596 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



lake or private enclosure, and are of no econom- 

 ical importance. In breeding them, they must 

 have as much as possible of secluded shelter, 

 and be left pretty much to nature. 



The industry of goose-raising for the British 

 market has seen great changes, having been at 

 one time a very extensive one, which has con- 

 siderably declined of late years, as 

 Geese already indicated by Miss Campain. 



for In 1896 a sensational account of an 



Market. alleged great goose ranche in Essex 



was published, and copied rather 

 extensively, which contained some extraordinary 

 statements. It was alleged that there were 

 30,000 birds on the ranche ready for market, 

 with others coming on ; that thirty-five men 

 were employed ; that the owner cleared between 

 £2,000 and i!'3,ooo a year, and that " many 

 others do the same." It is unnecessary to com- 

 ment on such statements as these, none of which 

 were correct at any period ; still, at one time 

 immense numbers of geese were reared and 

 fattened, especially in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. 

 Besides scouring the country for what goslings 

 were procurable young from the farmers who 

 had bred them, very large supplies of young live 

 birds were imported from Ireland and Holland, 

 the latter consignments coming most largely 

 from Rotterdam. A large dealer near Norwich 

 is stated to have imported from Rotterdam in 

 1872 very nearly 5,000 young birds for feeding, 

 which mostly came through Hull. Many foreign 

 goslings also came to Liverpool, for the more 

 northerly dealers, Silloth being another northern 

 port of entry. This Irish and Continental trade in 

 live goslings for feeding is still carried on, but to 

 a very much less extent than formerly, for which 

 there are various causes besides an undoubted 

 fall in prices. 



One cause often alleged for the falling off of 

 geese reared in England, is the considerable 

 decline in area of unenclosed commons and 

 waste lands. Such land is peculiarly favourable 

 to the goose industry, no doubt, and its diminu- 

 tion cannot but have had effect ; but so far as 

 prices are concerned, that effect would be rather 

 to raise them, whereas there is no doubt that they 

 have decreased, in spiteof the diminished supply. 

 Thus a decline in price, and also of facilities for 

 cheap rearing, have worked together to make 

 goose-breeding less profitable than formerly. 

 Another cause, though less important, has not 

 received the attention it deserves. The feathers 

 were once more valuable than now, and live 

 geese were often plucked several times a year to 

 supply them. Steel and other pens have nearly 

 destroyed the market for goose quills ; and 



owing to the better knowledge of hygiene, where 

 respectable families once always provided feathei 

 beds for good bedrooms, these are now mostly 

 furnished with hard mattresses laid upon spring- 

 wire, and the returns from this source too have 

 greatly diminished. It is doubtful if profit has 

 really been much lessened by this cause, as it is 

 now known that the strain of being plucked 

 sapped both the vigour, and laying, and fertility 

 of the stock ; but the apparent inducements were 

 decreased, and this has had its effect, as no doubt 

 has the increase in cheaper foreign supplies. 



The chief cause of all, however, is undoubtedly 

 that popular taste has changed. Roast fat goose 

 is a somewhat rich and gross dish, and all the 

 reports we have received from market salesmen 

 go to show that the demand for Christmas 

 poultry especially, has gradually been more and 

 more transferred to the more delicate turkey. 

 The goose has gradually become more a working- 

 man's dish, and the demand from even that 

 quarter has been checked considerably by recent 

 interference with licensed houses, many of which 

 were once centres of enormous Christmas goose- 

 clubs, so that some of them would order as many 

 as a thousand birds, which were desired large 

 and plump. From some or all of these causes 

 the demand for large fatted geese has greatly 

 decreased in the principal markets; while it is 

 remarkable that it keeps up best, and has in a 

 few localities even increased, in the thickly- 

 populated industrial districts of the Midlands 

 and north of England. 



If goose-breeding and feeding is to be carried 

 on profitably in England, it must recognise these 

 modern conditions and this change in taste. 

 There will always be some market for large fat 

 birds at Christmas ; but it is more limited than 

 formerly, and the best quality will have the 

 preference. This depends upon even feeding for 

 flesh rather than fat; and as lean goslings fed up 

 rapidly with fattening food do not supply this, 

 masses of fat on a goose will not " sell " now- 

 adays. Experience proves that feeding mainly 

 upon oats or other grain, given in water, largely 

 avoids this deposition of useless fat. But the 

 revival of any considerable goose-industry, apart 

 from the northern demand alluded to above, 

 seems likely in future to depend largely upon 

 earlier birds, of s))ialkr size, but of first-rate 

 quality. It is probably this development which 

 has lately given greater predominance to the 

 pure Embden breed, which matures early, plucks 

 to a nice colour, tends rather to solid flesh than 

 fat, and is decidedly less "rich" than the Toulouse. 

 Still more worthy of attention appear to be those 

 hybrids or " wild mongrels " between Canada 

 and African geese, which top the American 



