FATTENING GEESE. 121 



crosses between the two. Embdens are much the more 

 rapid in gi-owth, and are consequently, like the Ayles- 

 bury in ducks, ready for marketing at an earlier period, 

 the Toulouse not laying on flesh until further advanced. 

 One leading goose-breeder some time ago wrote : 

 "Toulouse goslings grow bone very fast, and, being 

 loose in skin, they soon fill the eye and the exhibition 

 pen, but they are very deceptive weighers when young 

 and raw ; even under favourable circumstances many 

 strains of them will not gather flesh and fat until fully 

 matured, when they can be fed to an enormous size and 

 weight, unsurpassed or unequalled by any other variety. 

 They are, therefore, not so well adapted for early ma- 

 turity, and are seldom fit for the table before Christmas, 

 previous to which they dress very loose and blue in 

 appearance, and are quite out of season as Green or 

 Michaelmas geese. Used, however, as a cross with 

 any other variety of goose the produce mature and 

 fatten very rapidly." 



From this it will be seen how necessary it is to keep 

 in mind the economic qualities of geese, as well as the 

 other branches of live stock. Whilst there are several 

 districts of England where geese are bred to a con- 

 siderable extent, notably Lincolnshire and Cumberland, 

 and, of course, the same is true of Ireland, whose 

 quantities of this fowl probably exceed the other three 

 kingdoms put together, there can be no doubt that the 

 finest come to us from East Anglia, by which term is 

 embraced the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cam- 

 bridgeshire. In these districts many small farmers 

 look to pay their rent from the geese and turkeys 

 raised, but the feeding and management is as a rule left 



