350 



GEESE. 



their flocks, in the shape of quills and feathers, exclusive of 

 the body considered as an article of food, as a source of 

 profit to them almost as great as the shepherd derives from 

 his flocks and herds. These Geese are reared and protected 

 with a care and attention of which those who have not 

 witnessed it can form no conception. 



It may, indeed, be doubted whether, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, Geese, in a profitable point of view, may not be 

 considered as nearly equal to sheep. The latter, it is true, 

 furnish a lucrative trade to weavers and manufacturers, as 

 well as the farmer who feeds them ; but the Goose affords 

 no small item in the ledger of the upholsterer and the 

 stationer, as well as the poulterer, in addition to thousands 

 of acres of marsh land, which, but for this useful bird, would 

 remain for ever worthless, or at best, supply a scanty and 

 precarious pittance. A slight sketch of the mode of 

 managing a flock in Lincolnshire may not be uninteresting. 

 A single person will keep a thousand old Geese, each of 



