The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-12
PLUCK|NG LIVE GEESE
An Operation Necessary to Pro-
cure Good Feathers.
LOCKING THE BIRDS WINGS.
This Trick Performed and Their Legs
eandased Together, the Helpless
Geese Are Ready, If Not Willing, Vic.
Tins For the Expert Pickers.

Geese Are Ready, If Not Willing, Vic
Tins For the Expert Piekers.
YES" said a manufacturer and deal
er in bed furnishings, lit is necessary
that goose feathers should be taken
from the live goose IL we are to study
the health and comfort of people who
think they must have feather beds and
pillows. Dead goose feathers are not
much better than husks to lie on and
have not that great virtue of husks-
wholesomeness.
They say it doesn't hurt a goose to
pluck it. but it seems to me that one
might as well say that it wouldn't hurt
a man to have his whiskers yanked out
by the handful. The reason they give
for believing a goose doesn't suffer
when its feathers are being plucked
out of it is that it never squawks or
sQueaks or makes fuss while the
plucking is going on.
Now. l believe it hurts a goose like
the mischief to have it's feathers pulled
out, coming as they do from the ten
derest spots on its body. and the rea-
son the fowl doesn't utter any protest
prompted by pain is. according to the
way l have sized geese up, because it
is such a blame fool. A goose will
squawk and clatter and cackle as II it
were suffering more agony than
horse with the collie just at the mere
sight of you, but if you corner it up
aud pelt it with stones it seems to for
get that it has voice and will take
- o ;chv r. without
a further word.
The Pennsylvania Dutch farmers
pluck geese today just the same as
their forbears did time out Of mind,
and l don't know as there is any other
way. 1t certainly couldn't be made
any pleasanter for the goose unless
the plucher held chloroform or some
thing like that to its nose while the
, plucking was going on. The geese to
be bereft Of their feathers are first
got together in an Enclosure used fvf
the purpose. The perspicacity OF
geese may be strikingly made known
to you when they are being rounded
up in such an Enclosure if there should
happen to be a knotho!e in one end of
it. the door being at the other. That
door may be six feet high and three
broad. but goose after goose will ig-
more it and try its best to get through
the knothoie. Induced. though. to try
the door. every goose will bob its head
down as it passes through for fear OF
! knocking it against the top OF the
door jamb. six feet above.
There is 4 man or a boy in every
neighborhood where geese are plucked
who is an expert in getting the goose
ready for the process. Not every one
! can do that. The wings of the goose
! have to be locked together by pecul
| lar arrangement of the two near the
/ shoulder. and. while they are not tied
or fastened in any other way. the loci
is such that no goose can unlock It
/ The goose's feet are tied together witt
| q broad band OF soft muslin. linen u
/ Is ready for the plucker.
The FUCKERS, who are almost al
| ways women. go among the geese witt
| their heads and faces entirely covered
with hoods fastened around the neci
| with a shirr string. There are holes II
| the hoods for the eyes and also at the
| nose to supply fresh air for breathing
! From the neck down the pickers are
| covered with a glazed muslin garment
| to which no feather or down will cling
| The pluckers will sit on low stool:
around a large and perfectly dry tub
| Each takes in her lap a goose made
helpless by its tnterlocked wings and
bound legs and with rapid plying OF
her fingers separates the feathers from
g. THE ia dooo with Sr1ch skill though
| that the plucker rarely breaks thu
| goose's skin or causes blood to follow
| the pluckinR out Of q. feather. The al