220 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
FAKM SURROUNDINGS. 
NUMBER VII—GEESE DUCKS AND PIGEONS. 
Next in size to the turkey, in the poultry line, is 
the goose. Now the common goose, one of the 
road-ranging, fence-creeping, cackling, squalling 
tribe of nuisances that infest every highway, al¬ 
ley, and common, where a shanty is squatted down, 
or a lawless family chooses to harbor them to 
the annoyance of well-to-do, honest, country peo¬ 
ple, we have nothing to say about. They have no 
business in the highway at any rate, nor in any¬ 
body's premises where there is not plenty of water 
accommodation, and a close pasture for them. 
They were, to be sure, in past days, good for their 
feathers, when people knew no better than to sleep 
on feather beds, and had no more humanity than to 
pluck the poor brutes three or four times a year of 
their coverings to make them with. Feathers are 
good and useful, indeed, now-a-days, for various 
purposes, but not according to our notions, to be 
obtained in the barbarous manner we have named. 
Geese may be kept to decided advantage where 
water abounds, bordered by good pasturage. On 
sluggish, sedgy streams, for instance, or ponds, or 
brooks, or bays—anywhere, in fact, where water is 
accessible, and their presence will do no harm. 
Their flesh is excellent and nutritious; and al¬ 
though we have known many people who think a 
goose not fit for the table, yet he who knows not 
the virtues of a fine young “ roast goose with apple 
sauce,” knows little of one of the greatest luxuries 
that can be set before him. Therefore, with the 
conveniences above stipulated, the goose is a part 
of our domestic economy and farm stock. Yet, ad¬ 
mitting the goose to our premises, it is by no 
means to be the vulgar, common thing we have de¬ 
scribed at the beginning. It should be of the most 
refined and aristocratic varieties—the barn-yard 
aristocracy we mean—and such as in its appear¬ 
ance and habits will be creditable to your good 
taste and judgment, a few of which we will de¬ 
scribe. 
The Bremen is a large fine bird, of twenty pounds 
weight at full size and age ; white in color, both 
male and female; domestic and quiet in habit ; 
full in body and shape; delicate in flesh ; and will 
give you a gosling that at six months old weighs 
twelve or fifteen pounds when well fed and dressed. 
It is hardy, a good layer, a faithful nurse, and every 
way a fine bird. A Bremen gander put with two or 
three well-selected common geese, will breed you a 
five drove of goslings, when you cannot have a suf¬ 
ficiency of thorough-bred females to raise a supply 
for the table. 
The African, or Hong-Kong, is the largest and 
noblest bird of the goose tribe. It will weigh 
twenty-five pounds at maturity, has a delicate 
flesh, and will take on fat amazingly at an early 
age. The beauty of its ashy plumage, commencing 
with the dark stripe down its head, and neck, from 
its high knobbed, black bill, down to its body, long, 
arching, and swan-like, with golden iris round its 
deep hazle eye, and capacious form as it sets grace¬ 
fully on the water, make it a noble bird. Its cry', 
too, is musical, and where plenty of water can be 
allowed for its marine exercises, it is a beautiful 
object to look upon, and have about you. It has 
nearly the grace and quite the beauty, on the wa¬ 
ter, of a swan. 
The White China is less in size, about half that 
of the African, but equally beautiful on land or 
water, and, in form, like it in all particulars. It is 
enow white in plumage, with an orange bill and 
legs, and a voice clear and clarion in its cry, like 
the other. 
The Black China is less than the White in size, 
darker in color than the African, with black bill 
and legs,—.a wonderful noisy, busy-body, yet very 
domestic and kind in its habits, and its cry the same 
as the others. 
All these foreign tribes of geese arc hardy; but 
they lay too early in our climate, and for that rea¬ 
son are shy breeders. Thus they should be kept 
as ornaments, chiefly, to the place, and to grace 
your park, pasture, and water. Either variety of 
these ganders are valuable to cross with the com¬ 
mon goose, to give you a fine flock of goslings in 
the Fall of the year, the mother being equally pro¬ 
lific, thus crossed, as if bred with a common gan¬ 
der, and the gosling much better fleshed. We 
have reared all those varieties in their purity, and 
in crosses, for many years past, and are perfectly 
satisfied with them as an ornamental and useful 
bird. The hybrids, or mongrels of either sex will 
not breed, and therefore should be brought to the 
table before they are a year old. 
DUCKS. 
The Duck stands next in our category of water 
fowls; and the ordinary household duck is so com¬ 
mon a thing in its human companionship about the 
habitations of many people, and as a table dish, 
that it is hardly necessary to describe it. For 
rearing them conveniently and profitably, an al¬ 
lowance of water is needed, although not in such a 
quantity as for the goose. There are several supe¬ 
rior kinds of the duck besides the common, such 
as the Iiouen, the Aylesbury, and perhaps another 
or two—all of large size, beautiful plumage, and 
excellent flesh, which may be cultivated for fancy, 
and their fine aqipearance. If you want to know 
particulars about any of these, we refer you to our 
friend, John Giles, Esq., of Woodstock, Conn., who 
has a taste and fancy in all kinds of fowl that few 
people possess, and keeps every variety worth 
having which he can lay his hands upon, both for¬ 
eign and domestic. The rest the books will tell 
you. We commend these fine birds to all those 
who have the proper conveniences for keeping 
them; and although not so stately and ornamen¬ 
tal as the African and Chinese Geese, in a pond, or 
a lake, they furnish a decided ornament to a near 
water view, aside from their excellence as an arti¬ 
cle of diet. We like ducks about the place, de¬ 
cidedly, when kept away from the door-yard. 
PIGEONS. 
These graceful and familiar birds fill a depart¬ 
ment not at all occupied by any other class of poul¬ 
try usually kept. They are beautiful objects, fly¬ 
ing and alighting about the premises, hovering 
over the out-buildings and yards, picking up the 
scattered fragments thrown out among the larger 
stock, or left in the grain fields, and when proper 
conveniences can be furnished, they should always 
be a part of the feathered population of the home¬ 
stead. They are excellent for the table, particu¬ 
larly the “ squabs,” just as they are fully feather¬ 
ed, which is decidedly the best age for that pur¬ 
pose. They will breed five or six times a year, 
and with a trifle of attention multiply amazingly. 
As to varieties, there are many; and those who 
have a taste for the fancy kinds may choose among 
either, or all, of Carriers, Tumblers, Fantails, Pou¬ 
ters, or whatever other variety may be named. 
Yet, be it understood, that as all the family are 
gregarious, flying and intermixing with each other 
in their neighborhood rambles, the fancy breeds 
must be confined and kept strictly with themselves, 
or the whole dove-cote will in a short time be of 
every variety, color and complexion belonging to 
either. The trouble, therefore, of keeping fancy 
kinds must be well considered before it is under¬ 
taken ; and if you keep but one variety of fancy 
pigeons, even in case they fly at large, the chances 
are that as your neighbors breed only the common 
kind, they will, in a few months, become so inter¬ 
mixed that your pleasure in the production of the 
pure fancy bird will be destroyed. Therefore, un¬ 
less your accommodations be remarkably good for 
keeping them separate, and none of the common 
kind are near to interfere with your own birds, 
you had better adopt only such as are common in 
your vicinity. The fancy pigeons are less hardy, 
and frequently less prolific than the common kind, 
are no better for the table, and, unless you are all 
away by yourself, a great deal of trouble. 
It is a little odd that poultry books do not 
treat of pigeons as they do of other domestic fowls; 
for, among the several treatises in our library—and, 
by the way, for some of these treatises aforesaid 
we have very little respect—we find none that do 
the domestic pigeon even the honor of mention; or, 
if so, they give us no valuable instruction about 
their breeds and modes of rearing.' Fortunately, 
however, the breeding of pigeons is a simple affair. 
A snug box inside of almost any out-building, where 
it is secure from rats, minks, weazels, cats, and 
birds of prey, with a passage out into the open air, 
is all that need be required for common use. These 
boxes and outlets may be multiplied to accommo¬ 
date any number of birds; yet, where an ornamen¬ 
tal dove-cote is desirable, it may be constructed af¬ 
ter any model your taste or fancy may suggest. 
One of the best we ever saw, and which we would 
adopt as a model, were we to construct a new one 
for our own use, we saw at the pleasant farm resi¬ 
dence of Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, D.D., near Lexing¬ 
ton, Ivy., a year ago. It stood by itself, near the 
principal out-buildings of the farm, and consisted 
simply of four posts set in the ground, perhaps fif¬ 
teen high, in a square form, six or eight feet apart. 
About ten feet above the ground were four sills 
framed into the posts, and at six or seven feet 
above them four corresponding plates on the top of 
them. Over these plates was thrown a roof in the 
common way. The sides all round between the 
sills and plates, was securely boarded up, and on 
the sills was laid a floor. One front of the huge 
box or house, as it now became, after being so in¬ 
closed, was pierced with tiers of pigeon holes, out¬ 
side and inside of which were shelves for lighting 
upon. On the opposite side to the entrances was 
the door to admit the person having charge of the 
house. On the other two sides, within, were tiers 
of continuous partitioned boxes built over each oth¬ 
er, with eight or ten inches space between to ad¬ 
mit examination, and the taking out of the birds. 
Thus, on their entrance into the cote, the whole 
space was in common for each pair to select then' 
own nesting apartment, scores of which, when we 
saw them, were occupied by eggs and young birds. 
That the plan was a good one was proved by 
the multitude of pigeons inhabiting it, which had 
made it for years their domicil. A flight of mova¬ 
ble steps ascended to the door on the rear, which 
was secured by a lock; and the steps removed, the 
cote was rat proof. In the severest Winters a 
dove cote on this plan might be too cold, and in the 
excessive heat of Summer too hot; but with an in 
sidelining, and a body of tan-bark, or saw-dust, be¬ 
tween that and the outer boarding, the extremes of 
heat and cold would be avoided. A dove-cote of 
this kind might be made quite ornamental among 
the out-buildings of the place, as well as to serve 
the purpose of simple utility. 
Pigeons are usually great favorites with children, 
and where the children are, if not too troublesome, 
pigeons should be kept; or, to the country dweller, 
generally, they are useful and agreeable appenda¬ 
ges to the homestead. We have kept them many 
years, we love their companionship, and would not 
willingly be without them. 
We ought, perhaps, to apologize for treating so 
much at length on creatures which may, by many, 
be thought trivial in their interest, or profit; but as 
