NATIONAL CITY, CALIFORNIA 23 



turned out to pasture. Good-sized growing coops, with board floors, should 

 be provided for the goslings, and they must be protected from their enemies. 

 When on range young goslings need some attention, as they may get lost 

 or caught in post-holes and odd corners. Shade should be provided in hot 

 weather. They should not be allowed to run with large animals, as they 

 may be injured or killed. 



FEEDING GEESE AND GOSLINGS 



Geese are generally raised where they have a good grass range or 

 pasture, as they are good grazers, and, except during the winter months, 

 usually pick up most of their living. The pasture may be supplemented 

 with light feeds of the common or home-grown grains or wet mash daily, 

 the necessity and quantity of this feed depending on the pasture. Goslings 

 do not need feed until they are twenty-four to thirty-six hours old, when 

 they should be fed any of the mashes recommended for chickens or duck- 

 lings, or a mash or dough of two-thirds shorts (middlings) and one-third 

 corn-meal, which can be made equal parts shorts and corn meal, and five 

 per cent of beef scrap added after six weeks. Bread and milk is an excellent 

 feed for young goslings. Fine grit or sharp sand should be provided for 

 goslings by feeding five per cent of it in their mash or keeping it in a 

 hopper before them. If the goslings are to be fattened, the ration should 

 be changed to one-third shorts and two-thirds corn meal by weight, with 

 five per cent of beef scrap added, while a feed of corn should be given at 

 night. Most geese breeders do not confine their geese for fattening, but 

 feed them freely a few weeks on a fattening ration before they are to be 

 marketed. The geese may be confined for two or three weeks and fattened, 

 but some green feed or vegetables should be added to the ration. 



Adult geese may be fed for eggs about February 1 on a mash of one 

 pound of corn, meal, one of bran, one of middlings or low-grade flour, and 

 ten per, cent of beef scrap, which is fed in the morning; equal parts corn 

 and wheat, or corn alone, is fed at night. Grit and oyster shell should be 

 kept before geese when they are laying and may be provided all the time 

 to advantage. A constant supply of drinking water should be available 

 for both goslings and geese. Drinking fountains or pans should be con- 

 structed so that neither goslings nor older stock can get their feet into 

 the water. If the geese need extra feed when not laying, the beef scrap 

 should be left out and the quantity of corn meal increased to three parts. 

 Any available roughage, such as cut clover, hay, alfalfa, silage, cabbages, 

 mangel-wurzel beets, or any waste vegetables should be added during the 

 winter months, or whenever no good pasture is available. The time to feed 

 for eggs depends upon the method of handling the geese, the section of 

 the country, and the weather conditions, as goslings are usually hatched 

 when the pastures are good. 



PREPARING FOR MARKET 



Young geese, when fully feathered, are fattened in large numbers by 

 buyers who make a specialty of this business. Several methods are used 

 successfully in this special fattening of geese on a large scale. Six to eight 

 geese are confined for three weeks in a pen and fed by hand five times 

 daily on a mixture of two parts corn meal and one part of ground wheat 

 and sifted ground oats, mixed with enough low-grade flour or "red dog" 

 to make a stiff batter when water is added. This mixture is put thru a 

 sausage stuffer, cut into pieces two inches long and one inch thick, rolled 

 in flour, and cooked like dumplings. This is fed warm, but after cooking 

 the pieces are dipped in cold water to keep them from sticking together. 

 Another method used is to confine the geese to large pens in a shed for 

 from three to five weeks and keep whole corn in hoppers before them all 

 the time, using oat straw for bedding. Considerable of the oat straw is 

 eaten by the geese and serves as a good source of roughage. Corn silage 

 may also be used for roughage. 



A goose should be handled by its neck rather than by its legs and 

 held with the back toward the attendant. In France and Germany a spe- 



