The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-06-20
Geese in the Cotton Field.

Raising geese in connection with
.o++on culture can be made both in
TESTING and profitable. But much
- should be exercised, for geese,
,:i-o fire. are capable of doing much
nood if properly controlled and great
5omage if uncontrolled. Geese re-
ITO a great deal of water to drink
W. ua To battle in. Unless this is pro-
az I'D they will suffer intensely in
W. woather from thirst, and would
~" in a short time. Now is the
lime to lay your plans if you intend
to use them.
To commence, we will suppose you
u;lI cultivate twenty acres in cotton.
N this case sixty geese will be about
tbo number you a use. Eight
roosn and four ganders will easily
1roduce the number required. These
sbould be kept in separate yards,
two geese and one gander in each
ward or Enclosure till sitting time,
when all can be set in the same pen.
When Matched, turn goose and COS
lngs loose in the lawn on tender
grass and shelter at night.
Provide a pasture adjoining your
cotton field with a pool of water,
branch or section of a creek in 1T that
will not go dry at any season.
When the cotton is under way, and
grass starts, make an opening in the
driving fence and drive the geese In
the cotton. A girl or small boy can
do this and drive them to the part OF
the field most needing them; when
they have stayed in the cotton long
enough to eat and need water, allow
them to return to the pasture Tor
shade and water. They will soon
learn to go back and forth.
And now is when you need to be
careful; if the supply of grass should
give out six geese would eat almost
every leaf off your ten acres of cot
ton in a very short time; then they
must be confined to the pastures till
needed. II your grapeVines are in
this field when they begin to ripen,
they would eat fifty bushels of grapes
in one week; if the garden is there,
everything in it would be eaten ex-
cept the bean poles and trellises.
Should they find a hole in the fence
and get into your young corn they
would do more damage in a day than
they would sell for.
When the cotton gets old and
tough and grass begins to seed, you
need give them no further care till
fattening time, as they will have
plenty of food of the approved kind
and can do no serious damage.
To fatten them, have a patch of
sofa beans in a plat of land adjoin-
ing the pasture. When they begin
to ripen turn them in and give them
small sweet potatoes or let them
CLEAN th1 field Of corn, peas, peanuts,
potatoes. You cannot feed corn to
geese, as, they would eat their heads
Oh every month.
IN grassing cotton twenty geese
are equal to n hoe-hand, hence you
can take credit for whatever your
noe labor costs you In a wet time,
especially if too wet to plow, you
would be surprised at the amount of
grass they will destroy. Grass bitten
Oh by the geese grows very sparingly.
ms is true of everything else they
Olte. Corn bitten by them will hardly
grow at all again.
You may pick the young geese
tFlce-in AugusS and October-and
me old ones three times. The feath-
efS thus obtained, with what is taken
Oh at dressing time will make you
about forty pounds. The profit and
loss account may be drawn up, there
lore, as follows:
~ pounds feathers, at 75c .......... $50
= geese, at 81 each. 48
LABOR saved in grassing IS
Care, labor and 1attening............, 20
NoU'' ..'. .... SSj
The Brown China geese are the
pest I have tried.-J. H.. Parker,
Perquimans County, N. c., in the
progressive Farmer.