The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-11-12
GEESE LAY NO GOLDEN EGGS
BUT THEY DO LAY PROFITS
More Raising Of These Fowl Suggested as Source Of
Cheaper Meat-Ten is Fair Average for an Acre
Advice on Their Management
Especial information Service u Department Agricultural

OF a mash or dough of two-thirds
shorts (niiddlings) and one-third
corn meal, which can be made Of
equal parts sorts and corn meal, with
5 per cent Of beef scrap added after
the goslings are six weeks old. Bread
and milk make an excellent feed for
young goslings. Fine grit or sharp
sand should also be available in win
ter If goslings are to be fattencd
the ration should be changed to one
third shorts and two thirds corn
meal by weight, with 5 per cent of
beef scrap added, while a feed Of
corn should be given at night
Most geese breeders do not confine
their geese for fattening, but feed
them freely a few weeks on a fatten-
ing ration before they are to be mar
keted. The geese may be confined
for two on three weeks and fattened,
but some green fed cor vegetables
should be added to the ration.
Adult geese may be fed for egg
production on a mash of one pound
Of corn meal, one of bran, one of
middlings or low-grade -four, and 10
per cent of beef scrap, which is fed
in the morning; equal parts of corn
and wheat, or corn alone lis fed at
night Grit and oyster shell should
be kept before geese when they are
laying and may be provided all the
time to advantage. A constant sup
ply of drinking water should always
be available under protection so that
the geese can not get their feet into
the water. Cut clover, hay, alfalfa,
slage, cabbages, mangel-wurzel beets
OF any waste vegetables may be fed
during the winter months.
GEESE FATTENED IN CON-
FINEMENT
Young geese when fully feathered
are fattened in large numbers by
buyers who make a Speciality of
this business. Six to eipht geese are
generally confined for three weeks in
Il pen and fed by hand FIVE times
daily on a mixture of two parts of
corn meal and one part of ground
wheat and sifted ground oats mixed
with enough low grade flou. make
stiff batter when water Is added.
This mixture is put through a sau-
sage suffer, cut into pieces two iach-
es long AID one inch thick, rolled in
flour, and cooked like dumplings.
The material is fed warm, and after
cooking the pieces are dipped in cold
water to keep them from sticking to-
gether Another method is to con-
fle the geese in large pens under a
shed for from three to five weeks and
keep whole corn in hoppers before
them all the time, using oat straw for
bedding, as this material is a good
source of roughage, particularly
where corn silage is used as a sup
plement
Nearly all breeders of geese in the
south pluck the feathers from the live
geese at some time prior to melting.
Some pick every six weeks during
the spring, summer and early fall,
while others pick only once or twice
a year Feathers are ripe for picking
when the quilts appear dry and do
not contain blood. The average year
ly production of feathers of geese is
about IL pound. The demand for
goose feathers and the practice of
plucking geese appear to be decreas-
ing, attention being concentrated on
the production of young geese for
market