RAISING GEESE. 21? 



tougher every year. So if one has a good breeding goose, 

 one which does her own duty well, and is reasonably 

 peaceable towards other inhabitants of the farm-yard, it 

 is best to keep her for years. Sometimes a goose will be 

 very cross, killing ducklings and chickens, attacking 

 children, etc. Such a one is a fit candidate for the spit. 

 Ganders are generally much worse, and usually one 

 more than five or six years old becomes absolutely un- 

 bearable. So provision is naturally made to replace the 

 old ganders every three or four years. It is, besides 

 necessary to do so, for, though a young gander will at- 

 tend four geese very well, an old oe confines his atten- 

 tions to one only, and often proves infertile at six or 

 eight years old, getting crosser all the time. 



PLUCKIKG. 



A part of the profit of keeping geese depends upon 

 their yield of feathers. When geese are bred carefully 

 for exhibition and sale at high prices, only old ones 

 should be plucked, and they only once or twice in the 

 season. But when raised for market, the old ones may 

 be plucked three times, and the young ones once before 

 killing time, and the flock ought to yield, on an average, 

 18 to 20 ounces of dry feathers, besides considerable 

 down at the summer pickings. 



Common geese will yield about a pound of feathers a 

 year, if close picked, and they are often picked cruelly 

 close. This is unnecessary, for at the right time the 

 feathers have a very slight hold, and the operation of 

 plucking them is painless. 



