GEESE-MANAGEMENT AND DIFFERENT BREEDS. 



IN lieu of anything we can say relative to housing, breeding, rearing, and 

 the general management of geese, we give what the late N. C. BEMENT has 

 written on the subject, with the simple remark that from what we knew of 

 that gentleman when living, we consider his advice orthodox. He says : 



GEESE HOUSES, OB PENS. 



" In selecting a situation for a goose-house or pen, all damp must be 

 avoided ; for geese, however much they may like to swim in water, are fond 

 at all times of a clean, dry place to sleep in. It is not good to keep geese 

 with other poultry ; for when confined in the poultry-yard they become very 

 quarrelsome, harrass and injure the other fowls ; therefore it is best to erect 

 low sheds, with nests partitioned off, of suitable size, to accommodate them ; 

 and there should never be over eight under one roof; the large ones gen- 

 erally beat the smaller, in which case they should of course be separated, one 

 from the other, by partitions extending out some distance from the nests. 



THE NESTS FOR HATCHING 



should be made of fine straw, of a circular shape, and so arranged that the 

 eggs can not fall out when the goose turns them. From thirteen to fifteen 

 will be as many as a large goose can conveniently cover. The ganders 

 remain near when sitting, and seem to watch them as a kind of sentinel ; and 

 woe be to man or beast that dares approach them. They seem very 

 anxious to see the young ones, that are to be born, make their appearance. 



INCUBATION 



lasts from twenty-eight to thirty days, and not two months, as some state, 

 and the goose should have water placed near her, and be well fed as soon as 

 she comes off the nest, that she may not be so long absent as to allow the 

 eggs to cool, which might cause her to abandon her task. After twenty- 

 eight or twenty-nine days' incubation, the goslings begin, but frequently 

 at an interval of from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, to chip the shell. 

 Like turkey chickens, goslings must be taken from under the mother, lest, if 

 feeling the young ones under her, she might perhaps leave the rest of the 



