Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1916-12-08

awe to New York city, being designed
largely for the Jewish trade.
D Geese Easy to Drive.
This trade exists all through the
season, but the dressed geese from
the Bay State Mansfield are intend
ed mostly for the Christmas market.
Or course the geese cannot be held I'M
til Christmas time before they care
killed, but those which are dressed
early in the fall go into cold storage,
where they can be kept several months
in perfect condition.
Geese can be driven over the road
even more easily than turkeys. When
nightfall comes turkeys make desper-
ate effort to find a roosting place,
wherever they may be, but geese can
be kept Flooding along with much
less trouble. w. II. Firke, who owns
the fattening farm in Illinois, has sent
his son as far away as Tennessee to
buy up geese. One year he bought
1000 in that state alone Another sea-
son this son travelled thousands Of
miles in nine weeks picking up geese,
mostly In small lots, for it is seldom
that farmer has more than q score or
two. Buying geese in scattered farm
ing sections means driving them long
distance over the road. Sometimes a
flock has been compelled to travel 60
miles before a convenient railroad sta
ton has been reached.
Wear Tar "Shoes."
AS Is quite natural, geese become
footsore when forced to walk long dis
tances, but Mr.. Firke long ago devised
a method of putting shoes on them,
which has proved very successful. The
birds are driven over thin coating
of soft pine tar and then through q
pile of sand. The tar sticks to their
feet and the sand sticks to the tar
so the geese are shod easily and eco
nomically.
The farm at Mansfield, Mass, is op-
Grated by Charles Austin, who has
been in the business for half q century
and is reported to have made for
tune in it. Mr.. Austin gets most of
his fall geese from Canada. They
come by train, being three days on the
way, housed in stock cars. They are
driven three miles from the station
to the farm, and then are given a
chance to take cleansing bath, which
they certainly need.
After a day or two the geese are
driven into yards with low wooden
fences, so geese to yard. Here they
remain for four weeks while being fed
all the cornmeal mash they will eat
This mash is mixed in a long metal
trough at the feedhOuse and dis
tributed from wagon, which also car
ries a hogshead of water. This plan
is quite different from the one followed
at the Mansfield Qll.) plant, for there
the geese are fattened on whole corn,
which is fed from huge hoppers, the
birds being allowed to help themselves.
Amazing gains are made at both
farms, and one method seems as good
as another. The geese are always very
thin when they arrive, perhaps weigh
ing only five or six pounds, but four
weeks of hard feeding will increase
this weight to nine, ten or perhaps
twelve pounds. Half bushel of corn,
Mr.. Firke estimates, is the amount
required to make a thin goose fat. 1t
takes an expert to know when goose
has reached the limit of its capacity,
for if it is not marketed then it is like
ly to- lose in weight or die.
Purebreds Not Killed.
Market geese are largely mongrels.
but progressive farmers are now keep
ing good strains of Emden, Toulouse
or other varieties. Some of the geese