GEESE 



167 



Germany, Austria, and Russia there is still a very large produc- 

 tion of geese. In this country geese are grown in small numbers 

 by a few persons in almost every community. The feeding and 

 flocking habits of geese especially adapted them to the conditions 

 under which they were kept when stock of all kinds was allowed 

 to run at large and to feed on common or unoccupied land in 

 charge of a gooseherd. As towns grew, and as people became 

 less tolerant of the trespassing of live stock, the growing of geese 



FIG. 148. Mongrel Geese on a Rhode Island farm 



in towns declined. Nearly all the geese now produced in this 

 country come from flocks on general farms. The production of 

 geese on farms has been restricted to some extent by the abun- 

 dance and cheapness of turkeys. As turkeys become scarce and 

 dear in any locality the production of geese seems to increase. 

 From early times geese have been prized for their feathers. So 

 valuable have these been considered that it has been a practice 

 to pluck the live geese each year before they molted. Public 

 opinion now condemns this barbarous practice, and persons pluck- 

 ing live geese are sometimes punished for cruelty to animals. 



