104 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



little offices, such as scratching for grain and grubs, 

 chuckling to them to come and share, &c., which he 

 remembers to have been done for himself in infancy. 

 As for geese, I abhor them ; their cackling is 

 abominable; their grease alone to be valued, as a 

 first-rate specific for many purposes upon the farm, 

 such as rubbing a hard udder, &c. Their meat is 

 indigestible, and endurable only for the sweet apple 

 slop's sake, in which it is the mode to envelope each 

 morsel. During life, besides hissing at your horses' 

 heels, and chasing you their lord and owner, eveiy 

 three of a flock will consume as much pasture as a 

 sheep, besides spoiling with their dirt and feathers I 

 don't know how much more, not to mention the 

 green, muddy, unwholesome slush to which they 

 rapidly reduce your stable-pool. But if you have a 

 fancy for the like, most gentle reader — and I sup- 

 pose that he may be reckoned a goose who has not — 

 theu, for the best sorts to begin with, you must 

 consult Mr. Bailly, or Mr. Fowler, or some equally 

 distinguished (if there be any) presiding genius of 

 the clan. However, I can tell you that the sooner 

 the better they commence laying in the spring, as 

 they may then have a second brood. They will 

 inform you that they are laying by carrying straw 

 about in their bills as pigs do before rain, or when 

 about to farrow. At once, then, thatch their nest 

 over for them with a tent of straw. They lay twelve 

 to sixteen eggs. They sit usually thirty days, but if 

 the weather be fine and warm, you must not be sur- 

 prised to find the young ones introduced a few days 

 sooner. For a " green goose" you must take them a 



