The management of them in the vicinity of London is thus detailed in a communication to Mr. Moubray :— " Cleanliness, punctuality, and regularity prevail; the business is conducted as it were by machinery, rivalling the vibrations of the pen dulum in uniformity of movement. The grand object of preparing, not geese only, but poultry in general, for market, in as short a time as possible, is effected solely by paying unremitting attention to their wants; in keeping them thoroughly clean ; in supplying them with proper food (dry, soft, and green), water, exercise ground, &c. On arriving at the feeder's, they are classed according to condition, &e. : they soon become reconciled to their new abode, and to each other. They are fed three times a day ; and it is truly astonishing how soon they acquire the knowledge of the precise time ; marching from the exercise ground to the pens like soldiers in close column. Goslings, or young geese, come to hand generally about the month of March, after which a regular and constant supply arrives weekly throughout the season. At first they are fed on soft meat, consisting of prime barley or oat meal, afterwards on dry corn. An idea prevails with many that any sort of corn will do for poultry : this is a grand mistake. Those who feed largely know better, and invariably make it a rule to buy the best. The Messrs. Boyce, of Stratford, whose pens are capable of holding the extraordinary number of four thousand geese, inde pendent of ducks, turkeys, &c., consume twenty coombs of oats daily, exclusive of other food." But though green geese bring an enormous price in the spring, if thoroughly fat, farmers generally find it more profitable to feed gosling on the stubbles, where they supply themselves with the beet food without cost, and become sufficiently fat at Michaelmas, when ancient custom renders them a favourite dish. In the neighbourhood of the extensive commons in England great numbers of geese are kept.
Though young geese are subject to a disease called the cramp, the greater number of those which die in summer are destroyed by star vation, and the change from corn, and other nutritive food, to the miserable herbage which the fields and commons yield ; and this con stitutes their chief diet until the harvest season. Cold and wet weather are often fatal to them in the earlier months, if they be neglected. Much mortality also prevails amongst grown geese, wherever the horrible system of plucking them alive prevails; as in Lincolnshire and in Ireland. It is generally urged in excuse for this barbarity, that feathers are most elastic and valuable before the period of moulting, and that geese have been thus treated ever since feather-beds came iuto fashion. The offence carries some punishment with it ; for it renders the flesh very tough, and in many respects deteriorates the value of a bird, if it does not destroy it altogether ; but tho immediate gain from the feathers counterbalances this and every humane con sideration.
The cramming system is practised in France, when the object is to render the liver unnaturally enlarged by disease, with circumstances of great cruelty. We do not intend to give any information upon practices which we cannot recommend, and which we strongly condemn.
Digs.—The most certain way of preserving eggs fresh is by greasing them with some unctuous matter, or immersing them in a strong solution of lime. In packing, they should be laid on end ; for other wise the yolks, preserving their centre of gravity, fall to the lowest side, and by adhesion to it become tainted sooner than if they were suspended in the centre. [Eao TRADE.] The only management, besides warmth and high feeding, by which a perpetual succession of eggs can be obtained in winter, is by having pullets and hens of different ages, which, moulting at different periods, are not all incapacitated from laying contemporaneously.