Money in Broilers and Squabs. 129 



Goose dung brings a high price as a fertilizer in China. 



Ganders occasionally take very peculiar freaks, such as con- 

 ceiving a violent attachment for some inanimate object, as a door, 

 stone, a cart wheel, a plow, or something of a similar nature, when 

 they will spend the greater part of their time sitting beside it or in 

 its company. 



While the young gander often mates with 3 or 4 females, he 

 usually has one particular favorite among the number, whose nest 

 he guards more jealously than those of his other mates, and after 

 some years he is liable to grow so inattentive to all bul the favorite 

 that many of the eggs produced prove to be infertile, and it is more 

 economical to replace him with a younger bird. 



Geese are less liable to disease than any other domestic fowl, 

 which, possibly, may count in some measure for their generally long 

 life. 



Toulouse geese usually lay more eggs in a season than Embden 

 or African geese, but not as many as the best China geese. 



There is a curious plan to determine sex adopted in Cam- 

 bridgeshire. All the geese are shut in a stable or a pig stye; a 

 small dog is then put in. It is said, and we believe with truth, the 

 geese will all lift up their heads and go to the back of the place, 

 while the ganders will lower and stretch out Iheir necks, hissing all 

 the time. 



Morris relates a number of instances where ganders have be- 

 come the inseperable companions of their masters, following them 

 about the fields, on hunting expeditions, and into the streets of a 

 town, like the most devoted dog. He also narrates how faithfully 

 a gander discharged the self imposed duty of guardian and guide 

 to an old blind woman. Whenever she went to church he directed 

 her footsteps into safe paths by takipg hold of her gown with his 

 bill, and during the service he nipped the grass in the cemetery close 

 by, imtil she required his services as guide to return home. 



Ganders fight among themselves whenever one colony intrudes 

 upon the territory of another, and their battles are severely fought, 

 usually with the wings, one gander seizing the other by the first 

 joint of the wing with the bill, and beating him with his wings 

 while thus held. 



Unlike gallinaceous fowls, the goose has practically no crop, 

 although an enlargement of the end of the gullet next the gizzard in 

 some measure serves to hold food, consequently it feeds at very 

 frequent intervals, and during warm weather often eats more at 

 night than during the day time, a point which should be remem- 

 bered in feeding and caring for them. 



If, for any reason, the gander is separated from his mates and 

 placed with others, he will seldom accept them so long as his old 

 mates are anywhere within hearing distance, and, even when they 

 are entirely removed from the premises, it frequntly takes some 

 time before he will become reconciled to his new mates. 



Geese become attached to the locality in which they are kept, 

 and are much disturbed when removed to a new location; hence, 



