318 
TPIE POULTRY BOOK. 
One great advantage of the Chinese geese, over common breeds, is the early 
l^eriod at which they lay, often commencing in January or February. In this case, 
four or five of their eggs may at once he placed under a Cochin or Dorking hen, 
and the owner will be rewarded with young geese fit for the table at a period when 
his neighbours are looking forward for the hatching of their goslings. 
A^'ith regard to the profitable management of geese as farming stock, the most 
sensible and practical directions that we have met with are those published by 
Mr. Trotter in his essay in the ‘Mournal of the Royal Agricultural Society.” These 
remarks we gladly transcribe. 
“ The management of geese is attended with less trouble than any other poultry 
(of course we mean in situations adapted for them) ; their food is of the very 
coarsest kind ; I hesitate not, therefore, to affirm, that the profit arising from them 
is immense. 
e must, in the first place, attempt to set aside the prejudice 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 
therefore 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 ail 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 insisted 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 experiment 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 continues until she 
has from eight to fourteen 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 
fifty, if highly fed. This appears to me very marvellous, for I never succeed in 
getting more than twelve or thirteen 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 picldng 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 nest provided 
for her : having once laid in it, she will seldom seek any other. 
