Geese are not a profitable bird to raise, unless in places where they can procure their own subsistence, or at least during the greater part of the year. This they are enabled to do, wherever there are extensive commons of unpastured lands, or where there are streams or ponds, lakes or marshes with shoal sedgy banks. In these, they will live and fatten throughout the year, if unobstructed by ice. They may be fed on all kinds of grain and edible roots, but it is more economical to give them their food cooked. The well-fattened gosling affords one of the most savory dishes for the table.
Geese live to a great age. They have been known to exceed 100 years. If allowed a free range on good food and clean water, they will seldom get diseased. When well fed, they yield nearly a pound of good feathers in a season, at three or four pluckings; and the largest varieties even exceed this quantity.
DUCKS
Are more hardy and independent of attention than the goose, and they are generally the most profitable. They are omnivorous, and greedily eat every thing which will afford them nourishment, though they seldom forage on the grasses like the goose, when they can procure other food.
They are peculiarly carnivorous, and devour all kinds of meat, putrid or fresh; and are especially fond of fish, and such insects, worms, and other creeping things, as they can find imbedded in the mud or elsewhere. They will often distend their crop with young frogs, almost to the ordinary size of their bodies. Their indiscriminate appetite often renders them unfit for the table, unless fattened out of the reach of garbage and offensive matters. An English admiral used to resort to well-fattened rats for his fresh meat when at sea, and justified his taste by saying, they were more cleanly feeders than ducks, which were general favorites.
The most profitable for domestic use, is undoubtedly the _common black duck_. They lay profusely in the spring, when well fed, often producing 40 or 50 eggs, and sometimes a greater number, if kept from setting.
They are much larger than those of the hen, and equally rich and nourishing, but far less delicate. They are careless in their habits, and generally drop their eggs wherever they happen to be through the night, whether in the water, the road, or farm-yard; and as might be expected from such prodigality of character, they are indifferent setters and nurses.
The _ducklings_ are better reared by setting the eggs under a sedate, experienced hen, as the longer time necessary for hatching, requires patience in the foster-mother to develop the young chick. They should be confined for a few days, and away from the water. At first they may be fed with bread, or pudding made from boiled oat, barley, or Indian meal; and they soon acquire strength and enterprise enough to shift for themselves, if afterwards supplied with pond or river water. They are fit for the table when fully grown, and well fattened on clean grain.
This is more economically accomplished by feeding it cooked.
_The varieties_ of ducks are almost innumerable. Main describes 31, and some naturalists number over 100. Besides the black duck above described, several others, as the _light gray_, the _white duck_, and some of the _tufted_, are prolific, hardy, and profitable.
We omit further notice of other varieties; and of the swan, brant, pigeons, &c., as not profitable for general rearing, and only suited to ornamental grounds.