15 28 @ 35c " "
22 25 @ 30c " "
29 27 @ 32c " "
1921 Jan. 5 26 @ 32c " "
12 26 @ 30c " "
19 25 @ 29c " "
26 25 @ 29c " "
Feb. 2 27 @ 33c " "
9 28 @ 33c " "
16 26 @ 32c " "
23 25 @ 26c " "
LIVE GEESE--VIA FREIGHT
1921 Mar. 2 25c per lb.
9 18 @ 20c " "
16 18 @ 20c " "
23 20c " "
30 20c " "
Apr. 6 15 @ 18c " "
13 15 @ 18c " "
20 15 @ 18c " "
27 15 @ 18c " "
May 4 14 @ 16c " "
11 14 @ 16c " "
18 14 @ 16c " "
25 14 @ 16c " "
June 1 14 @ 16c " "
LIVE GEESE--VIA EXPRESS
1920 Nov. 24 30 @ 33c per lb.
Dec. 1 30 @ 32c " "
8 32 @ 35c " "
15 30c " "
22 30c " "
29 28 @ 35c " "
1921 Jan. 5 29 @ 38c " "
12 28 @ 38c " "
19 28 @ 36c " "
26 27 @ 37c " "
Feb. 9 28 @ 40c " "
16 28 @ 42c " "
23 26 @ 28c " "
Mar. 2 25 @ 28c " "
9 20 @ 23c " "
16 18 @ 22c " "
23 18 @ 22c " "
30 20 @ 23c " "
Apr. 6 17 @ 20c " "
13 17 @ 20c " "
20 17 @ 21c " "
27 16 @ 20c " "
May 4 15 @ 18c " "
11 15 @ 18c " "
18 15 @ 18c " "
25 15 @ 18c " "
_Prejudice Against Roast Goose._ There exists on the part of some persons a prejudice against goose on the grounds that it is too greasy a dish. When improperly cooked, goose will prove to be too greasy to suit many fastidious palates but this condition is not so much the fault of the fowl as it is of the method of preparation and cooking. When dressed if the goose shows a large amount of abdominal fat, as it usually does and should, a large part of this should be removed. This fat when tried out is highly esteemed by many cooks and by other persons is treasured as an efficacious treatment for croup in children. Also while the goose is roasting, a part of the fat as it cooks out of the carca.s.s should be removed. Treated in this way one need have no fear that the roast goose will prove too greasy but instead one will be pleasantly surprised at the rich taste which the roast goose possesses.
_Methods of Fattening Geese for Market._ Many geese are sent to market without any special treatment or effort to fatten them, being taken right off pasture in such condition as they happen to be or at best with only a half-hearted attempt to fatten them by feeding a little corn or some other grain for a short period. When a real effort is made to fatten geese for the market it is generally done in one of three ways.
First is pen fattening which is the method best adapted to small lots of geese on the average farm. Second is by noodling which is only attempted in sections where the goose raisers are somewhat of specialists and where the effort is made to turn out geese of superior quality. Third is fattening in large flocks which is practiced only by a very limited number of farmers in scattered sections who take the unfattened geese raised on the general farms and finish them for market.
_Pen Fattening._ For this purpose the geese are put in pens large enough to hold them comfortably but without any yards. Not over 20 to 25 geese should be penned together for this purpose. To get the best results the geese should be kept as quiet as possible and to accomplish this the pens are partly darkened and the geese disturbed only at feeding time.
The geese are fed three times daily; in the morning, at noon and at night, being given all they will clean up. One feed should consist of a moist mash composed of one part shorts and two parts corn meal. This mash should not be sloppy. The other two feeds consist mainly of corn with some oats or barley. Some roughage such as vegetables or hay should also be supplied. The pens should be deeply bedded with good oat straw.
The geese will eat a considerable amount of this which thus helps to supply the roughage which they need. The straw also, of course, serves to keep the pen and the birds clean. A plentiful supply of good drinking water is also necessary. The usual period of fattening is three to five weeks and a gain of from 4 to 6 pounds per bird can be secured. This method of fattening is commonly used by goose raisers in Wisconsin and the geese from this state are noted for their fine quality.
A less intensive form of pen fattening is often used by farmers where a small yard is provided in addition to the pen itself and where no effort is made to darken the pen. If no other means for fattening are available, a small yard can be built, a few boards arranged for a shelter at one end and the birds fed in this enclosure as described above.
_Noodling Geese._ Noodling geese is a method of hand feeding which has for its purpose the production of the best fattened geese. It is not employed to any extent except in the section about Watertown, Wisconsin, where the farmers specialize to some extent on goose fattening. It is a method requiring long hours and tedious labor and cannot be profitably carried on unless a special price can be obtained for the product.
In noodling geese, 8 or 10 geese are placed in a pen about 8 by 12 feet which is heavily bedded with straw. A part.i.tion extends halfway across the pen and is utilized to keep the geese separate as they are fed.
Young ganders and any old ganders or geese which are to be marketed are used for noodling.
The pen is kept dark and the geese should be disturbed only at feeding time. The first feed is given at 5 o"clock in the morning and five feeds are given daily at about 4 hour intervals, the last feed coming at 11 p.
m. However, when the geese are first put on feed they are noodled only 3 times a day this being gradually increased to 5 times. The feeder sits on a box or stool in a corner of the pen, grasps each goose in turn holding it between his legs to keep it from struggling as he stuffs it with noodles. The goose is handled by its neck, never by its legs which are easily injured, and is held with its back toward the feeder. The feeder usually wears gloves to protect his hands from the severe bites which the birds will inflict. The feeder must also handle the birds as carefully as possible, especially as killing time approaches for the flesh bruises easily and the discolored patches spoil the appearance of the dressed goose.
The feeder at the start usually gives each goose from 3 to 5 noodles, gradually increasing this to 6 or 7 noodles if the birds will stand it, the number of noodles fed depending upon the size and condition of each bird, the feeder being obliged to use his judgment in this matter. In general if any feed can be felt in the craw, no noodles are given until the next feeding time. Failure to observe this is likely to cause the bird to go off feed. If any geese are noticed which are off feed they should be taken out and marketed.
The noodles are made of scalded corn meal, ground oats, ground barley and ground wheat or wheat flour, using equal parts of each. This material is thoroughly mixed and salted as one would bread and is then put through a sausage stuffer. The product as it comes from the stuffer is cut into noodles about 2 or 3 inches long and these are boiled for 10 or 15 minutes or until they float. A wash boiler with a wire rack forming a false bottom about 1 inches above the boiler bottom is used for this purpose. When cooked the noodles are dipped in cold water and then rolled in flour to keep them from sticking together. A supply of noodles is made which will last for 2 or 3 days" feeding.
Just before feeding, hot water is poured over the noodles to make them warm and slippery. The mouth of the goose is forced open and the noodles are put in, one at a time, and worked down by using the fingers on the outside of the neck. As each goose is fed it is placed on the other side of the part.i.tion until all in the pen have been fed. It is important that plenty of drinking water be kept before the geese.
The feeding period where geese are noodled usually extends from 3 to 4 weeks. Gains of 6 to 10 pounds per bird can be secured and often an increased price of 10 to 15 cents a pound can be secured for such specially fattened geese. Noodled geese will average about 25 pounds and some individuals have been made to weigh nearly 40 pounds. One man can noodle from 50 to 100 geese but has to put in long hours. Noodled geese should be dressed where fattened as they are soft fleshed and would shrink badly if shipped alive.
Fattening methods similar to the noodling described are used in parts of Europe for the production of the enlarged goose livers which are employed in making "patte de fois gras".
Methods Used on Fattening Farms
As previously mentioned, a few farmers make a specialty of buying the geese in their section of the country in the fall when it is too late for serious trouble to develop from hemorrhagic septicemia, a disease similar to fowl cholera, and to fatten or finish them in large flocks for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets. Methods are employed in different sections which differ quite widely.
On a farm in the Middle West the geese are collected from the general farms where they are produced in small flocks and brought to the farm where they are kept in flocks as large as 1,000 or even more, and are allowed to run in a cornfield or orchard. They are fattened for about a month. Corn on the cob and plenty of water is kept before the geese all the time and if they are running in a cornfield they eat the leaves off the corn stalks for roughage. Roughage is supplied if not available otherwise and straw, hay or vegetables are utilized for this purpose.
No shelter is provided during mild weather, the geese getting such protection as they can from the trees or corn stalks. If the weather turns unusually severe, the geese are generally driven into sheds or barns. When fattened the geese are usually shipped to some large market alive. Several farms in the neighborhood of Boston make a specialty of finishing geese each fall, and the methods used are quite different from those described above. No geese are raised on these farms, the operation being confined to the fattening or finishing of the geese and to killing and dressing them for the market. Some of these goose fatteners also have stalls or stands in the Boston markets where they are enabled to dispose of their fattened geese to the best advantage.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 55. Large flock of geese fattening in an orchard.
(_Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture._)]