The suburban citizen., 1901-03-23
HERDING WILD GEESE
AN IMPORTANT OCCUPATION IN CAL
IFoRNlA'S GRAIN DISTRICT.

! .hey must be driven from the grow
ng wheat. Consequently, goose-herd-
ng has there become an occupation as
distinct and important as hunting or
rapping.
The wild goose seems always insati-
ably hungry; or If 1t ever has enough
20 eat, it is not at such times seen by
nan. Settling down in hordes. the big
birds will utterly ruin hundreds OF
acres of young wheat in single night
pulling some of the grain up by the
roots and destroying the rest by nib
bling. A goose's mouth is rough. with
ridges like a file; whatever it bites it
bruises and mashes: and goose-bitten
wheat invariably dies.
California has frequent fogs during
The winter, and while they last the
geese are most troublesome. Being
themselves unable to see very far
through the fog, they take it for grant
ed that all others are equally blind,
and they become very bold.
Settling down in flocks that look. in
the dimness of the fog, like vast gray
blankets. they go to work voraciously.
While feeding they are not quite so
noisy as in flight, but still they main
tain a conversational gabble that be-
trays them to seekers.
Even among geese 1t does not pay to
talk too much.
Mounted on a sure.footed horse that
| will not stumble in soft plowed
ground, and armed with n repeating
rife, the gooseherd gallops swiftly
/ through the fog in the direction of the
gabbling geese. His mission is to
frighten Should he do no more than
! kill a few Of the flock, the remaining
thousands would be as greedy as ever
for the grain; but if he frightens of
the flock entirely he frees the field
from the pest for the rest Of that sea-
son.
Geese invariably move southwark
when disturbed not to return till
spring, and then they fly high and in
too much haste to stop and rob the
fields.
As soon as the herder spies the great
blanket-like spot of geese on the
wheat he spurs his horse and gallops
down upon them. 1t is not until the
flock has risen into the air that he be-
gins to fire; then he keeps up fusillade
as long as they are in sight.
To fire at them while they are on
! the ground would be dangerous, as the
rifles used are of such calibre and
range that the bullet might ricochet,
or "sllip-pack," along the earth, and
wound or kill human beings or dOmes-
! tic animals a mile away.
The antics of the wild geese when
! they hear the bullets whistlng among
them are remarkable They dodge and
squawk and "back-water" with their
wings and tread air" with their feet,
and do all sorts Of aerial gymnastics.
But they never get too badly scared to
follow the old gander who "honks' to
them, and leads them off southwark to
rob some other grain-held.
! Goose-herding is exciting-yOu go at
a gallop to set the geese moving; it is
dangerous-the horse may stumble
and fall with you; and in the fog that
lies over those vast, fenceless fields,
you can't tell where you are going,
and you may get lost and chilled to
death; or you may accidentally shoot
somebody, or be shot yourself by some
other gOoseherd.
When last 1 was in California, grain
ranchers paid gooseherds forty dollars
a month and their board. furnished
them with rifles, cartridges and
mounts and thought the work was
well worth the price
On clear days goose-herding is not
such hard work. The "Honk! honk!
honk" of the old gander in the lead
tells Of the approach Of n flock from
the north. AS they pass overhead one
gooseherd after another salutes them,
until, thoroughly ratified" they not
only keep off the grain, but rising high
above the fusillade of riheballs, flap
their swift way at least a hundred
miles farther south.
When the wind is strong and steady
from the northwest and the day is
fair, it is comparatively easy to stir
up the geese and move them Off
down the wind" but in rainy weather
they stubbornly keep on flying up and
settling on the wheat until literary
forced off. Perhaps this is because the
tender young wheat, fresh and damp
with fog or rain, may taste better to
the geese than at other times.
The geese concerned in the mischief
are Of several kinds,-the big Cana
dian goose, the brant and the arctic
goose,-but the herders refer to them
as Of two kinds only, big gray honk-
ers" and nasty little white geese"
In California there are some big
grain ranches. One in Colusa County
is about twelve square miles in aree.
and embraces about seventy-fve thou
sand acres. On that ranch during
some winters from ren to twelve
thousand dollars have been spent for
herding wild geese off the grain 1t
was the usual thing there to lay in a
supply Of a quarter Of a million rife
| cartpidOps far tho Ooosahprds and tbe