BREEDING STOCK 



329 



Breeding Stock. — For beauty and elegance the Gray 

 Toulouse and the White Embden surpass all other kinds of 

 geese. It is not unusual for adults of these two breeds to 

 weigh from forty to forty-live pounds per pair. Either 

 kind can be made to 

 weigh from twelve to six- 

 teen pounds each when 

 between eight and nine 

 months old, at which age 

 they are best for table 

 use. 



Geese lay from sixteen 

 to forty eggs each in a 

 single year, averaging 

 about twenty-five eggs 

 each. 



Laying geese do best 

 when not too fat. A 

 mixture of equal parts 

 of corn meal, wheatmid- 

 dlings, wheat bran, and 

 ground oats, with a little 

 animal food mixed in, 

 is best for them. This 

 should be moistened and 

 fed in shallow troughs. 



When corn is fed to them they may be taught to eat dry 

 grain. After the birds become accustomed to this kind 

 of feeding it does not injure them, but they do not thrive so 

 well nor will they make such tender meat as when they 

 receive a meal-mash mixture. Geese are liable to " blind 

 staggers " or choking spells from eating dry grain without 



Fig. 116. — An African gander crossed with 

 Toulouse makes the finest meat fowl. 



