Vol. LV. No. 2443. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 21, 1896. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
FREE COINAGE OF GOOSE GREASE 
R H o’u E ISLANDERS TURN IT INTO MONEY. 
A Great Business In a Little State. 
[editorial correspondence.J 
Tucked away in odd corners of this great country 
one will often find peculiar agricultural practices or 
farm products that arc strange to the majority of out¬ 
side farmers. In one township of Vermont is grown 
most of the Valerian root used in American medicine. 
In a few places, the culture of Ginseng has been made 
something of an industry. At one point in New York 
State, the culture of Teasels to be used in carding is a 
by some farmers in the little State, in breeding and 
fattening geese. Well aware that they had a good 
business, these farmers have said but little about it, 
and farmers in other parts of the country have not 
known how the goose has been fattening the Rhode 
Island pocketbook. A few years ago, the Rhode 
Island Experiment Station undertook to ask the goose 
some questions about the best plans for breeding and 
fattening her greasy children. The wise bird gave 
such satisfactory answers to these experiment ques¬ 
tions, that the facts about the business began to come 
out. Last July, I visited the station to see a lot of 
cross-bred geese that had been grown by the “new 
peas. Ordinary wire netting, 18 inches wide, was 
sufficient to hold them. Late last fall rye was sown 
at the rate of four bushels per acre. This made a 
thick, heavy growth in the spring, and the geese ate 
it down several times. Sevei’al sowings of oats and 
peas were made, so that there was always a patch of 
green stuff. Evergreen sweet corn, sowed thickly, 
made a fine food for the older geese, and several 
patches of rape were put in a handy place for in¬ 
closure. The geese are very fond of rape and corn. 
They do not like buckwheat. 
As soon after hatching as is safe, the goslings are 
turned into thick pasture. Enough for two days’ 
PURE TOULOUSE GEESE (YOUNG). Fig. 246. 
EMBDEN AND TOULOUSE CROSS (YOUNG). Flo. 247. 
AFRICAN GEESE (ADULTS). Fig. 248. 
GEESE AS BRED AT THE RHODE 
MONGREL, WILD AND AFRICAN CROSS (YOUNG). Fig. 249. 
ISLAND EXPERIMENT STATION, 
profitable business. In most cases, this odd culture 
has to do with crops that are limited as to market de¬ 
mands. A few localities produce all that is needed, 
and the demand cannot be increased. The few who 
produce the crop say as little as possible about their 
work. It is to their advantage to keep their methods 
a secret, for, were their profits generally known, 
others would take up the same line of work, with the 
result that the supply would be Par greater than the 
demand, and all—both old timers and new comers— 
would farm without profit. 
The business of raising geese in Rhode Island is a 
case in point. In past years, fortunes have been made 
method”, and there Director Flagg and Mr. Samuel 
Cushman told me something about the way in which 
the Rhode Islanders make a goose chase after wealth. 
“ They say that a goose eats all before and ruins all 
behind”, said Director Flagg, “but that has not 
proved so in our case ”. 
A goose is as much a grazier as is a cow or sheep. 
With its hard, flat bill, it nips up the grass as easily 
as a sheep crops the pasture. At the Rhode Island 
Station, an effort was made to produce a cheap goose 
pasture by sowing a succession of crops and changing 
the geese from one part to another. A large flock of 
young goslings was at work in a field of oats and 
feeding is used at one time, and then the wire is 
changed to another part of the field, and the place 
already pastured grows up again. In addition to the 
pasture, 50 young geese receive four quarts of mixed 
cracked corn and wheat every day. Under this 
system, 200 geese can be pastured on an acre up to 
eight weeks old, at which age they are taken to a 
smaller pen and fattened by feeding cracked corn and 
beef scraps with sweet corn stalks. 
Geese are, certainly, the most remarkable drinkers 
it has ever been my lot to observe. At least once 
every 10 minutes, one member of the flock would raise 
its head and say as plainly as a politician could, “ Let’s 
