The American fowl-breeder; containing full information on breeding, rearing, diseases, and management of domestic poultry: also, instructions ... of pure stock, crossing, caponizing, &c., &c

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1850 Excerpt: ...fed on such green food as they can provide for themselves; but if they get a few boiled potatoes occasionally, bruised up with a little bran, and not given too warm, they will be raised for the market at scarcely any cost, and will, consequently, be found very profitable to the farmer. Market gardeners should never be without geese, which would consume all their refuse, and bring money into their masters' pockets, in return for their consumption of what would otherwise be wasted. Various measures have been adopted for fattening geese. Goslings, produced in June or July, will fatten without other food than what they will have afforded them on the stubble fields, as soon as they are ready to consume it; but if you are in haste, give potatoes, turnips, or other roots, bruised with meal, at least once daily. The goose is very voracious, and only requires to get plenty to eat in order to accumulate fat. Geese, fed chiefly on grass and corn, as I have described, do not, perhaps, attain the same bulk with such as are crammed; but their fat is less rank, and they are altogether much more desirable for the table. Early geese require home-feeding, as they have no stubble fields. The London feeders, therefore, when they receive goslings from the country about March or April, feed them, first, on meal from the best barley or oats made into a liquid paste, and, subsequently, with corn, to give greater firmness and consistence to their fat. M. Parmentier describes the French process of fattening. This consists in plucking the feathers from the belly, giving them abundance to eat and drink, cooping them up closely, and keeping them clean and quiet. The month of November is the best time to fatten geese. If the process be delayed longer, the pairing season approaches, whic...