102 GEESE. [No. 



They will get fat enough without the use of any of 

 these unfeeling means being employed. He who can 

 deliberately inflict torture upon an animal, in order 

 to heighten the pleasure his palate is to receive in 

 eating it, is an abuser of the authority which God 

 has given him, and is, indeed, a tyrant in his heart. 

 Who would think himself safe, if at the mercy of 

 such a man ? Since the first edition of this work 

 was published, I have had a good deal of experience 

 with regard to geese. It is a very great error to sup- 

 pose that what is called a Michaelmas goose is the 

 thing. Geese are, in general, eaten at the age when 

 they are called green geese ; or after they have got 

 their full and entire growth, which is not until the 

 latter part of October. Green geese are tasteless 

 squabs; loose flabby things; no rich taste in them; 

 and, in short, a very indifferent sort of dish. The 

 full-grown goose has solidity in it ; but it is liard. as 

 well as solid ; and in place of being rich, it is strong. 

 Now, there is a middle course to take ; and if you 

 take this course, you produce the finest birds of which 

 we can know any thin^ in Rutland. For three years, 

 including the present year, I have had the finest geese 

 that I ever saw, or ever heard of. I have bought 

 from twenty to thirty every one of these years. I 

 buy them off the common late in June, or very early 

 in July. They have cost me from two shillings to 

 three shillings each, first purchase. I bring the Bock 

 home, and put them in a pen, about twenty feet 

 square, where I keep them well littered with straw, 

 so as for them not to get filthy. They have one 

 trough in which I give them dry oats, and they have 

 another trough where they have constantly plenty of 

 clean water. Besides these, we give them, two or 

 three times a day, a parcel of lettuces out of the gar- 

 den. We give them such as are going to seed gene- 

 rally ; but the better the lettuces are, the better the 

 geese. If We have no lettuces to spare, we give them 

 cabbages, either loaved or not loaved ; though, ob- 

 serve 2 the white cabbage as well as the white lettuce, 

 that is to say, the loaved cabbage and lettuce, are a 



