Aj^ril 2, 190S.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 281 



remaining for 110 years:, poultry for the first time from the period mentioned 

 being inchided in the stock sheets which were issued at the end of the past year. 



What the class of geese were which arrived over 120 years ago we know 

 nothing of, except that, as the stock in England at that time was largely 

 what is known as the grey lag, we may assume those first brought out were 

 of this variety, and the progenitors, with recent pure blood admixture, of the 

 present goose stock of this tState. 



Goosedoreeding in Australia, for various reasons, has never attained the 

 importance it has in the older countries. To many it may be thought that, 

 as geese are largely grazing animals, tins country, with its btjundless acres, 

 would be an ideal one for their breeding. Such is not the case, our climatic 

 conditions being such that frequently those who have kept a few geese, and 

 have had a good season with them, increased their stocks wiih the object of 

 largely extending their operations to the end of greater profits the following 

 year, and no sooner was everything set in order for something to open 

 one's eyes in profitable goosedweeding than the inevitable drought set in, and, 

 as in the season now past, districts which should be ideal ones for the industry 

 were for several months unable to graze half a dozen to the acre, the ettects 

 of which are that through this ill-feeding the quality of the breeding stock 

 has so deteriorated that even in good seasons a goose to be found weighing 10 lb. 

 is a novelty. The same handicaps to ))r()fitable keeping of these waterfowl 

 obtain in all the States, with the result that, except guinea fowls, they form 

 the smallest number of all our domesticated poultry. 



At time of writing our stock returns have not been published, but it will 

 likely be found, when the figures are made public, geese will not fornj more 

 than 1 or 2 percent, of the total i)oultry enumerated. In the Queensland 

 stock returns for the past year fowls, ducks, and turkeys numbered about 

 three-tjuarters of a million, geese totalling 8,700. In New Zealand the 

 fowls, ducks, tui-keys, and guinea fowls numbered 3,200,000, and there were 

 but 41,000 geese. In Victoria, at latest enumerating, there were but 

 7(),000 geese to about 4,000,000 of the other clashes of poultry stock, while 

 in West Australia the latest returns showed 476,103 fowls, 72,018 ducks,. 

 34,868 turkeys, and but 7,740 geese. 



In the absence of any enumerations in this State the exports of a few 

 years ago aftbrd ;i fair guide, and confirmatory of the rather small place 

 geese occupy in tlie poultry fiocks of the Commonwealth. For the three 

 years ending 1902 tliere were exported through the Government Export 

 Depot 167,500 fowls, 54,120 ducks, 11,830 turkeys, and but 4,320 geese, and 

 this despite the fact that there were unlimited orders for them. One other 

 feature which tends to lack of interest in geese breeding, but peculiar to this. 

 State only, is the extraoi'dinary quantity of Muscovy ducks wdiich are bred, 

 the Urge suburban duck farms stocking them in preference to the English. 



The drakes of these weigh as heavy as the ordinary goose, and being fed to 

 produce the greatest weight in the shortest time the fiesh is deliciously tender, 

 and of esteemed flavour, whereas the goose is generally allowed to find its own 

 living, is I'arely fattened, and consequently the flesh is of a fibred nature and dry. 



