THE TO UL O USE GOOSE. 



59? 



plumage should be as free as possible from a 

 brown tinge, which I strongly object to, though 

 it is prominent in some strains. The sun has 

 some influence on this, but very little com- 

 paratively on good-coloured ones compared with 

 others. The legs are a deep orange colour. 



" I consider the birds of this variety are 

 more commanding-looking, if I may use the 

 term, and more graceful, than they were when 

 I first started breeding and exhibiting them. 

 The Toulouse are more prolific than the 

 Embdens, as I have frequently known them to 

 lay forty or fifty eggs before leaving off, and 

 seldom ever showing any tendency or wish 

 to sit. 



" Formerly in this district the goose industry 

 was a very large one. It was no uncommon 

 occurrence to meet a thousand geese on the 

 road six or eight weeks before Christmas, going 

 to the various dealers or breeders to be fattened 

 up, and which in due time were dressed and 

 forwarded to market, or to various clubs. The 

 breeders would send to the various farmers the 

 stock birds, two or three geese and one gander ; 

 then about Michaelmas divide the produce with 

 the farmer, giving him half he had reared, or 

 allowing him half (about 2s. 6d.) upon the whole, 

 or else 5s. each for his half share. It was 

 nothing unusual to see as many as ten thousand 

 geese on one place, collected from the farmers 

 prior to selling them to the feeders to fatten 

 up, and I have heard of half a dozen of such 

 feeders, in this neighbourhood, also sending as 

 much as ^^50 worth of feathers and down to 

 Boston in a cart at one time. I am sorry to 

 say that there is nothing of the sort now ; I 

 do not know a single person carrying on this 

 business near here. The large foreign import- 

 ation of both turkeys and geese has almost 

 completely killed the industry, or rather the 

 profitable part of it, but I am rather inclined to 

 think that turkeys are also taking the place 

 of geese to a certain extent." 



The Toulouse goose is generally stated to 

 surpass the Embden in weight, but this idea is 

 by no means borne out by historical records, and 

 appears mainly founded upon the reputation of 

 certain celebrated birds, an element of crossing 

 having also something to do with it. In regard 

 to the last point, it has been already mentioned 

 above that the Embden is in some degree 

 indebted to the Toulouse ; and it is equally 

 beyond doubt that many Toulouse geese have 

 been crossed with the Embden, the motive in 

 both cases having been the fact that a cross 

 between any ordinary stocks of the two, usually 

 produces goslings heavier than either of the 

 parent races. But the size of these cross-bred 



birds is not kept up if breeding is continued 

 with them ; and a further result has been the 

 obliteration of proper distinctive marks in many 

 prize pens. Breeders of pure Embdens and 

 Toulouse have during many years often com- 

 plained to us that they have been unfairly beaten 

 by specimens obviously cross-bred; and we have 

 frequently seen so-called Embdens with dewlap 

 and keel, while, conversely, Toulouse geese have 

 been shown with clean gullets, and too high on 

 the leg for pure Toulouse. In the absence of 

 such obvious signs of crossing, there can be little 

 doubt that even the " orange " bill described in 

 the Standard, where it exists, is more or less due 

 to an infusion of Embden blood ; for not only is 

 the bill described above by Miss Campain as 

 brownish flesh colour, but in 1872 the late 

 Mr. J. K. Fowler himself described it to us as 

 resembling "sunburnt flesh," which is practically 

 the same thing, and is beyond dispute the 

 colour of the bill in the original pure breed. 

 Another frequent sign of crossing is found 

 in white feathers round the base of the 

 bill, which in some cases is even accompanied 

 by a light eye. Returning to the question 

 of weights, however, there are some who 

 still remember when the late Mr. J. K. 

 Fowler and Mrs. Seamons were the principal 

 champions of the day in the goose classes. It is 

 within our own personal knowledge that Mr. 

 Fowler's heaviest Toulouse gander weighed once 

 38 lbs., while the heaviest Mrs. Seamons ever 

 had was 36 lbs. Probably those weights have 

 never been equalled by any white goose, though 

 we had strong reason to suspect some white 

 blood in both. In 1870 the heaviest Grey pair 

 at Birmingham weighed 62J lbs., probably never 

 equalled by any other pair; and in 1S71 they 

 were 60 lbs. But in 1874 the heaviest Greys 

 were 58^ lbs., while the heaviest Whites were 

 59^ lbs. After that, extreme fattening foi 

 weight began (happih-) to go out of fashion. 

 In 1875 the heaviest Birmingham Greys were 

 51 lbs. 9 ozs., against 58 lbs. 9 ozs. for Whites; 

 and since that time the weights have often 

 been still less, and Whites quite as often as not 

 the heavier of the two breeds. 



The Toulouse usually looks larger than the 

 Embden, owing to its much looser feathers ; 

 and its heavy keel gives a far more massive and 

 heavy appearance. Owing to this different con- 

 formation, two geese to one gander generally do 

 better than three in this variety. As it does not 

 sit, or at least not with any steadiness, the eggs 

 must be hatched otherwise ; and, owing to the 

 greater number laid, a larger flock can be 

 reared from one pen of Greys than from one 

 of Embdens. The ordinary saddle-backed geese 



