CHAP. XII.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 257 



entertained in different publications on poul- 

 try, respecting the quality of geese, at the 

 different stages of their growth. Cobbett calls 

 green geese " tasteless squabs, loose flabby 

 things," and insists that "stubble-geese are 

 hard and strong ;" while Moubray and Mar- 

 tin Doyle prefer a goose fattened entirely on 

 the stubbles. Dr. Kitchener — who ought, one 

 should suppose, to know something of the 

 matter — looks upon a Michaelmas-goose as 

 rank ; yet it is evident that Parkinson could 

 not have killed those geese which he so praises 

 until late in December ; and a writer in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture declares 

 that "nothing is more delicate than a well- 

 fed goose from September till January ; and 

 it is quite a mistake to suppose that a Christ- 

 mas-goose must be coarse and strong." 



Tastes differ : what one considers delicate, 

 another dislikes as wanting richness of flavour. 

 Chickens, green geese, and ducklings, are 

 esteemed by most people as dainties, but it is 

 certain that the flesh of all full-grown animals 

 is more nutritive than that of those which are 

 killed when very young. In Dr. Stark's ex- 

 periments on diet, it appears that, when fed on. 



