w. cook's turkey, goose, and pheasant book. 45 



I have known geese when they have been running about 

 with poultry to keep foxes away in the day-time. I hare 

 often heard of geese driving foxes away, but have never 

 known a fox to kill a goose though I have heard of foxes 

 fetching them away. 



The ganders will detect a strange walk, even though 

 they may not see anyone ; if shut up in a building and 

 a stranger walked past they could tell at once. 



No poultry farm should be without one pen of geese, as 

 they will soon give the warning, both at night and in the 

 daytime, when strangers approach. 



Geese differ very much from any other variety of 

 domestic poultry, as they live upon grass. After the old- 

 birds have done laying in the middle of the summer they 

 will keep in grand condition if they are allowed to run 

 about on a grass field till the next Christmas. After that time 

 they should be fed upon a little grain of some kind to bring 

 them on to lay early. They are very useful to farmers, 

 more so than pigs, to go in the stubble fields to pick up 

 the waste corn. If farmers would breed a large flock of 

 geese they would pay them far better than having so many 

 pigs for the stubble fields, as they want no boy to mind 

 them. They not only eat the loose corn, but a great many 

 weeds also, besides slugs, grubs, and wire-worms. They 

 are about the most useful things a farmer can have for this 

 purpose, as they help to purify the ground so much. 



All early goslings which are not intended for stock 

 purposes should be killed at the end of the summer, about 

 September, or earlier if possible. That is to say, they 

 should all be killed at from ten to thirteen weeks old, as 



