608 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK vn. 



quality of flesh, but is rather dark in the meat, the plumage and legs 

 being entirely black. It is a variety which well repays cultivation. 



Though there are many other breeds of ducks, the five we have 

 named are the best for profitable purposes, many of the others being 

 simply fancy breeds, and therefore not within our purview. 



Geese. From September until after Christmas, the demand foi 

 geese is constant, and moderate prices are paid for them, more 

 especially in the large towns and cities. It is the custom in Norfolk 

 and Suffolk after harvest to place them on the stubbles, where they can 

 obtain a large portion of their food, and flocks are to be met with upon 

 most of the farms in East Anglia. 1 These are fed up for the 

 Michaelmas and Christmas markets, and when properly fattened and 

 dressed they realise moderate prices. As a rule fatteners do not 



Fig. 164. Toulouse Geese. 



breed their own geese, but buy them for that purpose, though most of 

 the farmers rear a flock or two. The goslings are purchased when 

 quite young, and large numbers are bred by cottagers living on the 

 borders of the commons which there abound. These are placed under 

 stages, and fed upon barley meal, maize, wheat-tailings, and brewers' 

 grains mixed. The first fattened are prepared for the Michaelmas 

 markets, and their places are then taken by such as are being fed for 

 Christmas. On turnips geese are found to be capital substitutes for 

 sheep, and they are often used in this way, the only preparation being 

 that the turnips are given a chop, and the geese will then eat them far 

 cleaner than will sheep. The two breeds most commonly kept are the 



1 Many flocks of hundreds of geese are let to farmers in Lincolnshire, who receive the 

 birds at about 7 weeks old, and run them on the grass, and afterwards get them nearly fat 

 on the stubble, when they are fetched back by the hatchers, who pay the farmer half their 

 value according to weight. The hatchers pluck the birds while on the farms, and take the 

 feathers. 



