On the Rearing and Management of Poultry. 



193 



The 2:uinea-fowl, not only from its pugnacity but also from its 

 habit of laying from home, is exceedingly troublesome; in some 

 situations it would be imprudent to keep it. It is also very diffi- 

 cult to prevent it from flying into the garden, where it is very 

 destructive. 



In appearance it is considerably larger than the common fowl, 

 but after the feathers are taken off there is very little difference. 



Geese. — The management of geese is attended with less trouble 

 than any other poultry (of course we mean in situations adapted for 

 them) ; its food is of the very coarsest kind ; I hesitate not, there- 

 fore, to affirm that the profit arising from them is immense. 



We must, in the first place, attempt to set aside the pre- 

 judice which both ancient and modern writers have displayed 

 against those which are parti-coloured. In the neighbourhood 

 surrounding us large numbers are reared every year ; we there- 

 fore have many opportunities of judging of the various qualities 

 of the different colours to warrant us to come to conclusions 

 without following in the path of compilers. I would as soon 

 breed from a parti-coloured goose as from one all of the same 

 colour. We had a grey and white goose which for successive 

 seasons had two broods ; the first never falling short of twelve 

 (a number not one goose in twenty produces), and generally five, 

 six, or seven, the second brood. 



Geese are kept not for the production of eggs for sale, but for 

 the purpose of hatching ; the number of geese to one gander 

 should not therefore exceed four. It is said, and strongly in- 

 sisted on, if the goose be not in water when receiving proofs of 

 the attachment of her male companion, that the eggs will not 

 be fertile ; we cannot speak to this, never having tried the ex- 

 periment of keeping them from the water ; however, it is received 

 as a fact, and some go so far as to drive the goose to the water 

 with her mate as soon as she leaves the nest. 



The goose commences to lay in February or March, and con- 

 tinues until she has from 8 to 14 eggs. Some writers assert 

 that, by removing the eggs from the nest as fast as they are laid, 

 she may be induced to lay as far as 50, if highly fed. This 

 appears to me very marvellous, for I never succeed in getting 

 more than 12 or 13 from one goose. The eggs are removed as 

 soon as the goose leaves the nest ; and I think it impossible 

 for geese to be better fed than ours. 



The approach of the laying season is known by the goose 

 picking up and throwing about her straws or small sticks or by 

 picking lime off walls. As soon as this is observed, a nest 

 should be provided for her in the same house in which she has 

 to sit. Every morning she must be examined ; when she has to 

 lay she must be kept in, and if possible compelled to lay in the 



VOL. XII. o 



