248 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. xi. 



to cram with it one hundred fowls in an hour ! 

 besides a great saving of food, and fatting 

 the bird completely within ten days or a 

 fortnight. To all which assertions we pay not 

 the least credit ; for a fowl cannot be pro- 

 perly crammed in little more than half a 

 minute, and any saving of food will neces- 

 sarily delay, instead of anticipating, its fat- 

 ting. 



When turned out along with the goose, at 

 a month old, and not intended to be fattened 

 for the table as green geese, they require no 

 particular species of food, and many are 

 killed, after harvest, as stubble-geese; some 

 of which, if they happen to have picked up 

 a good quantity of corn, and thus to have 

 become partly fat, may merit the esteem 

 in which they are by many persons held ; 

 but, generally speaking, we view them of 

 very ordinary quality, as being neither firm 

 in flesh, nor having the rich flavour of the 

 full-grown well-fed bird. Farmers are, how- 

 ever, evidently the only persons who can have 

 stubble-geese, and a Michaelmas goose is 

 not worth eating if it be not quite fat; which 

 cannot be done without plenty of corn. 



