GEESE. 



breeding season the geese become joint tenants with 

 the inhabitants. Three rows of coarse wicker pens, 

 placed one above another) are found in every apartment) 

 even the bed-chamber. Each bird has its separate lodge, 

 of which it keeps possession. A gozzard or gooseherd 

 attends the flock. 



" The geese are usually plucked five times a year, 

 though some pluck them only three times, and others 

 four ; commencing at Lady-day, again at Midsummer, 

 Lammas, Michaelmas, and Martinmas. Goslings are 

 not spared ; early plucking, they say, tending to in- 

 crease the succeeding feathers. The common mode 

 of plucking live geese is considered barbarous ; but it 

 has prevailed perhaps ever since feather-beds came 

 into general use. In answer to the charge of cruelty 

 preferred against the ' fen slodgers,' the writer deems 

 it an act of justice to state, that the owners are care- 

 ful not to pull until the feathers are ripe, that is, not 

 until they are just ready to fall ; because, if forced 

 from the skin before, which is known by the appear- 

 ance of blood at the roots, they are of inferior value ; 

 those plucked after the geese are dead, are affirmed to 

 be of still less worth. The larger feathers and quills 

 are pulled twice a year only. That the reader may 

 form some idea of the extent to which goose breeding 

 and feeding is carried in the fens, instances are not 

 infrequent, in some establishments, where five coombs 

 of corn are daily consumed by the brood geese only." 



