562 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



not fed until they are landed, and then with oats. From Hull they are forwarded to central market 

 towns in railway trucks, each of which is capable of holding 230 birds. A small per-centage 

 of the more weakly ones die from being trampled on ; and these casualties, with the expense of 

 transit and sale attendants, bring up the price to about three shillings and ninepence, when they 

 are pitched in the market during August and September. The Irish collections are managed on a 

 similar principle. If the goslings are purchased within reasonable distance of Dublin or Dundalk 

 they are driven to those ports, and if not, they are sent by rail. Liverpool, like Hull, is quite a 

 ' board of supply ' for English dealers during the season." 



Little more can be said regarding the management of the domestic goose. We have already 

 remarked that the large size and strength of the bi rd make interference out of place during incubation, 

 -such being almost certain to endanger the offspring; and the important part played by simple grazing 

 in the diet, with the hardy character of the young, make any minute directions equally needless for 

 rearing. Give them the very few essentials described, and they can hardly go wrong ; though we 

 must add, that we would akvays supplement the grass feed by a handful or two of corn at night, 

 when they are, of course, shut up in a house or pen for safety. In choosing stock for breeding, 

 most good breeders select the longest-bodied birds, such being found by experience to produce the 

 largest and heaviest offspring. As in the case of turkeys, very much depends upon keeping up 

 and breeding from a large, fine, matured stock. With regard, however, to producing birds for 

 market purposes solely, we would direct special attention to the following remarks by Mr. Hewitt, 

 which will sufficiently exhaust the subject of geese considered as market poultry : — 



"It will be pretty generally admitted that, with the exception of some few breeds of highly- 

 plumaged foreign and two or three varieties of native wild geese, all other geese are usually kept 

 more with the view of profit than as being strictly ornamental. It may therefore here benefit others 

 to make a few suggestions, the result of experience gained long prior to poultry-shows being in 

 vogue, and when the matter of breeding geese was pursued simply from rivalry and its utility. I 

 am convinced bej-ond question, after many trials, that the finest geese are those procurable from a 

 ' cross ' between the Embden and Toulouse ; and I much prefer the whole of the gccsc to be 

 thorough-bred Embdens, and the gander an equally pure Toulouse. 



" By this first cross birds of great frame are procurable, and, under constant high feeding, of 

 weights very far beyond those of either of the parents producing them. I have as a rule, between 

 Michaelmas and Christmas, killed birds of the same year thus bred, the geese being from seventeen 

 to twenty pounds each, and the ganders from twenty-two to twentyrsix pounds. It must be kept 

 in mind such goslings were not excessively fatted, as the weights might suggest to some persons, 

 but rather like Shropshire sheep, more remarkable for the immense quantity of flesh they carried 

 than their obesity. The flavour of these cross-breds is remarkably mild and fine. These first-cross 

 goslings must, however, not be retained as future stock birds, for they themselves produce young of 

 very inferior size, by throwing back. 



" Geese are prolific for numbers of years ; and I believe ganders would prove equally so, were 

 it not that their irritable temper, as age creeps on, generally compels their owners ' to do away 

 with the old gander,' as having become an intolerable nuisance, more especially when teased whilst 

 young. This obstacle, however, is of little moment ; the rule to be observed is, breed continuously 

 (year after year) from the same old stock, which are purely descended, and kill off annnally all W\& 

 cross produce for table or market purposes. If the old birds are truly bred of their respective 

 kinds, the goslings almost without exception will be ' saddle-backed ' in the feather, with the head 

 and upper portion of the neck grey, and a patch of the same colour on the thighs, the whole of the 

 remainder of the plumage being white. Singularly enough, the majority of the young ganders 



