North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

Lucky Pittman wrote:

Sometime in the past, on this list, there's been someone(Del?, Joe?) who related experiences with an older orchardist who specifically kept 'wild-strain' turkeys in his orchard, as he indicated that they were exceptional 'mousers' , capturing and consuming mice & voles - and the caveat was that they HAD to be true wild-strain turkeys - the plain old whites & bronzes just didn't seem to have that instinct.

Wow!  That would terrific, as we have plenty of mice and gophers in the area.  The bird I spotted had the longest tail feathers I've ever seen on turkey, and he was certainly curious about the trees.

Doreen