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Show WILL YOU HAVEIET-M GOOSE FOR n-Y-s CHRISTMAS ? .o; l J1 The bird is yearly becoming becom-ing more popular as holiday holi-day season meat : : How Ihey are raised and fattened fat-tened for market : : Their value to the farmer : : 7 t l "IE Christmas season has come Tto be the harvest time for the goose growers. Although the Christmas goose is not quite as important a bird as the Thanksgiving turkey, it ' bids fair to be in years to come, for even now there Is a very large and growing demand. Geese arg very popular across the water, wa-ter, and immigrants are bringing their fondness for goose flesh to America. At any rate thousands of geese have been killed for this season's Christmas dinner, according to an article in Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania Grit. Asa rule, goose growing is carried on only In a small way by most farmers, farm-ers, for these birds cannot be confined in yards like chickens, at least not with any profit. They are heavy eaters, eat-ers, but, unlike other poultry, they prefer grass. When pastured out they will graze like cattle. It is estimated that six geese require about the same amount of pasturage as one cow, but they can be kept on low and marshy land that Is not desirable for cows. There is a section of Rhode Island along the coast where almost every farmer seems to have a flock of geese. These geese pay well, too, for they are kept on waste land and require but very little grain. Thousands Shipped From Canada. Large numbers of geese are raised in Wisconsin, Michigan and states farther far-ther south. Much goose farming Is also done in Quebec, and on Prince Edward's Ed-ward's Island, and a large proportion of the geese grown there comes to the United States. At least 15,000 geese are shipped across the border every season. Many farmers make no attempt to fatten the geese which they grow, but setl them to men who operate large fattening plants. Often geese are brought to these plants from farms hundreds of miles away, sometimes being be-ing driven over the road and sometimes some-times being transported by train or in wagons. By a curious coincidence the largest goose fattening farm in the East Is located at Mansfield, Mass., while the largest farm in the West is at Mansfield, III. Each fattens from 10,000 to 20,000 geese a season, but while the Massachusetts geese are all killed and dressed at the farm, those fattened in Illinois are shipped WW TH6 BOTHER. MHKNG V.'JM 0t" NNCrNCi OPN tVtRYONS"l pjrsi MISTLETOE. FORAtLSt fcboOTP ii to New York city, being designed largely for the Jewish trade. Geese Easy to Drive. This trade exists all through the season, but the dressed geese from the Bay State Mansfield are intended intend-ed mostly for the Christmas market. Of course the geese cannot be held until un-til Christmas time before they are 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 a desperate desper-ate effort to find a roosting place, wherever they may be, but geese can be kept plodding along with much less trouble. W. H. Pirke, who owns the fattening farm in Illinois, has sent his son as far away as Tennessee to buy up geese. One year he bought 2,000 in that state alone. Another season sea-son this son traveled thousands of miles in nine weeks picking up geese, mostly in small lots, for it is seldom that a farmer has more than a score or two. Buying geese in scattered farming farm-ing sections means driving them a long distance over the road. Sometimes a flock has been compelled to travel 60 miles before a convenient railroad station sta-tion has been reached. Wear Tar "Shoes." As is quite natural, geese become footsore when forced to walk long distances, 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 a thin coating of soft pine tar and then through a pile of sand. The tar sticks to their feet and the sand sticks to the tar, so the geese are shod easily and economically. eco-nomically. The farm at Mansfield, Mass., Is operated op-erated by Charles Austin, who has been in the business for half a century and is reported to have made a fortune for-tune in it. Mr. Austin gets most of his fall geese from Canada. They come by train, being three days on the way, l oused In stock cars. They are driven three miles from the station to the farm, and then are given a chance to take a cleansing bath, which they certainly need. After a day or two the geese are driven into yards with low wooden fences, 50 geese to a 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 distributed dis-tributed from a wagon, which also carries car-ries a hogshead of water. This plan is quite different from the one followed at the Mansfield (111.) 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 weighing 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 a bushel of corn, Mr. Firke estimates, is the amount required to make a thin goose fat. It takes an expert to know when a goose has reached the limit of its capacity, for if it is not marketed then it is likely like-ly to lose in weight or die. Purebreds Not Killed. Market geese are largely mongrels, but progressive farmers are now keeping keep-ing good strains of Emilcn, Toulouse or other varieties. Some of the geese from Prince Edward's island are Canadian Cana-dian wild geese which have been domesticated, do-mesticated, and they sell very well in the East. Canadian geese, crossed with the more common varieties, make good market birds. One distinct advantage in keeping geese lies in the fact that the same breeders may be retained for years. Geese live to good old ages ; indeed, one sometimes hears of octogenarians. |