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On arriving at the feeders, they are 

 classed accordinff to condition, &c. : 

 they soon beconie reconciled to their 

 new abode and to each other. They 

 are fed tlree times a day, and it is 

 truly astonisliing how soon they ac- 

 quire the knowledge of the precise 

 time ; marching from the exercise 

 ground to the pens like soldiers in 

 close column. Goslings, or young 

 geese, come to hand generally about 

 the month of April, after which a 

 regular and constant supply arrives 

 weekly ihrougliout the season. At 

 firat tiiey are fed on soft meat, con- 

 sisting of prime barley or oat meal, 

 afterward on dry corn. An idea pre- 

 T?ails with many that anysort of corn 

 'X'ill do for poultry : this is a grand 

 anistake. Those who feed largely 

 tnow better, and invariably make it a 

 rule to buy the best. The Messrs. 

 8oyce, whose pens are capable of 

 lolding the extraordinary number of 

 JOOO geese, independent of ducks, 

 -urkeys, (Sec, consume 80 bushels of 

 oats daily, exclusive of other food.' 



'• But. though green geese bring an 

 enormous price m the spring, if thor- 

 oughly fat, farmers generally find it 

 more profitable to feed goslings on 

 the stubbles, where they supply them- 

 selves with the best food without 

 cost, and become sufficiently fat at 

 Michaelmas, when ancient custom 

 renders them a favourite disli. 



" Though young geese are subject 

 to a disease called the cramp, the 

 greater number of those which die in 

 summer are destroyed by starvation, 

 and the change from corn, and other 

 nutritive food, to the miserable her- 

 bage which the fields and commons 

 yield ; and this constitutes their chief 

 diet until the harvest season. Cold 

 and wet weather are often fatal to 

 them in the earlier months, if they be 

 neglected. Much mortality also pre- 

 vails among grown geese, wherever 

 the horrible system of plucking them 

 alive is practised. It is generally 

 urged in excuse for this barbarity 

 that featiiers are most clastic and 

 valuable before the period of moult- 

 ing, and that geese have been thus 

 treated ever since feather beds came 



into fashion. The offence carries 

 some punishment with it, for it ren- 

 ders the flesh very tough, and in 

 many respects deteriorates the value 

 of a bird, if it does not destroy it al- 

 together ; but the immediate gain 

 from the featiiers counterbalances 

 this and every humane consideration. 

 . " The cramming system is prac- 

 tised in France, when the object is 

 to render the liver unnaturally en- 

 larged by disease, with circumstan- 

 I ces of great cruelty. We do not in- 

 tend to give any information upon 

 : practices which we cannot recoin- 

 i mend, and which we strongly con- 

 demn. 



! " Eg-o-s. — The most certain way of 

 preserving eggs fresh is by greasing 

 them with some unctuous matter, or 

 immersing them in milk of lime. In 

 packing, they should be laid on end ; 

 for otherwise the yolks, preserving 

 their centre of gravity, fall to the 

 lowest side, and, by adhesion to it, 

 become tainted sooner than if they 

 1 were suspended in the centre. Briny 

 salt, or sawdust, are good packing 

 I materials. 



" The only management, besides 

 v/arinth and high feeding, by which a 

 perpetual succession of eggs can be 

 ' obtained in winter, is by having pul- 

 lets and hens of different ages, which, 

 ; moulting at different periods, do not 

 I all cease laving at the same time." 

 I POULTRY DUNG. The urine of 

 ' birds is solid, and voided along with 

 the matters rejected from the bowels ; 

 their dung is, therefore, nearly ap- 

 proaching to urate or the dried urine 

 j of animals, and is richer the less ve- 

 ; getable food they take ; hence the ex- 

 crement of sea gulls forms guano, 

 I the best manure known. The com- 

 i position of poultry dung varies with 

 I their food, the husks and green, indi- 

 l gestible parts of vegetables being im- 

 purities which diminish the value of 

 the white solid uric acid. The com- 

 position of the urine or white part is 

 the same for all birds, and consists 

 chiefly of 



Uric acid . . 68-71 "] 



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