The record-union., 1891-05-27
FARM And ORCHARD.
The Raising of Geese---How to Feed
and When to Feed.
How Fowls are Affected with Roup-
Tomatoes from Cuttings-Egg Plants
and Peppers Some Strawberry
HintS-Farm Notes.

In answer to numerous questions about
geese, correspondent of the Prairie
Farmer gives the following ''talk'' about
these ''birds:"
Geese can be raised upon any farm where
there is stream, pond or swamp, and old
pasture land not needed for other stock.
When thus kept the cost will be small, as
they will from land and water pick up
the greater part OF their living from the
time when the grain starts in the spring
until the green food is cut off by au-
tumnal frost. Without sufficient pasture
and water accommodations it is useless to
undertake raising geese for profit.
Geese are easily raised and managed.
Anybody who can raise chickens can
raise goSlings.
Generally speaking, two or three geese
can be mated to one gander, but some
ganders will mate with but one goose.
The breeders of geese must look a little
OUT and see that all his geese are mated
Gamblers will breed when a year Old but
are best when over three years old. Geese
are long-lived and the same breeding
stock can be kept for many years.
Geese will lay from fifteen to thirty or
more eggs before offering to sit. / have
heard of geese that laid sixty or seventy
eggs in a year, but don't think such
geese are common. Probably the aver
age yearly egg product IS not over twenty
eggs per goose. Old geese are better lay
erS than young ones. Breeding geese
should not be fat. Those that are rather
thin in flesh viii lay more and their eggs
viii hatch better than eggs from geese
that are in high condition from being
fed on grain. The best breeders turn
their geese out to pasture when the grass
starts, and after that time do not feed at
all.
When the goose is ready to lay you
will notice her fiXingeh nest; then con-
fine her in a roomy nest box, where she
will soon lay. After she has once laid in
nest a goose will usually lay out her
litter in the same nest.
When she gets ready to sit, the goose
Will remain on the nest after laying, Just
as a broody hen does. II you want her
to sit, give her from eleven to fifteen eggs,
according to size, and then let her sit.
Feed your sitting geese when they come
off, for if left to hunt their own food then
they may remain away from the eggs too
long But do not interfere with the Sit
tiers or allow them to be disturbed by the
other geese. If let alone the goose Will
usually bring off full brood in twenty
eight or thirty days.
Do not feed your goslings for the first
twenty-four hours, and keep them away
from the water, out of the rain and grass
wet with dew, for the first three or four
weeks. Until they are five or six weeks
old they must be regularly housed at
night, and protected from storms, as you
would young turkeys. When six weeks
old they may be turned out to pasture
like old geese. Any kind of food that is
proper TOR young chickens and duck
fings Is good for goslings.
Goslings can be Matched and raised
with hen mothers, the same as ducklings
and turkeys. l presume goose eggs can
be Matched in incubators, and the gos-
lings raised in breeders, but don't know
from experience.
About the different breeds of geese
the same correspondent says that the
Toulouse are the largest in the world,
often weighing at maturity three years.
from thirty to forty pounds pair. In
color they are dark gray on the back,
shading light gray and almost white on
the breast and under part of the body.
They have fine feathers.
The Embden geese are not qnite sc
large as the Toulouse, but their fine white
feathers will in some markets command