Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1898-03-25

tucky. The geese are being shipped by
one man. Sol Renaker, OF Cypthiana.
On the Licking river, just above Gym
thiana, he has erected large wooden
building about 80 feet wide and $50 feet
Icing. 1t is two stories high. The floors
slant gradually to the center 30 that
they can be flooded. and thus kept clean.
There are troughs placed at convenient
points to hold the food for the geese. At
present there are $500 geese in this
building, in different stages of the fat
tening process. They are gathered
from all parts Of the state, and when
they arrive their average weight is from
four to eight pounds. They are first
placed in the large yard in which the
building is situated, and there they find
abundance OF water, so that they can
clean themselves. After few days they
are placed in the house in the fattening
pens. 1t requires four or five weeks of
careful feeding to fatten the geese. The
estabiishm has q steam corn mill
and corn shelter. The corn is purchased
from the farmers in the neighborhood
and is she!led and ground into meal.
The cobs run down q chute to the
furnace and make enough fuel to run
the machinery. The meal is mixed into
a dough and in that form fed to the
geese.
"A goose Is the cleanest fowl alive"
says Mr.. Renaker. II have been in the
poultry business since 1871, have ham
died al! kinds of domestic fowl, and have
studied their habits closely. and have
never seen anything which equals the
in, oIo
stant!y at work keeping their feathers
clean. and Il they have plenty of water
they are never seen except when fit for
dress parade. They are equally careful
regarding their food. On one occasion
we bought lot of corn which had
musted, and the geese would not eat
the dough made from it, nor will thew
eat dough after it has soured. On this
account we have to be very careful to
mix up no more dough than the geese
will eat in day. Another peculiar
thing about geese is that they eat
great deal more some days than they do
on others. For instance. it frequently.
requires 30 or 40 buckets of dough day
to given pen of geese: Then for a few
days they will probably not eat more
than dozen buckets. When they have
plenty of water and wholesome food
geese fatten rapidly and have no dis
case, but unless they have. an oppor-
tunity to keep clean and have pure food
they will die rapidly.
They are sold by the brace, and
average, when fat, from IA to SO pounds
brace. We sell our geese in only one
market-New York city. They are
shipped in poultry cars, and ~nre fur
nished with an abundance of water and
cornmeal dough while they are on the
way. The reason they are shipped alive
is that Hebrews may not purchase them
after they are killed. Last year we
shipped about 10000 geese to New York
city, and this year we will handle 5000.
The capacity of our house is between
5000 and 5000. 1t requires three men
to attend the corn shelter and the mill
and to feed the geese. We have water
works connections, and keep the house
nice and clean by flooding the floors,
and we keep the geese supplied with all
the fresh water they need.
| 81 don't think there Is another es-
adjustment of the kind in Kentucky.
| There may be few in the west. I be-
1 AStC ihOi~ SeSSe are TAlSeQ In kentucky
than in any other two western states.
You know our farmers are mostly de-
scendants Of Virginians and Maryland
ers who settled here hundred wears
ago and who raised their own geese to
| provide feather beds for their families.
This habit has been continued to tbe
| present generation, and there are few
farms, especially in the older sections
Of the state, on which there are no
geese. Although the cotton mattress
has largely taken the place of the fea.h-
er bed, the wives of Kentucky farmers
continue to raise geese, as their mothers
and grandmothers did before them.
Thus it is that we are enabled to gather
together SO many geese at this point.
| 1.-The business is peculiar one, but
1t has its destinations. Geese have a
| great deal more sense than they have
credit for, and they learn to know their
attendants and seem to appreciate the
care and attention they receive. We