Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/140

 artificially fattened of any other poultry birds. This is especially true in those regions where fatty goose livers are so highly prized in the manufacture of pâté de foie gras. By long-continued artificial feeding the goose is made excessively fat and the liver especially is changed in its composition by this treatment so as to make it peculiarly suitable for the production of this delicacy.

Varieties of Geese.—The varieties of geese upon the market comprise the following leading breeds. The Toulouse is perhaps the most extensively raised. It is highly prized on account of its hardihood, its size and the general appearance of its body. It is of a gray to white color and the wings are a deeper gray or brown. The legs are usually of a deep orange. When ready for the market the average weight of the gander is 20 pounds and the goose 18. Of the other common varieties there are the Embden, the African, the brown and white Chinese, the white or Canada, and the Egyptian. The latter is a small goose only weighing about half as much as the Toulouse when ready for the market. The wild goose is highly esteemed as a game bird.

Feeding of Young Geese for the Market.—The feeding of geese for the market begins as soon as the hatching is complete. The first meal of the young chicks consists of oat meal, middlings, finely chopped dandelions, lettuce or some similar green stuff, and milk. The goslings during the first week are kept indoors and should be fed four or five times a day on the mixture above named. After this they may go into a yard where there is plenty of grass, not over-*grown, and they will thrive on this very well for a time without hand feeding. Not more than two feedings a day are necessary between the ages of one and six weeks where plenty of grass is at hand. During this time no better food than ground oats and skimmed milk can be used. During all this period great care is taken that the goslings are not subjected to any disease or to cold. They should be carefully housed in sanitary coups where the temperature does not sink too low and where they are protected from cold rains. After the goslings are eight weeks old they are usually able to take care of themselves in respect of food and need, perhaps only one feeding a day. If these goslings are hatched in the early spring they may be ready for fattening for the Christmas market. The geese until shortly before the time for market are allowed to run free in a field, not too large, where there are ponds or troughs of water in abundance. In this way the frame of the goose will be sufficiently developed by the time the fattening period comes but there will have been no unusual expense in the production of the fowl until it is prepared for the market. The large frame is necessary in order that the goose may properly fatten. It usually requires about three weeks of artifical feeding to bring a goose into proper condition for the market. If the geese are for the Christmas market about the 25th of November they are put up in sheds for fattening for though they have been well fed during the summer and autumn they cannot be called fat geese until they have gone through a special course of nutrition. While they are confined for