AQUATIC FOWLS. 



243 



ter if soaked and boiled in milk, or lettuce 

 leaves and crusts of bread boiled in milk. On 

 the second day a fresh-cut turf is placed before 

 them, and its fine blades of grass or clover are 

 the first objects which seem to tempt their ap- 

 petites. A little boiled hominy and rice, with 

 bread crumbs, form their food for the first few 

 days ; fresh water in a shallow vessel, which 

 they can dabble in and out without difficulty, 

 being duly provided. Afterward advantage 

 must be taken of a fine warm sun to turn them 

 out on grass for a few hours ; but if cold and 

 damp, they should remain in their house, in 

 which every attention should be paid to cleanli- 

 ness by a constant supply of clean straw. Aft- 

 er two weeks we cease these special precautions 

 against exposure to the weather, and find them 

 perfectly able to shift for themselves, in com- 

 pany with their mothers and the others of their 

 race. For some weeks, however, extra supplies 

 of food, such as bran or corn meal mixed with 

 boiled or steamed vegetables, may be given them 

 twice a day, morning and evening, continuing 

 to give them this food till the wings begin to 

 cross on the back, and after this green food, 

 which may be mixed with it, such as lettuce, 

 cabbage, beet leaves, and such like. The pond 

 is strictly forbidden them under all circum- 

 stances for the first two weeks, and in severe 

 weather for a longer period. Exposure to heavy 

 rain out of doors, and a damp floor in the house 

 where they are placed at night, are the main 

 hazards to be avoided. 



Fatting. With geese and ducks the principle 

 should be to feed well from the earliest period ; 

 and the quality, no less than the quantity, of 

 their flesh will be found to reward the outlay. 

 When put up to feed, an airy out-house, of such 

 dimensions as may be suitable to the number 

 of its intended inmates, is the first requisite; 

 and the process of fatting, we should observe, is 

 more readily accomplished when some ten or a 

 dozen are shut up together, than in the case of 

 two or three only being thus doomed to captiv- 

 ity. The goose is essentially a gregarious bird ; 

 and separation from the remainder of the flock 

 with which it has been accustomed to associate, 

 is apt to induce sulkiness and partial rejection 

 of food, which rarely happens when companions 



are present in sufficient numbers. On this ac- 

 count it is desirable to have the feeding-house 

 at some distance from the run of those birds 

 which are still at large. 



Like other fowls, geese may be brought by 

 proper management to a great degree of fat- 

 ness ; but the period at which they are the fat- 

 test must be chosen to kill them, otherwise they 

 will rapidly become lean again, and many of 

 them would die. 



Geese may be fattened at two different peri- 

 ods of their lives ; in the young state, when 

 they are termed " green geese," and after they 

 have attained their full growth. The methods 

 at each period are very nearly the same. 



A good diet for the first two weeks is formed 

 of oats and water mixed in a trough ; after this 

 the food is gradually changed to barley-meal 

 mixed with water, of the same crumbling con- 

 sistence that has been recommended for the 

 goslings, the water being given separately in 

 small quantities. Steamed potatoes, mashed 

 up with four quarts of buckwheat or oats, 

 ground, to the bushel, and given warm, is an 

 excellent diet, and will render geese cooped 

 in a dark, quiet place, fat enough in three 

 weeks. 



When there are not many geese to fatten, 

 they may be put into a cask with holes bored 

 in it, through which they may thrust their heads 

 to feed ; and being naturally voracious, the love 

 of food is greater than the love of liberty, and 

 they fatten rapidly. The food consists of a 

 paste, made of buckwheat, barley, or Indian 

 meal, with milk and boiled potatoes. 



In Belgium a lean goose is confined in a small 

 coop made of fir, narrow enough to prevent it 

 from turning, while there is a place behind for 

 passing the dung, and another in front to let out 

 the head. Water is supplied in a trough in 

 front, having some bits of charcoal in it to 

 sweeten it. A bushel of Indian corn is consid- 

 ered enough food for a month. It is soaked 

 in water the day before it is used ; and the goose 

 is crammed morning and evening, while it is 

 allowed during the day to eat and drink as 

 much as it chooses. In a month it is seized 

 with difficulty of breathing, and a lump of 

 fat under each wing indicates that it is time 



