1st.  The name of the bird proves its origin, for at one time America was called the West Indies.

2d.  The form of the bird is altogether foreign.

A well informed man cannot be mistaken about it.

Though already perfectly satisfied, I made much deep research in the matter.  I will not inflict my studies on my readers, but will only give them the results: 

1.  The turkey appeared in Europe about the end of the seventeenth century.

2.  That it was imported by the Jesuits who sent a large number especially to a farm they had near Bouges.

3.  That thence they spread gradually over France, and in many localities a turkey to this day is called a Jesuit.

4.  Only in America has the turkey been found in a wild state, (it is unknown in Africa.)

5.  That in the farms of North America, where it is very common, it has two origins, either from eggs which have been found and hatched or from young turkeys caught in the woods.  The consequence is they are in a state of nature and preserve almost all their original plumage.

Overcome by this evidence I bestow on the good fathers a double portion of gratitude, for they imported the Quinquina yet known as “Jesuit’s bark.”

The same researches informed us that the turkey gradually became acclimated in France.  Well informed observers have told me that about the middle of the last century of twenty young turkeys scarcely ten lived, while now fourteen out of every twenty mature.  The spring rains are most unfortunate to them; the large drops of rain striking on their tender heads destroy them.

DINDONOPHILES.

The turkey is the largest, and if not the finest, at least the most highly flavored of the gallinaceous family.

It has also the advantage of collecting around it every class of society.

When the virgin dresses, and farmers of our countries wish to regale themselves in the long winter evenings, what do they roast before the fire of the room in which the table is spread? a turkey.

When the mechanic, when the artist, collects a few friends to enjoy a relief which is the more grateful because it is the rarer; what is one of the dishes always put on the table? a turkey stuffed with Lyons sausage and with chestnuts of Lyons.

In the highest gastronomical circles, in the most select reunions, where politics yield to dissertations on the taste, for what do people wait?  What do they wish for? a dinde truffe at the second course.  My secret memoirs tell me that its flavor has more than once lighted up most diplomatic faces.

Financial influence of the turkey.

The importation of turkeys became the cause of a great addition to the public fortune, and occasioned a very considerable commerce.

By raising turkeys the farmers were able the more surely to pay their rents.  Young girls often acquired a very sufficient dowry, and towns-folk who wished to eat them had to pay round prices for them.