124 Money in' Broilers and Squabs. 



expert, dressing off from 20 to 25 a day. The product is shippedto 

 New York and Boston ; sometimes the demand is better in one city 

 md sometimes in the other. The poultry are dry picked, and feath- 

 ers sold being kept until winter and shipped all together. Goose 

 feathers are usually worth about 35 cents per pound. Mr. Cornell, 

 Dwner of this establishment, said that last year he fatted about 10,- 

 Doo geese and about 4,000 ducks, not so many as usual, as it was 

 a poor season. He feeds 100 bushels meal per day, and two tons 

 meat scraps per week. He does not coop them in houses to fatten, 

 but lets them out in yards about 30 to 40 feet square. He employs 

 B pickers and 3 or 4 men to take care of the geese. He pays 10 cents 

 for picking. 



Green geese are also called Boston geese, says Rural New- 

 Yorker, not because they all come from that city, but because they 

 resemble in style of carcass and dressing the geese from that local- 

 ity, that established a reputation years ago. 



The Boston geese are usually dressed with the tail and wing 

 feathers left on, and a ruff around the neck. 



An abdominal pouch of great size indicates great age. This 

 sign is useful in purchasing breeding birds. 



P. H. Wilbur gives the average product per goose for 8 years, 

 on his farm, at $7.48. 



The Canada goose, mated with the domestic goose, produces 

 goslings commonly called mongrels, and sometimes termed "mules," 

 because of the fact that they are sterile. 



It is occasionally true that a mongrel goose when kept for two 

 or more years will lay a few eggs, but we have no knowledge that 

 goslings have ever been hatched from eggs laid by a mongrel goose. 



Geese only one year old are not mature as breeders. The 

 females lay a less number of eggs, of smaller size, and a greater pro- 

 portion is usually infertile than is generally the case with females 

 two or three years old. 



Ganders and geese are much attached to their mates and seldom 

 prove unfaithful. Alismating and remating are often unsuccessful 

 unless old mates are separated beyond sight and hearing of each 

 other. 



Under natural conditions, geese copulate while in water, and 

 when Canada geese are kept for the production of mongrels, water 

 for swimming purposes is considered necessary, in order that fertile 

 eggs may be produced. 



According to the Rhode Island census for 1895, each breeding 

 goose (male or female) produced in goslings and feathers an average 

 return of $6.76, which represents 371.42 per cent, upon the value of 

 the breeding stock. 



Two common varieties of domestic geese, Embden and Toul- 

 ouse, are without doubt descended from the wild "Graylag goose," 

 (Anser Ferus) of England and the Continent. Two other breeds. 

 Brown China and White China, are derived from an Asiatic species 

 known as the Anser cygnoides, and it is quite possible that the Afri- 

 can goose may have descended from the same original type. 



