90 



fatigue and exhaust them ; they then walk with their wings hanging down, 

 and shaking their heads The relief proposed is to give them, on their return 

 from the fields, some corn at the bottom of a vessel full of clear water ; in 

 order to eat it, they are obliged to plunge their heads in the water, which 

 compels the insects to fly and leave their prey. 



FOOD AND FATTENING. 



" ' It is the same with the goose,' says MAIN, c as with every other bird 

 that is fattened up ; that moment must be laid hold of, when they come to a 

 complete plumpness, or they soon get lean and die if they are not killed.' 

 Meal and skimmed milk will soon do the business ; after ranging in the grain 

 stubbles but little else will be required. These are called <-green geese? and 

 are most esteemed by the epicure ; they will then be about six weeks old, 

 tender and fine. The writer of the article on poultry in Baxter's Library 

 of Agriculture recommends steamed potatoes, with four quarts of ground 

 buckwheat or oats to the bushel, mashed up with the potatoes, and given 

 warm. This, it is said, will render geese, cooped in a dark place, fat enough 

 in three weeks. The French method of fattening is detailed very copiously 

 by M. PARMENTIER. < The whole process,' says he, ' consists in plucking the 

 leathers from under the belly ; in giving them abundance of food and drink, 

 and in cooping them up more closely than is practiced with common fowls ; 

 cleanliness and quiet being, above all, indispensable. The best time is in the 

 month of November, or when the cold weather begins to set in. When 

 there are but a few geese to fatten, they are put in a cask, in which holes 

 have been bored, and through which they thrust their heads to get their food ; 

 but as this bird is voracious, and as with it hunger is stronger than love of 

 liberty, it is easily fattened, provided they are abundantly supplied with 

 the wherewithal to swallow.' 



" The Romans considered the liver of the goose a great dainty, and to 

 increase its size they fed them sixteen days on a paste of Turkey figs, stamped 

 and beaten up with cream ; their livers would thus be brought to table, each 

 weighing three or four pounds. Equal parts of the meal of oats, rye, and 

 peas, mixed with skimmed milk, form an excellent feeding article for geese 

 and ducks. The grand object of preparing, not geese only, but all kinds of 

 poultry for market in as short a time as possible, is effected solely by paying 

 unremitting attention to their wants ; in keeping them thoroughly clean, in 

 supplying them with proper food (dry, soft, and green,) water, exercise, 

 ground, etc. They should be fed three times a day ; and it is truly astonish- 

 ing how soon they acquire a knowledge of the time." 



THE AMERICAN WILD GOOSE. 



THERE seems to be a great diversity of opinion, among writers on 

 poultry, relative to the domestic or common goose of America, many 

 contending that they derive their parentage from the " Canada Wild 

 Goose," so-called in Europe, while it is said by eminent ornithologists 



