172 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



Many small farmers and cottagers are iu the 

 habit of keeping flocks of geese on commons, 

 and where the pasturage is not rendered bare 

 by sheep, as is too often the case, the plan is 

 adrantageous ; but even Avhen the pasturage is 

 good, a supply of oats or barley, morning and 

 evening, should be allowed. Where the pas- 

 turage is bad, the old geese become thin and 

 debilitated; and the young broods never 

 thrive, and too often perish from want of 

 sufficient nutriment. In such a plan of star- 

 Tation, arising either from neglect, or a sordid 

 disposition, there is not only abominable 

 cruelty, but a positive loss of profit. 



We are not among those who revolt at the 

 quick, and therefore merciful, destruction of 

 animals given to us by Almighty Providence 

 as needful and salutary food ; but we abhor 

 barbarity. In old times, and also in modern 

 days on the continent, a dreadful system of 

 torturing geese has prevailed, with no other 

 object than to produce a diseased enlargement 

 of the liver, for the preparation of a dish, or 

 rather 'pute, said by epicures to be of exquisite 



" Mr. Robert Fuller, a poulterer, of Boston, killed last week for 

 the London Clmstmas market, 24U0 geese, 1000 ducks, SCO 

 turkeys, which altogether weighed upwards of twenty tons.— 

 lUicolushire Chronicle," December, IS45, 



