 eggs per week, and the surplus
is sold to other producers for a
nice profit.
Poll* County Plant Life
Polk County is said to have a
greater variety of plant life than
any other section of the United
States. This is explained by the
fact that northern and southern
vegetation meet there.
This section has been referred
to as "Nature’s Thermos Bottle,”
as the famed thermal belt is found
there. "Strawberries in January"
is one of the tricks that this peculiar
climatic condition sometimes plays.
THE STATE. December 14. 1946
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