The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-25
PLUCK|NG LIVE GEESE
An Operation Necessary to Pro-
 cure Good Feathers.
LOCKING THE BIRDS WINGS.

This Trick Performed and Their Legs
 Bandssed Together, the Helpless
 Geese Are Ready, if Not Willing, Vie-
 tims For the Expert Piekers.
 "Yes." said a manufacturer and deal- CT in bed furnishings. 'it 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 they must have feather beds and pillows. Dead goose feathers are not much better than husks to lie on and baye not that great virtue of husks- wholesomeness.
 They say it doesn't hurt a goose to plu- it, but it seems to me that one might as we'll say that it wouldn't hurt a man to have his whiskers yanked out by the handful. The reason they give for believing goose doesn't suffer when it's feathers are being plucked out of it is that it never squawks or squeaks or makes a fuss while the plucking is going on.
 Now. 1 believe it hurts a goose like the mischief to have its feathers pulled out. coming as they do from the ten- derest spots on it's body. and the req son the f. WI doesn't utter any protest prompted by pain is. according to the way have sized geese up. because it is such blame fool. A goose will squawk and chatter and cackle as if it were suffering more agony than 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 for get that it has a voice and will take all the punishment you give it without a further word.
 ''The< Pennsylvania Dutch farmers pluck geese today just the san.e as their forbears did time out of mind, and don't know as there is any other way. It certainly couldn't be made any pleasanter for the goose unless the plucker 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 inclosure used for the purpose The perspicacity of geese may be strikingly made known to you when they are being rounded up in such an inclosure if there should happen to be knothole 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- nore it and try its best to get through the knothole. 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 man or 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- far arrangement of the two near the shoulder. and, while they are not tied or fastened in any other way. the lock is such that no goose can unlock 1t. The goose's feet are tied together with a broad band of soft muslin. Then it is ready for the plucker.
 "The pluckers. who are almost al- ways women. go among the geese with their heads and faces entirely covered with hoods fastened around the neck with shirr string. There are holes in 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 glazed muslin garment to which no feather or down will cling. The pluckers will sit on tow stools around large and perfectly dry tub. Each takes in her lap goose made helpless by it's 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 rarely breaks the goOse's skin or causes blood to follow the plucking out of feather. The air is constantly filled with the light feath- CTS during the plucking. but they set tie into the tub at last.
 "But there isn't as much call for the goose to undergo this raping of its feathers as there used to be. Not one pound of goose feathers is used today where there were fifty pounds twenty five years ago. Odd as it may seem, asthma and hay fever long ago began to have good deal to do with decreas- ing the demand for feather beds and ma and hay fever had an aftiuity for such couches and head rests; that nothing would start an asthmatic of for q cheerful nights wheczing so quickly as feather bed. This discoy. cry spread, and the goose owes great deal of it's later day comfort to the