Rearlvg Geese eor Market. 561 



owner's mark punched in the web between the toes, and being attended by a "gozzard" or goose- 

 herd, who drove them home at night and locked them up in their proper domicile. This trade is now 

 greatly circumscribed, though still carried on to some extent, particularly in Surrey, and we believe 

 in Lincolnshire. Most of these geese are plucked alive several times a year ; and we may here 

 remark that the feathers of the Embden are much more valuable than those of the Toulouse 

 or other grey geese, which gives the breed a higher value in this respect. It is not only 

 that white feathers are always most valuable in the market, but the Embden feathers are also 

 found to "curl" better, and the skins of the geese themselves, after being plucked, "positively 

 for the last time only," are whiter or clearer in appearance, which sometimes finds the birds a 

 more ready sale. 



It is however in Norfolk and Suffolk that the goose trade is now carried on upon the largest 

 scale ; and a few particulars of its organisation and management may accordingly be acceptable. 

 Such we accordingly extract from a paper by Mr. Henry H. Dixon, in the " Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England." 



" The goose trade of the great Norfolk dealers resolves itself into two branches — the green 

 geese, and the Michaelmas. In March and April they begin to get in their gosling supplies from 

 farmers or cottagers near the commons in both those counties. Most of these goslings are about 

 five weeks old, and many of them in very poor plight ; but six or seven weeks of feeding under 

 stages, on barley-meal, maize, wheat-tailings, and brewers' grains mixed, make them all ripe for the 

 green goose market. The Michaelmas geese take their places under the stages in August, and 

 Norfolk and Suffolk are pretty well scoured before the dealers fall back upon the Irish and the 

 Dutch supplies. The Dutch, which are principally grey, come from Rotterdam, and one of the 

 largest Norwich dealers imported seventeen tons' weight of live birds last year. They come over by 

 steamers and sailing vessels, packed in big flat baskets, but not to any great extent after the 1st of 

 October. In the dealers' hands tliey are fed on the same principle as ducks — low fare to begin 

 with, and then on a gradually ascending scale. On turnips they are capital substitutes for sheep, 

 and when a dealer has a turnip field, he not unfrequently hurdles off a portion of it and eats it off 

 with them. They first clear the tops and then the bulbs of the softer turnips ; but when they have 

 a field of Swedes to deal with, the man in attendance gives each turnip a chop. With this aid they 

 eat far cleaner than sheep, and, in fact, leave nothing but their " taith," which answers admirably 

 as a preparation for the next wheat crop. Mangels are not so much to their taste as turnips, but 

 they eat the tops with a special relish. While they are busy with these green crops they require 

 nothing but large troughs of water ; and the finishing process consists in putting them under stages 

 for a month, and feeding them on brewers' grains and meak 



" On the western moors of Cornwall every one keeps geese, and they are bought up by jobbers 

 in thousands for the stubbles. Summer Court, on September 25th, is the goose fair of the count}'; 

 but they are only eaten there, and bargains are struck under their savoury influence for draft ewes- 

 and wethers. Farmers all over England are supplied very largely both from Holland and Ireland. 

 Geese are extensively bred in Moravia ; and the hilly districts in Germany and Holland are peopled 

 by a lot of goose farmers, who get their living entirely by them. The Hussenheim goose market is 

 a very large one, and of great antiquity; and, according to local tradition, the town owes its name 

 to the bird of its choice. The Dutch hucksters buy goslings from the cotters — who, like the 

 burghers, are remarkable for turning the penny the right way — at prices varying from one shilling 

 and sixpence to two shillings. They are driven to Rotterdam, where they are packed up in crates, 

 which are capable of holding about fifty or sixty each. Their voyage to Hull b}' the steamers is 

 charged at eighteen shillings per hundredweight, or about ^"5 for 3CO or 4CO birds ; and they are 

 71 



