Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-07-14
Goose Gro1oiug
on a big Scale

MdHsneld is noted, amono otbor
Things for chocolates. cucumhers 49,
geese. The chocolates and geese are
transformed from the crude to = fin.
lshed state; the cucumbers grown
during the coolest winter under GLASS
thousands of dollars are investad IN
glass houses and heaters for The mr..
pose Oh growing the finest of cucum.
Ders in midwinter, in on of our coolest
iocailties, says the Country Gentle
man.
The Austin goose farm which is To-
Gated within four miles of Mansfield
is perhaps the only farm of its kind in
the world. There are MANY farms on
winch geese are grown. fed and fat
tened Tor market; one of these is To-
Gated near Westerly, R. l., and there
are many thousand geese grown in
Rhode island and other states, but no,
Where else to our knowledge is there
farm conducted in the manner of
the goose farm at Mansfield
While in the Little Compton dis
trlct, we met the wagons that came
from Mansfield to buy geese. We also
saw a large number of fine geese in
that locality, all intended for the
Austin farm. The greater portion OF
these geese are grown near the ocean.
and they wander over the salt marshes
and swim in the water that flows
comes and goes. These geese are
grown with little attention after they
are three or four weeks old, after
which they wander over marshy waste
lands, for the most part too rough and
rocky to permit a scythe to be used
on them to cut the grass. Here the
geese gather rich ration of grass,
beetles and every kind of green and
sea food. They grow fast and are
sold to market in July and August, or
as soon as full grown.
We have been taught that to have
fertile eggs from geese, they must
have access to water deep enough to
swim in; this belief has gone since
we saw beautiful lot of Toulouse
geese in the Little Campton district,
none of which have ever swum in
water, so far as the owner knows.
These geese laid an average of 81
eggs each, and these eggs Matched all
most as well as did the eggs of other
geese that had a swimming pool.
The wagons from the Mansfield goose
farm are driven over every section of
the country adjacent to that locality.
The drivers buy geese mainly, but in
addition they buy all kinds of poultry
and eggs. These are hauled or ship
ped to the farm, where they are sepa-
rated, selected and disposed of, leav-
ing only the geese and the few ducks
that are gathered to be retained at the
farm. In July geese were bought for
about 81 each weighing an average
of six pounds, live weight. Thous-
ands are gathered and brought to the
farm, the most mature placed in pens;
the others turned into the grazing
field.
Broiled duckling has become famous
as an American dish. Thousands of
Pekin ducks are grown on the large
farms and sold at 10 weeks old or
inst at the time when the first feath.
ers are ready to pull, weighing from
four to five pounds. In goslings, the
spring fad is the so-called day-old Cos
ling. the newly Matched youngsters,
lust in town from their trip of four
weeks beneath the mother goose,
inside the eggsheE. These are sold
st the home of the growers, to the
BUYERS, to a limited extent, at prices
that pay remarkably we'll They go
to the fashionable hotels, and are sold
as a delicacy The green gosling IS
the 12-weeks-old goose. 1t takes
from nine to twelve weeks to grow
the gosling to a size fit for sale; they
are grown to this age at very little
expense. feeding as they do almost
entirely on grass and fodde1 corn,
green rye. etc. The summer buying
season begins in June, the wagons go
about buying the goslings as they mar
ture This is continued until all the
crop throughout Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and the nearby localities IS
bought up and sold to market. The
greater part during the summer comes
from southeastern Massachusetts and
from Rhode Island. The best OF those
gathered are placed in pens foout 80
feet square. the division fence three
boards high. IN the center OF eacn
non i board shelter from the sun,
beneath this the feed trough. 1t takes
ahout three weeks of fast feeding to
aet the goslings ready for the mar