-±20 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
[COPYBTGHT SECURED.] 
THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES "OF GEES E.— Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
weighing nine pounds has been made to reach 
a weight of twenty pounds in four weeks by 
feeding on turnips alone. Brewers' grains 
boiled afresh are good feed, and oat-meal or 
corn-meal boiled in milk and sweetened with 
molasses will fatten them rapidly. Boiled oats 
and potatoes are also excellent feed, and no 
better use can be made of a stubble field than 
to turn in a flock of geese to pick up the scat- 
tered grain. The waste grain or screenings 
from the thrashing machine should be boiled 
aud fed to geese in preference to any other 
farm animals. While feeding, a plentiful sup- 
ply of coarse gravel should be provided in a 
trough of water; and water should be given 
with liberality. 
The mature goose has no diseases ; and gos- 
lings suffer only from the most careless neglect. 
With a long acquaintance with these birds, we 
never knew or heard of one dying a natural 
death. How long a goose will iive is a ques- 
tion not yet satisfactorily answered. Such a 
bird, which will increase its number twelve or 
twenty up to fifty times each year, which will 
give a crop of feathers twice in a season, the 
flesh of which is worth at least ten cents a 
pound live weight, and which may be fed on 
waste or the least costly food, is surely worthy 
of respect and encouragement. 
There are several varieties of geese, some of 
which may be considered ornamental. The 
engraving represents the different varieties 
commonly kept. The common goose, which 
seems to be a mixture of the white and gray 
goose, is shown in the barn-yard scene in the 
upper center. Beneath is the Embden goose, 
or white variety. This bird is perfectly white, 
and is said to have originated in Holland cen- 
turies ago. The feathers of this variety are the 
most valuable. The Scbastopol goose is shown 
at the upper right-hand corner. This bird has 
a peculiar plumage : the wing feathers are split 
and curled, giving to it a remarkable appear- 
ance, if nothing more. It is pure white. In 
the opposite corner are a pair of China or 
" Knobbed " geese. Their long necks for some 
time caused them to be classed amongst the 
swans, but they at last secured the honor of 
belonging to the more homely but more useful 
family of geese. They may be recognized dur- 
ing the day by their peculiarly shaped head and 
long necks, a dark streak down their necks, 
and their dark gray color ; and by night by the 
frightfully discordant and persistent screams 
with which they wake the echoes and murder 
sleep. Beneath the Chinas are seen the Tou- 
louse or Gray geese, known at sight by their 
greatly developed abdomen, which even in 
yearling birds sweeps the ground. Opposite 
them are the wild geese — the most graceful of 
all these graceless birds. They are pleasingly 
marked with black, and although very wild in 
their habits they have been known to descend 
amongst a flock of tame birds and inter-breed. 
Such an occurrence took place with a flock of 
our own several years ago in a Western State, 
and several goslings were raised marked like 
the wild gander. A very usual fate which 
happens to them during the migration of these 
birds is told in the left lower corner of the en- 
graving. Opposite to it is shown an example 
of the sagacity with which the cautious gander 
circumvents the tricks of the wily fox, " playing 
'possum " as a means of gaining a supper ; bat 
alas ! although a goose can save its neck from 
a fox, yet at last it becomes the spoil of the 
marketman, and finally retires gracefully from 
view amidst the festivities of the holidays. 
