CHAPTER XLI 

 G£ESE 



Virtues of Geese.— It is pretty safe to say that we Americans 

 do not raise enough geese, and do not fully appreciate their 

 possibilities. Like the guinea, the goose is not taken seriously 

 enough by the average farmer ; yet there is no kind of livestock 

 that can be fed with so little loss, and so little attention, and 

 that requires such inexpensive equipment, as the goose. They 

 are heir to very little sickness; in fact, a gosling one week old 

 is virtually a grown bird, requiring little else but a stretch of 

 pasture over which to roam and forage for itself. 



Need of Grazing Land. — ^That goose raising is not practised 

 so extensively as duck growing is probably due to the fact that 

 geese require an abundance of grazing land, and will thrive best 

 where there is a certain amount of water. They are the most 

 persistent grazers of any kind of poultry, and though they prefer 

 meadowland rich in plant life, which will sustain them in prime 

 condition, they are, nevertheless, capable of adapting themselves 

 to poor, waste land on which, perhaps, no other form of live- 

 stock could be supported. For this reason alone they should be 

 considered by farmers, especially those who have tidewater 

 farms, or low land bordering on rivers or ponds. A day's ride 

 through the Eastern Shore section of Maryland will convince 

 the most skeptical that there must be profit in geese, for nearly 

 every farm will be seen to have its flock. Man}- times, when 

 other crops have proved disastrous, the returns from the geese 

 have been the mainstay of these farmers. 



There are seven standard varieties of geese: Gray Toulouse, 

 White Emden, Gray African, Brown Chinese, White Chinese, 

 Wild or Canadian, and Colored Egyptian. Of these, the first 



528 



