Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-11-04
GOOSE FEATHERS.
Picked From Live Bird Not Used as
Formerly.

Yes said a manufacturer and dealer
in bed furnishings, iii is necessary that
goose feathers should be taken from the
live goose if we are to study the health
and comfort of people who think thew
must have ieatner beds and pillows
Dead goose feathers are not much better
to lie on, and have not that virtue of
husks, wholesomeness.
If you have never seen live goose
plucking, if 1 were you l wouldn't 90
very far out Of my way TO see it. for the
sight will not be likely to give you any
large amount of pleasure. You can see
the process. though, If you desire, in
various farm neighborhoods in northern
New Jersey. and particularly among the
Pennsylvania Dutch farmers in the coun-
.ies mat slate where tDe population is
largely of that class.
They say it doesn't hurt goose ia
pluck it. but it seems to me t..at yoL
might as well say that it wouldn't hurt
man to have his whiskers yanked out by
the handful. The reason they give far
believing goose doesn't suffer when its
feathers are being plucked is that 1t
never squaks or squeaks or makes fuss
while the plucking is going on.
Now | believe it hurts a goose like
the mischief to have its feathers pulled
out, coming as they do from the tender
fowl doesn't utter any protest prompted
by pain is, according to the way I have
sized geese up, because it is such a blame
fool. A goose will squak and clatter and
cdckl6 as II suffering more agony tnan
horse with the collie just at the mere sight
of you, but if you corner it up and pelt
it with stones it seems to forget that 1t
has a voice, and will take all the pun
ishment you give it without protest.
1.-The Pennsylvania Dutch farmers pluck
geese today just the same as their fore
bears did time out of mind, and don't
know as there is any other way. 1t GER
for the goose unless the plucker held
chloroform or something like that to Its
nose while the plucking goes on. The
geese to be bereft of their feathers are
first got together in an enclosure used for
the purpose. The perspicacity of geese
may be strikingiy made known to You
when they are being rounded up in such
an enclosure if there should happen to be
ing at the other. That door may be six
feet high and three broad. but goose after
goose will ignore it and try its best to get
in through the knothole. Induced
for fear of knocking it against the top of
the doorjamb, six feet above
There is a man or boy In every
neighborhood where geese are. plucked
who is an expert at getting the goose
ready for the process. Not every one
can do that. The wings of the goose
have to be locked together by a peculiar
arrangement of the two near the Shoul-
der, and while they are not tied or fas-
tened in any other way the lock is such
that no goose can unlock II. The goose $
feet are tied together with a broad band
of soft muslin. Then it is ready for the
plucker.
THE pluckers. who are almost always
women so among the geese with their
heads and faces entirely covered with
hoods fastened around the neck with a
shirr string. There are holes in the hoods
for the eyes and nose. From the neck
down the pickers are covered with
glazed muslin garment to which no
feather or down will cling. The pluckers
sit on low stools around large and per-
fectly dry tub. Each takes in her lap a
goose made helpless by its interlocked
wings and bound legs, and with rapid
plying of her fingers separates the
feathers from it. This is done. with such
skill though, that the plucker fareiy
breaks the goose's skin or causes blood 10
follow the plucking out of feather Inc
air is constantly filled with the iignt
feathers during the plucklng, nut they
settle into the tub at last A.
'There isn't much call for the goose 10
undergo this raping of its featners as
there Tsed to be- Not one pound OF goose
feathers is used today where fifty pounds
were used twenty-five years ago ODD as
n may seem. asthma and hay fever long
ago began to have a good deal to DO
With decreasing the demand for featner
beds and pillows 1t was discovered that
asthma and hay fever had an AFFINITY Tor
such couches and head rests: that notnlns
would start an asthmatic off for cheer-
FIJI nights wheeling so quickly as
feather bed This discovery spread ana
the goose owes a great deal OF It's later
day comfort to the asthma.