1798 
November 27, inso 
ft* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Our Thanksgiving turkey this year will 
be a goose—or rather a pair of geese. As 
you read this they will be browning and 
sizzling in the oven, with plenty of “sage 
and onion” to stuff in the desired quality. 
They will come on the table flanked by 
half a dozen vegetables and backed by 
several big pumpkin pies. I shall resign 
the position of carver, remembering my 
old experience with the roast duck and 
the minister. The duck got away from 
my knife, and slid all over the table, 
ending up by upsetting the gravy in front, 
of the minister’s plate. After the usual 
objections Mother will apply the carving 
knife to the geese, secretly proud of her 
skill as an anatomist. She can do every¬ 
thing with a roasted goose except provide 
white meat. Since Nature decided not 
to implant that delicacy in the lveast. of 
a goose, man cannot supply it. Therefore 
the lady must content herself with brown 
meat. I’ll guarantee that most blind 
men eating the white breast of a turkey 
and then the brown breast of a goose 
would call for more of the latter. It is 
something like this rather foolish prefer¬ 
ence for white-shelled eggs. Take “the 
Colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady,” they 
are sisters under the shell! Anyway, a 
goose, well stuffed and roasted, is a 
thank-offering well suited to the Hope 
Farm table. 
* * * * * * 
No doubt as we pour the thick brown 
gTavy over Mother’s generous slices Mr. 
Gander will lead his family across the 
lawn and find something to he thankful 
for. I have learned, this Summer, to 
have great respect for Gander and his 
wife, the gray goose. Nature may have 
left the white meat out of the goose in 
order to prepare a finer delicacy, but she 
put an extra quantity of gray matter 
into the goose brain. It. seems to me that 
Mr. Gander and his able assistant are 
about the most successful teachers of 
youth I have ever known. To many a 
learned educator I would say “Go to the 
goose, thou wise man, and learn how to 
train the young for a successful life.” 
Take this young bird, whoso meat is 
rapidly disappearing from the Thanks¬ 
giving altar. Mother has scraped the 
bones nearly clean. What little remains 
will be boiled out as soup. This bird 
has lived what I may call an eminently 
successful life. lie ends his career in 
the highest place possible to be conceived 
of in the philosophy of a goose. He was 
trained aud educated from the start, and 
as I look at Gander and goose on the 
lawn I cannot think of any human teach¬ 
ers. who have had any greater success in 
training their charges into just what a 
man or woman ought to be. 
grass. When the children forgot to feed 
them the gander wasted no time in com¬ 
plaint. He led his family right, into the 
garden, where they picked up their share. 
He led the goslings through the wet grass 
and into the brook, where they cleaned 
out all the watercress and weeds. On 
the other hand, the hen hung about the 
barnyard and cried if breakfast did not 
come on time. She would not let her 
children wade through the wet grass or 
get into the water, and she did not. know 
that a young goose can eat grass like a 
calf. The hen worried herself insane 
when her family followed the natural in¬ 
stincts of geese and headed for the brook. 
****** 
Now Mrs. Hen is not the first teacher 
who has failed to understand the first law 
of education—to train a child properly 
you must understand his natural instincts 
and tendencies and build upon them. For 
many generations the hen has feared 
water, and has been taught that all 
feathered young must be kept away from 
it. I have no doubt that a race of swim¬ 
ming hens could be developed, provided 
the fear of water could be taken from the 
mind of the hen. For the lien must sivim 
with her mind before she can su>im loitli 
her feet! I have seen many eut-and- 
dried teachers just as afraid of the truth 
as this big Red hen was afraid of water. 
At any rate, we learned why one set of 
goslings was far superior to the other. 
One set had the example of father’s ex¬ 
ample and influence. Their teacher knew 
from long experience just what a young 
goose ought to know. The teacher knew 
that because she had been a goose herself, 
and could remember her youth. The 
hen’s brood knew nothing of their father’s 
example—no more than some little hu¬ 
mans, who only seem to know there is a 
man in the world who claims to be the 
detached head of the family. The hen’s 
goslings were brought up in one of these 
beheaded families. Their teacher ranked 
as a successful educator, hut as she had 
never been a young goose herself she 
could not teach her children what they 
ought to know. It was not unlike trying 
to make a blacksmith out of a poet, or a 
drygoods salesman out of a natural 
farmer. These feathered children were 
fed and warmed and defended, but they 
could not make perfect geese because they 
■were not trained to work out. a goose job. 
****** 
In the Spring the gray goose selected 
a place in the old barn and laid 21 eggs. 
We rather expected more, but the goose 
was master of ceremonies. She came 
back to the same place each day, and 
finally we found her there hissing like 
the steam escaping from a broken pipe. 
It was her signal that she was ready to 
serve as incubator. So we put 13 eggs 
under her and eight more under a big 
Red hen. This big hen was a great 
failure as a layer, but as nurse aud in¬ 
cubator she had proved a wonder. She 
had raised three broods of chicks with 
great success. Surely she ought to be a 
better guide and teacher of youth than a 
young goose with her first brood! If 
you were selecting teachers for your 
children would you not choose those who 
have had experience? In due time, and 
on the same day, the goose walked out 
with 10 goslings, while the Red heu sat 
on her nest and compelled five to stay 
under her. The two broods kept apart. 
The hen was evidently disappointed with 
the way the goose handled children, and 
she punished her brood whenever they 
tried to mingle with their own brothers 
and sisters. They all lived, but after 
about eight weeks I noticed a strange 
thing. The hen’s brood, though eating 
the same food, would average at least 30 
per cent lighter than the goslings w’bich 
ran with the goose. There was no ques¬ 
tion about it—'the hen’s charges were in¬ 
ferior in size and weight and in “common 
sense,” or the art of looking out for them¬ 
selves. 
****** 
There being no chance for an argument 
about it, I concluded that it was very 
largely a matter of education, and we 
began to study the methods of teaching 
employed by Mr. and Mrs. Gander and 
Mrs. Red Hen. The first thing we no¬ 
ticed was the influence of the male side 
of the family. Roger Red, the big rooster, 
paid no attention to his wife’s family. 
All he did was to mount the fence and 
crow, or go gallivanting off after worms 
or seeds. If one of the goslings got in 
his way he kicked it to one side and gave 
not even a suggestion to his busy wife. 
He was like one of those men who will 
not even wheel the baby carriage, but 
make the wife carry the child. On the 
other hand. Mr. Gander was a trite head 
of the family. He kept right with the 
godse. brooded part of the flock at night, 
fought off rats and even a weasel, and 
was ready to battle with a hawk or a 
eat. In time of danger the rooster ran 
for shelter, but the gander stepped right 
out in front of his brood with his wing 
extended like a prizefighter’s arm, and 
that great bill open to nip a piece of 
flesh out of the enemy. lie taught his 
children to graze and eat weede and 
The result was clearly evident. The 
young geese under the hen wore under¬ 
sized and falling into the hen character. 
After centuries of domestication or slav¬ 
ery the average hen loses the independ¬ 
ence of the wild bird. Now and then a 
nobler specimen will feel some dormant 
brain cell thrill within her, remember the 
freedom of centuries ago and fly into the 
trees, but for the most part the modern 
hen is a selfish, fawning, tricky creature. 
She drives her family away as soon as 
the children become tiresome, and there 
is little or no real community life among 
hens. When their usual food is not forth 
coming all hut a few adventurous spirits 
stand slouching about waiting for help. 
Thus the goslings were taught to fawn 
upon man for their food and re'ect their 
brothers and sisters in the other brood. 
It was an unnatural life for a goose, and 
these little ones could not thrive under 
such training. On the other hand, Mr. 
Gander’s pupils were taught by an ex¬ 
pert on goose training. They were taught 
to swim, to bathe in the wet grass, to eat 
grass or hay, to- get out and find their 
own breakfast if man did not do his duty. 
As a result they grew up with strong 
independence of character. While the 
other might fawn and beg for food, the 
gander’s class were taught to scorn such 
subservient behavior. And they were 
taught family life and co-operation. While 
the hens separate and lead their selfish, 
separate lives, the geese live in a group. 
There they go now in a solid bunch across 
the lawn. Throw a stick into a flock of 
hens or let a dog run at them, and they 
will scatter in all directions. Try the 
same with a flock of young geese, and 
they will line up in solid array “all for 
each and each for all.” I do not know of 
anything finer iu the education of geese 
or children than this thorough idea of 
co-operation. In the future those groups 
which are taught like the geese will rule 
the nation. Those which are. taught to 
fear fit range things or live the selfish life 
of a hen will always serve. In other 
words, the future of this country depends 
on its teachers and their wisdom? You 
are right! 
****** 
Rut the real, final test of a goose’s 
education is made with the carving knife. 
Judging from the empty plates I think 
this one will pass a good examination. If 
I am not mistaken this was one of the 
hen’s goslings. When we saw that their 
teacher was a failure we put them into 
Mr. Gander’s class. lie looked them 
over and knocked them down with his 
wing a few times. Then he put his wise 
head to one side as if to say : 
“I’ll do my best with them. They have 
been spoiled, and T must take some of the 
conceit out of them first. If the law for¬ 
bidding corporal punishment holds in 
New Jersey I will resign the task, be¬ 
cause no goose can ever live a successful 
life unless those foolish hen ideas are 
whipped out of him. And another thing: 
I won’t have that. Red hen bothering 
•around me. The influence of a foolish 
mother is the worst thing a teacher has 
to contend with. T’ll try to make geese 
out of them, but keep that hen away!” 
The Red hen put up a great cry for a 
time. She ran out and called her “dar- 
I 
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MIDWEST ENGINE COMPANY 
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Indianapolis, U. S. A. 
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Dependable 
HFiW:- - 
A tov* Plowing snow. t 
Right—Opirating corn shelter. 
Above—Utilitor charging 
lighting set batteries. 
