256 PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 



provided to protect them from sun and storm. Their sleeping places must be 

 kept clean. Other items of management requiring special mention will be 

 found included in the methods of feeding given below : 



(1). Feeding Goslings. (NEWMAN). The first two or three days keep them in a 

 warm place, and give them a little soaked bread and water. In nice weather, turn them 

 out in small inclosures which can be moved every day. After a week, let them go. The 

 first four or five weeks, give nothing but stale bread occasionally ; but always leave them 

 at liberty to get all the grass or clover they want. Do not soak the bread, as they do not 

 like it so well. After five weeks, give a mash of jf bran and corn meal. To fatten 

 after six weeks, feed bran, corn meal; do not feed it sloppy. Never allow goslings to 

 go to the water until lully feathered, and then only let those go which are to be kept for 

 breeders. 



(2). Feeding Early Goslings. (RUDD). They can be fed at first on J Indian meal 

 and jf shorts, wet cold, and squeezed almost entirely dry. Sloppy food must be avoided. 

 They should be fed as often as hungry, which will be at least every two hours perhaps 

 oftener. The important points at this stage are to keep them warm, dry, and supplied 

 with food. As they grow older they need outdoor air and exercise. As spring advances 

 and grass begins to grow, they can be put in movable pens on the grass. When three or 

 four weeks old (depending on the weather, condition of grass, etc.), they should if possible 

 be given a wide range turned out to pasture ; but the enclosure, of whatever size, should 

 be fenced gosling proof. They should be fed twice a day with | shorts, | Indian meal, 

 thoroughly wet, then squeezed or pressed dry all they will immediately eat up clean. 

 The drinking vessels should never be empty. If they are to be fattened, they should be 

 confined and fed less shorts and more meal, adding some beef scraps ; gradually increas- 

 ing the proportion of meal and beef scraps until shorts are discontinued, and the food is 

 about 10 per cent beef scraps and 90 per cent meal. 



(3). Feeding Goslings. (CUSHMAN). Goslings are better off if they get nothing 

 but tender grass and water the first day they are put out, or before they are 48 hours old. 

 The next day they should be fed two or three times, but very lightly, with scalded 

 cracked corn. This is probably as good food as can be given from then on, provided 

 they have at all times an abundance of tender grass to eat, and the amount of cracked 

 corn fed is such as will always leave them hungry for grass. An exclusive diet of grain 

 or dough, without plenty of grass, or too great a quantity even with grass, will spoil 

 them cause them to lose the use of their legs, and die. If grain is fed sparingly while 

 they are young, grass being three-fourths of the food, few will be lost. To make the 

 best growth they should have succulent green food before them while they can see to eat. 

 If shut in for a short time morning or evening, or on a stormy day, they should have a 

 continual supply of freshly mown rye, oats, clover, or corn fodder. Otherwise they will 

 fret and lose much in weight. When the object is to raise show birds of great size and 

 frame at maturity, it may be best to feed oat meal, gluten feed and bran liberally, as well 

 as corn and grass or clover ; but there will be less uniformity under this feeding, and 

 more will be lost. 



391 . Marketing Geese. Goslings of the large breeds should weigh 9 Ibs. 

 to 12 Ibs. each at ten weeks of age ; some may weigh more. As a rule it pays 

 better to market them at that age than to hold them until mature. Mongrels 

 are reserved for the holiday trade, for at that time they bring more per pound 



