POULTRY. 1113 



offering to sit. The time for hatching goslings is from the mid- 

 dle of April to June. The eggs should be set under hens, 

 especially if you keep the Toulouse. The Embden and the 

 China geese sit well and make good mothers. When set under 

 hens goose eggs need the same care during incubation as duck 

 and turkey eggs, but when geese sit let them alone. 



When the goslings are out they must have a warm, dry coop, 

 and like young ducks and turkeys they must be sheltered from 

 storms and kept out of the dew for the first four or five weeks. 

 Give goslings the same food recommended for ducklings. When 

 five or six weeks old they may be turned out to pasture, and 

 the rations gradually reduced to one meal a day. If on good 

 pasture they will grow on grass alone after the first six or 

 seven weeks ; but if extra large geese are desired it will pay 

 to give scalded meal or boiled turnips mixed with bran and meal, 

 once a day. 



Concerning the fattening of geese for market a writer in the 

 Poultry World says : 



" Geese may be fattened for market at two different periods 

 of their lives, either at the age of six or eight weeks, when they 

 are termed green geese, and are highly esteemed, or when they 

 have attained their full growth. The method is very nearly the 

 same, plenty of wholesome food and limited space for exercise, 

 as the more quiet they remain the faster they will fatten. Since 

 all geese are gregarious and sociable, if only a part of the flock 

 are to be fattened they had best be fastened up where they will 

 not see their accustomed companions, as, should they feel lonely, 

 they are apt to sulk and refuse food." 



Most geese are sold in winter, and these should be fed (after 

 the supply of grass is cut off by frost), with boiled corn, cooked 

 potatoes, boiled oats and barley-meal, with rowen soaked in warm 

 water and sprinkled with meal. Of course they must at all times 

 have plenty of water to drink. The Poultry World writer, be- 

 fore quoted from, says that " care must be taken to seize just 

 the right time for killing your fatted geese, as when they have 

 reached a certain limit they begin to fall off." Geese can be 

 picked two or three times during the season, according to the 



