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fattening for breeding stock. I leave off half the corn and beef 

 scraps and add more green stuff and alfalfa for the breeding stock. 

 Mix the feed by first putting all the dry feed together in a vessel, 

 sufficiently large to stir it without wasting. Mix together to an 

 evenly colored mixture, then moisten with water or sweet milk and 

 mix to a dry crumbly state. It should not be wet and sloppy, as it 

 is not so good for the fowls, neither can it be handled and fed prop- 

 erly. 



White Pekin Ducks. 



We do not pick our breeding geese only at their natural molt- 

 ing period. Goslings which are intended for market in the fall, should 

 not be picked, but the small feathers of the breasts and sides may be 

 removed. It does not pay to pick breeding geese except at their 

 natural molting period, which comes after the laying season. They 

 may then be picked every seven or eight weeks until cold weather, 

 if largely fed for this purpose. Fifteen-pound geese, if well cared 

 for, will average one-half to one pound of feathers a year without 

 injury to breeding. Goose feathers in Missouri are worth from 

 thirty-five cents to seventy-five cents per pound, according to the color 

 and quality of feathers. 



Growing geese is very profitable, as they consume mostly grass 

 and hay, making food inexpensive. It costs about four cents per 

 pound to push them for market until they weigh ten pounds. W.e 

 have received as high as twenty cents per pound early in the spring 

 for a gosling and ten cents late in the fall. Culls are all we sell on 

 the market, the rest being sold for breeding purposes. With a clover 

 cutter, clover and alfalfa hay can be cut fine for geese, and they can 

 be kept through the winter on this with a little grain occasionally. 

 Geese should not be fed much corn until finishing them for market. 

 They fatten easily with plenty of hay, vegetables and grass in sum- 

 mer. It will cost only about fifty cents a year to keep an adult 

 goose. 



