DISGRACEFUL CRUELTIES. 113 



Mortality also has been periodically very extensive 

 in the flocks of geese, from sudden and imprudent 

 exposure of them to cold, after being stripped, and 

 more especially during severe seasons and sudden 

 atmospheric vicissitudes. There are many instances, 

 in bleak and cold situations, of hundreds being lost 

 in a single night, from neglect of the due precaution 

 of comfortable shelter for as long a time as it may 

 appear to be required. The remedy proposed, on 

 the above authority, is as follows : feathers are but 

 of a year's growth, and in the moulting season they 

 spontaneously fall off, and are supplied by a fresh 

 fleece. When, therefore, the geese are in full 

 feather, let the plumage be removed, close to the 

 skin, by sharp scissors. The produce would not be 

 much reduced in quantity, whilst the quality would 

 be greatly improved, and an indemnification be expe- 

 rienced, in the uninjured health of the fowl, and the 

 benefit obtained to the succeeding crop. Labour also 

 would be saved in dressing, since the quilly portion 

 of the feathers, when forcibly detached from the skin, 

 is generally in such a state, as, after all, to require 

 the employment of scissors. After this operation 

 shall have been performed, the down from the breast 

 may be removed by the same means. 



The time has arrived, I trust, for successful exer- 

 tions in the cause of compassion towards tortured 

 and helpless animals ; and I presume to make a se- 

 rious call on the clergy and leading aristocracy of 

 the districts implicated, for the exercise of their in- 

 fluence in this case, granting the reform to be practi- 

 cable. 



