The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-19
nm. RBNAxER,s GOOSE FARM.
EiEhtecn thousand Fat Fowls 70 NE shipped
20 New York from Kentucky This Year.

EiEhtecn Thousand Fat Fowls 70 ne shipped
20 New York from Kentucky This Year.
LEXINGTON, KY, Dec. 1.-THE Hebrews in
New York city will get $4,000 fat goose this year
from Kentucky. The geese are being shipped
by one man, Sol Renaker. of Cynthiana.
On tho Licking River. Just above Cynthiana,
he has erected o large wooden building about
eighty feet wide and $50 feet long. 1t 10 two
stories high. The floors slant gradually to tho
centre 30 that they can be flooded, and thus kept
clean. There are troughs placed at convenient
points to hold the food for tho geese. At pros
ent there are 5000 geese in this building. In
different staEes of the fattening process.
They are gathered from all parts OF tho
State, and when they arrive their average
weight il from four to eight pounds. They are
FIRST placed in tho largo yard In which the build
ing Is situated and there they find abundance
of water. SO that they can clean themselves.
After a fow days they are placed In tho house In
the fattening pens. It requires four or i've
weeks of careful feeding to fatten tho geese.
The establishment has q steam corn mill and
corn sheller. The corn 10 purchased from tho
farmers In the neighborhood and 10 shelled and
ground into meal. The cobs run down q chute
to the furnace and make enough fuel to run tho
and In that form fod to the geese.
"A goose is the oleanest fowl alive" says Mr..
since 1871, have handled ali Kinds Of domestic
fowl. aud have studied their habits closely, and
have never seen anything which equals tho
work keeping their feathers clean, and il They
have plenty Of wator they are never seen ex-
careful regarding their food. On one ocos-
sion we bought a lot OF corn which had musted.
srnm TIE r. p geese 4iI Te 1Ss1 not not eat dau Tho s dough Il made Sas
soured. On this account we have to DO very
careful to mix up, no more dough than the geese
about geese is that they eat a great
deal more some days than they do on
9 shirsy or tort forty 1 sasfets Of q aou af1aa a day to r q FiHen
pen Of goose. Then for 2 few days they, will
probably not eat more than a dozen, buckets.
food geese fatten rapidly and have no disease,
but unless aEs It they he MIA have Ca an ,S oppSSTT s to keep
'i sTh s1a a nsv so pIdirSS 81 J0G GSe 'hSs ia ese r ahd S1or.e.
when fat from fourteen to thirty-eight pounds q
brace; We sell our geese in only one market
cars. and are furnished with an abundance Of
water and cornmeal dough while they arc on
that Hebrews NAV not purchase them after they
geese 10 NsS YORK city. and this Year We viii
between 5000 and 5000. It requires hree men
to attend the corn shelter and tho mill and to
lions. and keep the house nice and clean by
aHoding the floors. and we keep the geese sup
pl i Tlth al 1.-THE the fresh ,Ss,u water !. they need: ,,,,,-
ment of the kind in Kentucky. There may DO 0
few in the West. / believe more geese arc raised
in Kentucky than In any other two Western
States. You know our farmers are mostly de-
scendants of VfrRinians and Marylanders VIII
settled here n hundred years ago and who raised
their own geese to provide feather beds for their
families. This habit has been continued to tho
present generation, and there are fow farms,
especially in the. older settled sections OF the
State. on which there are no geese. Although
the cotton mnttress has largely taken tho place
Of the feather bed, the wives OF Kentucky farm
ers continue to raise geese. as their mothers and
grandmothors did before them. Thus 1t 10 that
wo arc enabled to gather together 30 many
geese at this point.
The business Is a peculiar ono, but It has
Its destinations. Geese have q great deal moro
gonse than they have credit for. and they learn
to know their attendants and seem TO appreciate
the care and attention they receive. We have
several different breeds In Kentucky, Of which
the Hong Kong is the most popular. The old.
fashioned, blue goose Is quite common, and
many OF these have been crossed with wild geese.
the latter straying away from their iocks DUR
Ing their periods OF migration from the south to
the north in the early spring."