214 THE DOMESTIC GOOSE. 



RANGE AND DOMESTIC ACCOMMODATION. 



WITH respect to the range and domestic accom^ia- 

 tion of geese, they require a dormitory apart from oth<s.r 

 fowls similar to the one shown at p. 2Q3 for the tame 

 duck, or the rustic poultry house at p. 86, and a green 

 pasture, or common, with a convenient pond or stream 

 of water attached. 



Mascall, following Columella, directs as most proper 

 for geese to " have a large court, close paled or walled, 

 of nyne foot hye, that no vermin may enter, and all 

 about within the same to make alleys and galleries, 

 with partitions and chambers for one alone to sleep in 

 and over the same, to set your house for them, made 

 strong with stone or brick four foote square, plaste 

 about your courte, and to eche house a close door for 

 them to come in and out to lay, and also to shut them 

 in when ye shall have cause. Then, if there be not a 

 ponde or river nye unto them, and to the house yee 

 must then make one, else to seeke their water farre 

 off, which is not good, for geese that sitte must have 

 water to bathe them when they rise from their neast, 

 or else, as some say, their egges will. not prosper If 

 there be no water, must make a ponde, clay it in the 

 bottom for the water to remain ; and make it some- 

 what deep, that they may plunge therein ; for a say- 

 ing is, a goose will not live withoute bathing and 

 washing her often, no more than a beast without pas- 

 ture." 



"All men," says Markham, "must understand, 

 that, except he have either pond or streame, he can 

 never keepe geese well." Yet if we are to trust M. 

 Parmentier, the vicinity of rivers and ponds is not ab- 

 solutely necessary to the most successful rearing of 

 geese ; for in districts destitute of these advantages, a 

 small reservoir, where they can bathe, will be quite 

 sufficient. 



In France, geese are put up in thirties in the same 

 lodge, with roqfe and partitions tD separate them, never 



