250 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



"I find, by reference to my father's notes, 

 that, in 1826, and in order to mark his property 

 indelibly, he took one of his favorite imported 

 geese, and, with the instrument used for cutting 

 gun-waddings, made a hole through the web of 

 the left foot. This was done on the 26th of 

 June; and now, in 1850, the same goose, with 

 the perforation in her foot, is running about in 

 his poultry-yard, in as fine health and vigor as 

 any of her progeny. She has never failed to 

 lay from twelve to sixteen eggs every year, for 

 the last twenty-seven years, and has always been 

 an excellent breeder and nurse, as has all of the 

 stock and offspring connected with her. I had 

 the curiosity to weigh one of her brood of 1849, 

 when nine months old exactly, and his weight, 

 in feather, sent up 22 pounds in the opposite 

 scale. 



"In 1832 a bull-dog killed several of my fa- 

 ther's geese, and among them the two ganders 

 originally imported. For the last eighteen years 

 he has bred by his young ganders putting them 

 indiscriminately to parents and sisters and re- 

 serving the best of the produce, male and fe- 

 male, for breeding. In so doing, he has never 

 experienced any deterioration in weight, feath- 

 er, or stamina, as has been exemplified in the 

 above-mentioned instance of the nine-months' 

 old gander, so produced, and whose food was 

 almost exclusively grass. 



" As quality of flesh, combined with weight, 

 is a main consideration, I wish to mention, re- 

 garding the former, that the flesh of the Bremen 

 (Embden) goose is very different from that of 

 any of our domestic varieties. It does not par- 

 take of that dry character which belongs to the 

 other and more common kinds, but is as tender 

 and juicy as the flesh of a wild fowl ; besides, it 

 shrinks less in the process of cooking than that 

 of any other fowl. Some of the keenest epi- 

 cures have declared that the flesh of the Bre- 

 men (Embden) goose is equal, if not superior, 

 to that of the Canvas-back duck.(?) There is 

 assuredly some comfort, not uncombined with 

 ease, in carving a bird that weighs seventeen 

 pounds, and taking a slice from the breast so 

 long as to be obliged to cut it in two that one- 

 half may cover no more than the width of a 

 common dinner-plate. 



"The Embden goose inclines to commeme 

 laying at an earlier period than this northern 

 latitude favors, which is in the latter part oi 

 February. To give the young fair play, it i.-. 

 advisable that hatching should be finished be- 

 fore the first of June. The mode of prevention 

 used by my father is as follows : 



" The whole of the breeding stock, male and 

 female, are put into a dark room say about 

 the 20th of February and kept there until 

 about the 10th day of April. When in durance 

 they are well fed once a day with corn, and al- 

 lowed sufficient water all along to drink. Once 

 a week they are allowed to get out for one hour 

 to wash and plume themselves, and are then 

 shut up again. While thus confined, they lose 

 the inclination to breed, and do not assume it 

 while they are kept shut up ; but in eight or ten 

 days after they are set at liberty the disposition 

 returns, and they commence laying. 



" The mode adopted by my father to bring 

 the broods of goslings forth in one day is as 

 under, and has been followed by him for many 

 years with unvarying results. In 1840 he had 

 four ganders and ten geese for breeding pur- 

 poses. At that time he had as many as thirty 

 milk-cows in one stable, the large door of which 

 opened upon the farm lane. Directly in front 

 of this door he had boxes, or nests, in which 

 the geese laid their eggs. These boxes I will 

 describe in course. The man who had charge 

 of the cows had also the care of the geese, and 

 he worked by the following instructions : First, 

 the geese were to be carefully and properly fed. 

 Secondly, the eggs were to be removed in the 

 most gentle manner every day from the nests, 

 and placed in a basket of cotton, which was 

 kept in a moderate temperature and free from 

 damp. When all the geese had begun to sit 

 steadily, each was furnished with a nest com- 

 posed of chopped straw, and care was taken 

 that the nest was sufficiently capacious. The 

 eggs were then set, and the geese allowed to sit 

 upon them. 



" Strict attention was enjoined on the attend- 

 ant not to allow more than one of the geese to 

 leave her eggs at a time. As soon as one leaves 

 the nest she makes a cackling noise, which was 

 to be the signal for the man in attendance to 



