10 BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



paration for Christmas business commences towards 

 the end of October with the " buying up," when more 

 than half the number of birds required are obtained 

 from Holland,"* and the remainder from various parts of 

 this county. The fatting commences about the middle 

 of November, and the largest number at one time has 

 been twelve thousand. As before stated, this process 

 takes place entirely on Mr. Bagshaw's premises, and 

 the noise of this great army of cacklers, may be heard at 

 all hours of the night, until the demands of Christmas 

 week seal their fate, and relieve the surrounding 

 population of, no doubt, a considerable nuisance. The 

 food on which the geese are fatted is barley meal and 

 brewers' grains, the former being ground by Mr. 

 Bagshaw himself, so that he may not be exposed to 

 the adulteration which this commodity frequently under- 

 goes ; and the quantity of food required is about ninety 

 coombs of barley meal and sixty coombsf of grains daily. 

 The manure from such an immense number of fowls, 

 fed upon this description of food, is very valuable, and 

 frequent applications for the sale of it are made ; but as 

 Mr. Bagshaw holds a farm close by his poultry yard, 

 he prefers to make use of it himself. It takes about 

 six days to make preparations for the market, as nearly 

 two thousand are killed every day, and about a hundred 

 dressers are employed in the work, but as the birds are 

 not drawn before they are sent to market the giblets 

 are bought with them. Of those killed for Christmas, 

 some four thousand are sent to the Goose Clubs, and 

 the rest are forwarded to the markets at Leadenhall 



* As early as the 14th of June, 1870, 1 saw a flock of 600 young 

 geese, all Dutch birds, being driven through the city preparatory 

 to fattening for the Michaelmas sale. 



f The term coomb, as commonly used in Norfolk, signifies four 

 bushels, or half a quarter." 



