nnd the Down of domestic Fowh. 259- 



Diic-ks' Down or Feat Iters. 

 Though the down of common tbwh and pigeons is not 

 iicglectcll in some districts, the palmipedes furnish the prin-, 

 cipal part of that consumed in Europe. 



Ducks' feathers are sufficiently elastic, and sold at a cer- 

 tain price in the ci-devant Normandy, where great numbers 

 of these birds are reared. They are used for pillows and 

 mattresses. 



Goose Down or Feathers. 



The comiTion goose, and particularly the large species,- 

 w^iich, since time immemorial, have been subjected to a 

 state of domesticitv, supplies the greater part of the feathers 

 and down employed in Europe'. It was long believed that 

 the health of these birds was injured by depriving them ot 

 their feathers ; but if the operation be performed before 

 numlting, this periodical disease is not followed by any 

 inconve-jence when properly performed, and in such a man- 

 ner as to take from each wing only the down aiid four or 

 lj\c feathers. 



When the young birds have attained the age of two 

 months, they are conducted different times to a piece of 

 clear water; they are then placed on clean straw, in order 

 tl?at thev may become dry ; they are speedily stripped of 

 their feathers for the first time, and then a second tune at 

 the commencement ofautunui; but with moderatiun, ou 

 account of the approaching cold, by which they might be 

 injured. 



Another precaution, which ought always to be known, 

 is, that when geese arc stripped of their feathers ihcy musi 

 he prevented from going to the water, and made only to 

 drink, during two da\s, ull iheir skin becomes firm. They 

 arc then plucked a third time, when they are killed, attcr 

 they have been fed. This bird, therefore, which has lived 

 about nine months, can furnish, in the course ot its life, 

 three crops of feathers. 



The advantage to be derived from goose feathers is no^ 

 where to be neglected : they form an important article ot 

 commerce in Eincolnshirc, where they arc sold, in dowu 

 or in writing-quills, to a considerable amount every year. 



To neglect the advantao-e of obtaininij once, twice, or 



«•• •••II A 



thrice, HI the course of a year, a crop of wrmng qu'lis, ana 

 of down for filling beds and pillows, would be to r<.'nov}nce 

 voluntarily a considerable and certain profit which might 

 lu', derived from a numerous breed of geese. It is estimated 

 llut this product varies with age, and that a mother'-goosc. 

 Z r iri\e« 



