286 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July. 
Toulouse Geese. 
The common gray goose possesses the 
markings of its parent, the wild goose of 
Europe and Asia, known in England as the 
‘ ‘ Gray Lag. ” The fine variety of which we 
give an engraving (page 285) has the same 
colors, except that the dark plumage is of 
much richer hues, and, by contrast, at least, 
the light feathers whiter, while the bill and 
legs are of a deep orange color. The Tou¬ 
louse Geese early develop a deep-hanging fold 
of skin pendant, like the keel of a boat, be¬ 
neath the body. The evidence that the breed 
originated in the vicinity of Toulouse, in 
France, is meagre. Nevertheless, we cannot 
countenance the suggestion that they re¬ 
ceived their name because their skin was too 
loose for them. The first of the variety 
which were seen in England, came, it ■ is 
said, from Marseilles, in the south of France. 
Those purchased probably came from Tou¬ 
louse to Marseilles, for this name is applied 
to no distinct Variety in France. 
Toulouse Geese, when not inordinately 
forced for exhibition, are hardy, early lay¬ 
ers, and reasonably prolific, often raising two 
broods of goslings a year. The young early 
take care of themselves on good pasture, and 
grow with astonishing rapidity. It is not 
well to let them depend wholly upon grass, 
but at first to give a little wet-up oat-meal 
daily, and afterwards a few oats or handfuls 
of barley, thrown into a trough or shallow 
pool, to which they have access. Geese bear, 
with little danger, any degree of pampering 
and stuffing, but in our experience this is 
likely to produce such accumulations of in¬ 
ternal fat as to prevent fecundity. These 
fine fowls attain, on a good grass range, 
nearly double the weight of common geese, 
and, forced by high feeding, a pair have been 
known to reach the weight of 60 pounds. 
Twenty-pound geese are not rare. Early gos¬ 
lings, if well fed, will attain that weight at 
Christmas, and even a 10-pound “green gos¬ 
ling ” is a delicacy which might well suggest 
the devout proverb of the Germans, that a 
“ Good roast goose is a good gift of God.” 
The fact is, that common geese make a poor 
show upon the table unless they are very fat. 
This is distasteful to many persons, and they 
can hardly be very fat before the late au¬ 
tumn, because we need grain to fatten them. 
With this variety, however, and the Emb- 
den, which matures early and attains a great 
weight also, it is different; the goslings are 
heavy before they are fat, carry a good deal 
of flesh, and are tender and delicious early 
in the season, when simply grass-fed, or hav¬ 
ing had but little grain. 
In breeding geese, the surplus stock of 
goslings are killed off every year. None need 
be saved for wintering and breeding, except 
it may be well to keep one or two fine geese 
to take the places of old birds killed or hurt 
by some accident. Geese lay regularly, brood 
and rear their goslings well for fifty to eighty 
years, and it is said grow tougher every year. 
So if one has a good breeding goose, one 
which does her own duty well, and is rea¬ 
sonably peaceable towards other inhabitants 
of the farm-yard, it is best to keep her for 
years. Sometimes a goose will be very cross, 
killing ducklings and chickens, attacking 
children, etc. Such an one is a fit candidate 
for the spit. Ganders are generally much 
worse, and usually one more than five or six 
years old becomes absolutely unbearable. So 
provision is naturally made to replace the old 
ganders every three or four years. It is be¬ 
sides necessary to do so, for, though a young 
gander will attend four geese very well, an 
old one confines his attentions to one only, 
and often proves infertile at six or eight 
years old, getting crosser all the time. 
A part of the profit of keeping geese de¬ 
pends upon their yield of feathers. When 
geese are bred carefully for exhibition and 
sale at high prices, only old ones should be 
plucked, and they only once or twice in the 
season. But when raised for market, the old 
ones may be plucked three times, and the 
young ones once before killing time, and the 
flock ought to yield, on an average, an ag¬ 
gregate of 18 to 20 ounces of dry feathers, 
besides considerable down, at the summer 
pickings. Common geese will yield about a 
pound of feathers a year, if close picked, 
and they are often picked cruelly close. This 
is unnecessary, for at the right time the 
feathers have a very slight hold, and the 
operation of plucking them is painless. 
A Frame for a Horse-Fork. 
Mr. Frederick Johnson, Clinton Co., Ill., 
sends us a sketch and description of the meth¬ 
od of putting up the hay crop, that is much 
practised in his vicinity. He writes: “We 
shock our hay as soon as possible after it is 
cut, barely giving it time to wilt. If the 
weather is favorable, it remains in the shock 
two days, when it is stacked, and if it is well 
done, it looks bright and green. If bad 
weather is coming on, we stack in the after¬ 
noon what has been cut in the forenoon, tak¬ 
ing it up from the sward with a hay-gatherer, 
but it is best to leave it in shocks for at least 
two days. The derrick is a simple affair, and 
saves a vast amount of hard labor. It is 
placed on two sticks of timber, shaped like 
sleigh-runners at the ends, so that it will 
drag easily from one stack to another. The 
mast, a, b, is 22 feet high, and the cross¬ 
piece, c, d, 16 feet long ; it rests on the mid¬ 
dle stringer, and an iron pin keeps it in place 
at a ; pulleys are placed at c, d, and h; with 
the braces and collar, the derrick is complete. 
When ready for stacking, place the derrick 
two feet from the stack bottom, always on 
the side, and draw the hay up at the end. (I 
make the stacks 10 feet wide, and 20 feet 
long.) Drop the hay in the center of the 
stack, and the stack will stand straight when 
it settles.” The structure and method of 
operation of the derrick is shown in the 
engraving which is given above. 
Poultry—Food and Feeding. 
BY D. Z. EVANS JR. 
Poultry breeders, as a rule, pay too little 
attention to food and feeding, which accounts, 
in a great measure, for the frequently meagre 
profits—if there be any at all—from the fowls. 
Those who exercise care and judgment in 
all the varied details of poultry management, 
have the best balance to show at the end of 
each season. While almost every other matter 
connected with the breeding and rearing of 
poultry has had particular attention paid to 
it, corn has been the rule, and the quantity, 
quality and time of feeding, has seldom been 
considered worthy of attention. Fowls with 
unlimited range, securing most of their liv¬ 
ing during the late spring, summer, and 
the early fall months, do not suffer from the 
feed so much, as do birds penned up during 
the entire breeding season, at least within 
the narrow confines of a small yard or run, 
and dependent entirely on their owner for the 
quantity and quality of their food. Pure¬ 
bred fowls are those which suffer the most 
from neglect. In most cases, 
Special Foods 
are desirable. Laying hens or pullets, do not 
require such food as will induce them to ac¬ 
quire a superabundance of fat, for this at a 
certain stage pre¬ 
vents the produc¬ 
tion of eggs, render¬ 
ing the birds slug¬ 
gish, and disposed 
to fatal diseases. 
When the birds are 
to be fattened for 
immediate con¬ 
sumption, then 
strong, fat-produc¬ 
ing food is needed, 
and in liberal quan¬ 
tities. Corn, in its 
different forms, is 
the best and cheap¬ 
est, no doubt, for 
this purpose, while 
for laying hens, 
wheat, wheat- 
screenings, etc., are preferable, and gener¬ 
ally used by successful poultry breeders. 
Aside from its being better than corn, wheat 
is also as cheap. One of the greatest helps to 
successful poultry management, and one up¬ 
on which frequently hinges the question of 
profit or loss, is 
Regularity in Feeding 
the stock. This is readily proved by dividing 
the flock, and feeding each lot with the same 
kind and quantity of food, giving one the 
food at regular intervals, and giving the 
other lot their rations when it is the most 
convenient. In two or three weeks, carefully 
note the result, and it will surprise even the 
most casual observer. By feeding those 
fowls which have full liberty at regular times, 
all are sure to return home on time, thus 
preventing straying of the birds. This rule 
is especially good with turkeys, which are 
naturally such great strollers. In summer, 
six A. M., and six P. M. are very good times, 
though it is generally best to make the even¬ 
ing feed about five o’clock, or a little before, 
where it can be conveniently done. On 
grain farms, where the fowls are permitted 
to stroll around at will, one feed a day, in 
the evening, is all the birds require. There 
is some little art, if so we may style it, in 
A METHOD or GATHERING AND STACKING HAY. 
