EARLY LAYING. 119 



ing stock. The goose sits upon her eggs from 

 twenty-seven to thirty days, covering from eleven to 

 fifteen eggs. A nest should be prepared for her in 

 a secure place, as soon as carrying straw in her bill, 

 and other tokens, declare her readiness to lay. The 

 earliness and warmth of the spring are the general 

 causes of the early laying of geese, which is of con- 

 sequence, since there may be time for two broods 

 within the season, not however a common occur- 

 rence ; and which happening successively for two or 

 three seasons, has occasioned some persons, formerly, 

 to set a high price upon their stock, as if of a pecu- 

 liar and more valuable breed than the common. The 

 method, however, to attain this advantage is, to feed 

 breeding geese high throughout the winter, with 

 solid corn, and on the commencement of the breed- 

 ing season, to allow them boiled barley, malt, fresh 

 grains, and fine pollard mixed up with ale, or other 

 stimulants. In 1829, Mr. W. Holmes, of Spalding- 

 ton Lanes, near Howden, Yorkshire, had a goose 

 in his possession, which within the twelve months, 

 laid seventy eggs ; twenty-six at the usual time of in- 

 cubation, from which she hatched and brought up 

 seventeen fine goslings. She began to lay again at 

 the end of harvest, and continued to lay every other 

 day to the end of the year. She is still in high 

 condition. Instances are said to have occurred of a 

 goose laying upwards of one hundred eggs within the 

 year. 



With a good GANDER present, no mischief can 

 happen to the sitting geese, without extraordinary 

 alarm, he sitting sentinel at the chamber-door of his 



