340 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I 
February 26 . ! 
Destruction of Stocks. — I very much regret to learn 
by letter, as well as by the newspapers, that our veteran 
apiarian friend, Dr. Bevan, has been a sufferer by the late 
terrible inundations. His lower rooms were three feet deep 
in water, and his apiary (more than all to him) entirely 
swept away. I can readily imagine how he feels this loss; 
for at his advanced age (approaching ninety), his bees were 
his greatest source of amusement, the loss of which will not 
only be felt by himself, but by the apiarian world generally, 
for I believe he had some experiments in progress, which, if 
he had been successful in, would have been given to the 
public. I trust the loss of his bees will be made up to him 
by the bee-keepers in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Hereford, each one sending him a stock. 
THE MANAGEMENT OF G-EESE. 
( Concluded, from page 296.) 
After the geese with their young have been about four 
or live weeks on the common, they are then expected to be 
able to support themselves; and being better vegetable 
feeders, and thriving better on grass, than any other sort of 
poultry, they will now grow rapidly, and will require little or 
no hand-feeding until they are sold to the farmer to stubble. 
At this stage they may be also left out at nights on the 
common, but they must be still almost daily looked after, in 
order that the young ones may not get intermixed with other 
flocks, which they are still liable to do; and the sooner the 
stray ones are again put among their own flock the better, 
for if allowed to remain many days with a strange flock, it 
is difficult to get them to haunt with their own afterwards. 
When they do get mixed among others, the easiest way to 
recover them is to use a stick four or live feet long, with a 
crook at the end of it similar to a shepherd’s crook, with 
which you can single out your own, by passing the crook 
round the neck of the gosling. This feat requires some 
dexterity iu doing, in order to avoid an attack of the old 
ones, for they will surround you with threatening gestures, 
and loud hissing, and will wait the opportunity of your 
stooping to pick up the young one, when, if not quick in 
doing so, you will most probably receive a blow from behind 
from the wings of the old gander, which, together with a 
not very pleasant nip with his bill, will tend to quicken your 
movements exceedingly. After the goslings get older they 
do not so readily intermix with other flocks, except in case 
of a fox paying them a visit, which he sometimes does, and 
commits sad havoc among them. 
Another source of profit derived from geese are their 
feathers and quills, but these are now, as is well known, 
greatly deteriorated in value to what they used to be—the 
price of the latter being hardly equivalent to the trouble of 
plucking them. Even in “the good old times of Queen 
Bess,” the goose seems to have been greatly valued, not 
only as a dainty dish, but also for her quills and feathers; 
for Roger Ascham, tutor to that queen, in speaking of the 
goose, says—“Well fare thee, gentle goose, which bringetli 
to a man, even to his doore, so many exceeding commodities. 
For the goose is man’s comfort in warre or peace, sleeping 
or waking. What prayse soever is given to shootynge, the 
goose may challenge the least part of it. How well does 
she make a man fare at his table. How easilie dothe she 
make a man lie in his bedde. How fitte even as her feathers 
be only for shootynge, so be her quills for writing ! ” 
In the fens of Lincolnshire, where great quantities of 
geese are kept, it is said that they are stripped of their 
feathers sometimes as often as five times in the year! This 
I consider as very improbable, as the feathers cannot ripen 
at most more than three times in the year ! What I mean 
by being ripe is, that when so, the feathers are easily 
plucked, and have no signs of blood attached to their ends. 
The best time to feather the old ones the first time in each 
year is as soon as the young ones get covered with feathers, 
and again about Midsummer, when both old and young 
ought to be stripped of their feathers and quills. The 
feathers should be taken off no part except the breast and 
along the belly, and not more than five quills taken from 
each wing. If it be fine weather, they will not generally 
suffer from this process; but if cold or wet weather imme¬ 
diately succeeds this operation, some of the weaker ones 
may suffer. The old ones submit quietly to be plucked, but 
the young ones are very unruly, and if not gently handled 
they may be easily lamed, from the efforts they make to 
get away. 
As many of the earlier sorts of geese (if well-fed during 
the winter) will commence laying again after hatching one 
brood, if not too late in finishing laying a second time, they 
ought to be set again, but the second hatching never thrives 
so well, or gets to the size of the first, consequently they 
are not of so much value, being generally sold for one 
shilling less each than the earlier ones. I would recommend 
not to feather the second hatched ones at all, as they are 
very liable to die from the effects of it afterwards.* 
About the commencement of harvest is the usual time 
when the cottager disposes of his young geese to the 
farmers and others, in order to fatten them on the stubbles 
for market or for their own use. He will then be amply re¬ 
paid, if successful, for all the past trouble and attention 
which he has paid them; for, if successful, he will find that 
his five brood geese will have nurtured and brought up at 
least nine young ones each, which mil sell—at least they 
do here—at 3s. 3d. each ; this will amount to the handsome 
sum of upwards of £8, including the feathers and quills. 
After allowing for the year’s keep of each goose, together 
with the gander, to be two bushels of oats each, at 2s. per 
bushel, this amounts to £1 4s., together with about 6s. worth 
of oatmeal, and three bushels of oats for the young ones, 
for the first month ; making in all £1 16s. for expenses, 
against £8, leaving a clear profit to the cottager of upwards 
of £6. 
But let it be understood, once for all, that geese can only be 
kept thus advantageously by a cottager on a common, where 
such cottager has a right of depasturage thereon with geese; 
otherwise I do not think they can be profitably kept by any 
one, not even by a farmer, except on fens or marshy lands, 
where little else will thrive; for it is well known by every 
intelligent farmer, that nothing is more injurious to pasture 
land than the excrement of geese, and none such will allow 
them to be seen on their farm, except for fattening on the 
stubbles. 
It is generally understood that after geese have been well 
stubbled, they will require little more fattening—such is, and 
ought to be the case, provided they have had a good range 
of stubble, and a sufficiency of water; but many buy them 
otf the common, who have not stubbles to fatten them, 
and such as do this ought to have an empty out-house to 
put them in, for they should not be allowed to roam about, 
which prevents them fattening so soon, besides, as has 
already been said, doing injury to the herbage wherever 
they go. The out-house in which they are kept ought to 
be kept perfectly clean, and well littered with straw every 
alternate day. Two troughs should be used, one for dry 
oats, and the other, which must be larger, for holding 
vegetables, such as chopped cabbage, lettuce, turnips, Ac., 
these, which will be plentiful in every garden at that time, i 
are not only economical, but excellent feeding, on which 
they will fatten in a few weeks, and the goose when thus 
fattened, will be found, when cooked, to be far superior in 
flavour to those fed in the stubble. Among the vegetables 
already enumerated, there is none equalled by the Swedish 
turnip for fattening properties, these must be cut into small 
pieces, about half-an inch square, and put into a trough 
among clean water. This vegetable I prefer before any 
other for geese, and if plentifully fed on it, together with j 
a sufficiency of dry oats, and clean water, they will fatten 
on such food in five weeks, and be found of a superior 
flavour to the generality of fattened geese. They may also , 
be given the refuse of the kitchen, such as potato peelings, 
&c., and the refuse small potatoes, if not intended for 
planting, may be given them, but they must be cut in two 
previously. For the first day or two, when put up to fatten, 
they will not relish much the vegetables mentioned, but 
after that they will begin to devour them greedily. 
It has been already said, that the young geese are sold off 
the common by the cottager for 3s. 3d. each; this is when the 
stubbles are nearly ready for them ; they, therefore, cost the j 
farmer nothing, as it were, for the expense of fattening, and | 
are generally sold, on an average, for 5s. each, leaving a profit ; 
* We recommend it not to be done at all. It is a barbarous custom. 
Ed> Ci G. 
