FEEDING AND FATTENING GEESE 



107 



pends upon keeping them under such conditions that they 

 secure the greater part of the feed they require by graz- 

 ing. It is possible to grow geese on heavy grain rationj. 

 The risks and losses are greater and the cost usually too 

 great, but it can be done; and there is little doubt that 

 if it were profitable to grow geese on grain as ducks are 

 grown, strains of geese could be developed by selection, 

 generation after generation, of individuals that did be.^t 

 on such a diet. But the general run of geese are not 

 adapted to heavy grain feeding, and it will usually be 

 found that when they are so fed even on a well- 

 made mash, considerable quantities of it pass through 

 them undigested. This will be the case even with thrifty 

 birds that are making normal growth. Obviously they 

 get all they need from the grain, provided they get i; 

 often enough, but their digestive organs appear to carry 

 grain feed through the system too rapidly to admit or 

 complete digestion. 



The goose normally is not an efficient digester of 

 grain. Its digestive system is adapted to the quick hand- 

 ling of bulky, easily digested material. Except when ra- 

 tions with too much corn meal are given to goslings it 

 the start, it takes a great deal of abuse of the digestive 

 system of a goose by heavy grain feeding to damage it 

 seriously, for the goose has a rugged constitution, ami 

 the digestive organs apparently have more power than 

 those of other poultry to discharge nutritious matter in 

 excess of immediate requirements. The goose is not 

 quickly cloyed by overfeeding, and if it is allowed to 

 do so will eat much more grain than it requires and can 

 use to advantage. For that reason goose growers who 

 put their breeding geese out in pastures and keep a little 

 grain by them, give oats and barley which are the least 



attractive grains. 



Young geese penned on grass that affords them less 

 green feed than they could use to advantage and are 

 fed grain to make up the deficiency will almost always 

 eat much more grain than it is economy to give them, if 

 they are allowed to do so. To feed grain lightly in order 

 to correct this does not answer the purpose, for the pro- 

 portion digested is apparently about the same whether 

 much or little is eaten at one time. It should be rec- 

 ognized that the average goose is only going to get a 

 part of the nutriment in grain fed it apparently as much 

 as it can get from grain in the time it would take to 

 digest tender vegetation. So while a little grain is at 

 times beneficial, supplementing the green feed and giv- 

 ing better growth and better egg production, it really 

 pays to feed grain only for what it will do over and 

 above what can be done with all the green feed the birds 

 can eat that is, when the geese are grown for the table. 

 In growing extra-large geese for exhibition, grain is fed 

 more freely, for here the idea is to get the greatest pos- 

 sible growth regardless of cost. 



The problem of supplying succulent feed to geese on 

 limited areas becomes quite troublesome sometimes when 

 more than two or three are kept, for it takes a lot of 

 green feed to make a pound of goose. The birds are 

 not fussy about what they eat and, while we think of 

 grass as the principal feed to be obtained from pasture, 

 geese really prefer many of the common weeds to grass. 

 They are particularly fond of dandelions and other low- 

 growing plants that come in grass, and where geese have 

 access to grass land year after year in sufficient num- 

 bers, they will exterminate such weeds, while the grass 

 will improve as long as it is not eaten down too close. 



