174 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



GOOSE-FATTENING FARMS 



Market duck growing is conducted on so large a scale that 

 each grower can employ expert pickers and sell his product di- 

 rectly to wholesale dealers in poultry. So the duck grower fattens 

 his own ducks before killing them. It is natural for him to do 

 this, too, because his method of fattening is a modification of 

 the feeding process which he has used from the start. As he 



FIG. 152. Goslings grazing on a Rhode Island farm 



nears the end of his process of feeding, he simply increases the 

 proportion of fat-forming material in the food and feeds all that 

 the ducks will eat. The fattening of geese that have been grown 

 on grass to make them of the quality that will bring the highest 

 price requires a change to a heavy grain diet. The farmers who 

 grow these geese could fatten them better than any one else and 

 make more profit on them, but few of these farmers are willing 

 to give them the special attention that this requires. So large 

 a part of the geese sold alive are thin that the men who bought 

 them to dress for market long ago saw an opportunity to make 



