FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII. 519 



have raised a nice flock every summer. Did not raise so many thp rirst 

 season, for I did not understand very much, about hatching and caring 

 for goslings. I made a large pair of pillows the first season. Have had 

 geese for five years, and during that time have made several pairs of pil- 

 lows, two large feather beds, and am about ready to make the third, be- 

 sides selling every season several full feathered birds. If spring opens 

 early I pick the old ones three times during the summer, the young ones 

 twice. . The cost of feeding the young flock through the summer is com- 

 paratively nothing, as they are such good foragers. If they have plenty 

 of pasture they will get their own living after they are three weeks old. 

 I begin feeding sweet milk with a little corn meal added for the fir^t 

 few days. After that corn meal moistened with water until they are 

 three weeks old. 



I set the eggs under hens, as they are less care, a goose being more 

 apt to break eggs and trample the little ones. Have set geese with good 

 success. For hens I take an orange box, lay it on the side, with a three- 

 inch strip at the bottom so the hen can step in and out without jumping 

 down on the eggs, fill the box with damp dirt to within an inch of the 

 top of the strip, with just enough chaff to cover the dirt, hollowing out 

 a little to shape the nest. For geese I take an apple or salt barrel, nail 

 all the staves but four or five to the hoops, saw the hoops and remove 

 the loose staves, lay the barrel on the open side, pressing it into the dirt 

 so it will not roll. Hollow the earth a little and put in a dry litter to 

 make a nest; not too much for the eggs will get covered up. Seven eggs 

 for a hen; fifteen for a goose. By using hens I can keep the geese lay- 

 ing. When a goose wants to sit I put her in a yard where she can not 

 get to the nest for three or four days. Then she is out of the notion of 

 sitting and will soon lay again. A hen will take better care of the gos- 

 lings Than a goose. Do not let them run in the wet grass or be out 

 in the rain, for they can not stand much wet until full feathered. Give 

 plenty of fresh drinking water. The eggs from my flock have averaged 

 90 per cent fertile every season. Care should be taken not to get tue 

 breeding stock too fat during the winter as the eggs are much more fer- 

 tile if the stock is thin in flesh at the beginning of the breeding season. 

 Having one gander for two geese, my geese begin laying in March. I be- 

 lieve if farmers knew the value of a goose for a table fowl they would 

 be more extensively raised. There is some objection to the goose on ac- 

 count of its being too fat. I remove the surplus fat before roasting, 

 which being fried out is excellent for cooking purposes. To dress a 

 goose, put a wash boiler containing one inch of boiling water on the 

 stove, with a common steamer turned bottom side up, to keep the goose 

 out of the water. Cover and let boil three or four minutes. If properly 

 steamed, the feathers are easily removed. 



I keep old geese for breeding, as they do much better than the young.. 



