Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-02-21
GOOSE FATTENiNa.
How to Pen and Feed When Prepnr-
ing Geese and GosIings For Market.

ing Geese and Goslings For Market.
Geese for fattening should be penned
upon high, gravelly soil or land that
will not become muddy in wet weather.
A pen for 80 geese should be perhaps
40 feet or more square and should be
bare of green crops and provided with
some shelter from the sun. A good
shelter may be made by putting four
crotched posts in the ground, upon
which rails may be laid, covered with
white birches or boards. These may
be fastened down, so that high wind
will not blow them off and injure the
geese in the pen. A wire fence four or
six feet high is suitable for the sides
of the pen. In fattening goslings dur
ing warm weather provision should be
made for as much air as possible. If
the weather is warm, they eat less.
consequently fatten more slowly. When
the weather is COOL they fatten more
rapidly. When penned for fattening.
they may be fed for one or two days
quite moderately in a way to prepare
them for the regular fattening ration.
During this time they can have little
green food and such grain food as
they have been accustomed to. For
fattening they should be fed upon
scalded dough made from Indian corn
meal and sweet beef scraps.
Water should be provided in pals
or buckets, giving them fresh supply
three times daily, but only sufficient
for them to drink and not enough for
them to attempt to battle. as water
spilled around the pen is likely to
make the ground muddy, and any I'M
necessary exercise is hindrance to
fattening. 1t is better to have two
pals, each half full of water, than
one filed to the top. Goslings can get
water only for drinking, which is all
that is desired. Care should be taken
that the scalded food is always sweet
and does not stand long enough to be-
come sour and unwholesOme. 1t should
be scalded just long enough before
wanted for feeding to become entirely
cooled. The cornmeal and the beef
scraps should be of the very best quail
ty and mixed in the proportion of one
part of scraps to four parts of meal,
by measure, and little salt should be
added, just enough to season it, care
being taken not to use too much. A
wooden ''feed trough" about feet
long and IS inches wide and deep,
with flaring sides, is most convenient
for mixing A common iron spade is
used as a mixer. Enough boiling wa
ter should be used to swell the grain
and leave it moist and crumbly, but
not wet when cold. Feed in the morn
ing what dough the goslings will eat
in an hour after feeding. At noon
feed whole corn in the same way, but
at night a considerably larger quantity
of dough may be given them, as they
will eat more sometimes during the
night when the weather is cooler than
during the whole day. A little powder
ed charcoal should be mixed with the
dough about twice a week. Pieces Of
board, with strip nailed on the edge,
make good troughs in which to feed
them. If at any time more dough
should be given them than they eat, it
should be removed from the pen be-
fore giving them a fresh supply.
White flint corn or white cornmeal
is priced by some, who believe that it
produces a whittier flesh or fat, which
gives the bird a more desirable appear
ance. In Europe finely ground barley
mixed with milk is used for fattening
and thought to have the same effect
on the color of the fat formed. No
green food is given after the first day
or two. They should have a constant
supply of gravel, crushed oyster shells
and broken charcoal. The latter is es-
pecially desirable on the score of
health, and it is also thought to assist
in obtaining white fat, so desirable
for the market. Decayed stumps or
pieces of partially rotted wood are
greedily eaten by geese when fatten-
ing, and moderate supply seems to
do them good IT requires usually
from II to 20 days steady feeding to
fatten goslings. If fed much longer
than that, their appetites are likely to
fail, and they are also inclined to
mott, which of course seriously inter-
feres with fattening and would also
make the bird hard to pick and I'M
satisfactory when dressed Charles
o. Flagg in Poultry Monthly.