RAISING GEESE. 217 
towgher every year. So if one has a good breeding goose, 
one which does her own duty well, and is reasonably 
peaceable towards other inhabitants of the farm-yard, it 
is best to keep her for years. Sometimes a goosé will be 
very cross, killing ducklings and chickens, attacking 
children, etc. Such a one isa fit candidate for the spit. 
Ganders are generally much worse, and usually one 
more than five or six years old becomes absolutely un- 
Learable. So provision is naturally made to replace the 
old ganders-every three or four years. It is, besides 
necessary to do so, for, though a young gander will at- 
tend four geese very well, an old one confines his atten- 
tions to one only, and often proves infertile at six or 
eight years old, getting crosser all the time.” 
PLUCKING. 
A part of the profit of keeping geese depends upon 
their yield of feathers. When geese are bred carefully 
for exhibition and sale at high prices, only old ones 
should be plucked, and they only once or twice in the 
season. But when raised for market, the old ones may 
be plucked three times, and the young ones once before 
killing time, and the flock ought to yield, on an average, 
18 to 20 ounces of dry feathers, besides considerable 
down at the summer pickings. 
Common geese will yield about a pound of feathers a 
year, if close picked, and they are often picked cruelly 
close. This is unnecessary, for at the right time the 
feathers have a very slight hold, and the operation of 
plucking tnem is painless. 
