WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 207 



he may sink a large barrel or small hogshead, and 

 from that get very nice shooting. From a barrel 

 placed in a marsh known to be a good resort for 

 geese, much shooting may be had all the spring 

 season, but it must be planted there before the 

 wild geese have come from the south. It is better 

 than boat-shooting, and perhaps better than any 

 other plan, taking the spring season all through. 

 When a hole is dug in a wheat-field to which the 

 wild geese have taken, it should be made soon 

 after their arrival ; and when they get used to it, 

 much nice shooting may be had there. 



But the best shooting at Canada geese, and the 

 best geese for the table, are in the fall of the year, 

 when the young geese come on from the far 

 northern regions in which they have been bred. 

 Their arrival is not looked for until we have had 

 some stiff frost, and that is usually about the first 

 of November. The corn is then just being cut 

 up, and the fall wheat is well out of the ground. 

 At first the wild geese go upon the young wheat, 

 and they eat it off close sometimes. When the 

 corn has been shocked and left on the fields, they 

 go into that. The various kinds of wild geese, 

 ducks, and cranes consume a great deal of corn. 

 In some wet places I have known them to eat a 



