192 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



not line their nests, they have to be plucked by 

 hand. It has been the custom for thousands of 

 years in Europe to rear geese solely for their 

 feathers, and the peasants derive a considerable 

 income from this source. Some goose farms con- 

 tain thousands of birds, the plucking of which 

 takes place five times a year. 



While the plucking of live geese continues to a 

 lesser extent to-day than it did a hundred years 

 ago, it is still done on a large scale, particularly 

 in Europe. The birds, however, .are now more 

 generally reared for the food market, and, despite 

 its inferior quality, the bulk of goose-down is 

 derived from the bodies of these. The duck and 

 goose farms of the middle United States thus 

 annually supply the upholstery industry with hun- 

 dreds of tons of feathers as one of their by-prod- 

 ucts. In the same way the poultry farms find a 

 ready market for the pickings of the fowl. 



Before they can be used, all down feathers have 

 to undergo a cleaning process, first to free them 

 of foreign matter and second to extract any greasy 

 substance which may remain and which might 

 cause an offensive odor. In chicken feathers only 

 the barbs are utilized, the feathering being 

 stripped from the shafts and the shafts dis- 

 carded. This type of down, because of its lack 

 of springiness, is employed mainly in making 

 mattresses. 



