Money in Broilers and Squabs. 127 



After being picked, it will take six weeks for the geese to grow 

 and ripen a new crop of feathers. 



A pair of Toulouse geese, says the Fanciers' Review, will turn 

 off about two dollars worth of feathers in a year. 



While the feathers are developing, the quill is filled with bloody 

 matter, which is an evidence that it is not ripe. 



The Fanciers' Review gives this method for picking live geese : 

 Having taken up your bird, draw a long bag or stocking over its^ 

 head and down on its neck, as it will prevent it wreaking its ven- 

 geance on you by its merciless biting. The wings are also formida- 

 ble weapons and must be held or their blows will leave many black 

 and blue marks as evidence of their power. When picking, take all 

 the small feathers, leaving the large ones, except four or five under 

 each wing, which prevents them from drooping; take of? all the 

 down only in warm weather. 



White goose feathers are more valuable than colored ones. 



Some geese raisers pluck their birds every four or six weeks. 



In Strasburg, a place celebrated for its pies, the geese have a 

 shepherd to tend them as sheep have. 



According to an experiment tried in Rhode Island, fall-sown 

 rye, spring sown oats and peas, and sweet corn, will furnish pasture 

 sufficient for two hundred geese per acre. 



Matthieu, the cook of Cardinal de Rohan, was the first who sug- 

 gested the use of the liver of the goose for pies. 



In Europe the liver of the goose is much esteemed, which is 

 sold to pie makers who make of it the well known pies. 



Goose livers in Europe command as high as $4 per dozen. 



Newman thinks there is money in raising goose livers for the 

 New York markets. 



Hanover Ganze Biuste (Hanover smoked geese breasts) sell in 

 Europe in the finest delicatessan stores at 80 cents to $1 a pound. 



Vegetables and cut clover hay should be in the bill of fare. 



Geese are profitable layers up until 12 years of age. 



Feeding too much corn in winter unfits the birds for breeding. 



Too much grain induces too early laying, causing infertility of 

 eggs. 



The gander don't have a curled feather in the tail, as does the 

 drake. 



The first green goose in the New York and Boston markets 

 bring from 18 to 25 cents a pound. 



Mr. Newman says it is a wrong belief that geese or their drop- 

 pings will kill grass or destroy a pasture. If you have a large flock 

 of geese and a small pasture, they will clean it up. That is, they 

 will eat the grass as fast as it sprouts, and give it no chance to grow, 

 just as a cow on a city lot will soon have only bare ground, and you 

 have to tie her out in the road. If you could do the same with 

 geese, you would find the grass coming again and growing as be- 

 fore. 



Writing in the Country Gentleman, Prof. Samuel Cushman 

 says : It is useless to attempt to raise geese successfully if they are 



