Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/60

* GOOSE. 40 GOOSEBERRY. is chestnut, with the other part gray. The upper parts of the plumage of the body are gray and black, and the under parts are a pale yellow, penciled with black. Breeding. Geese are long-lived birds, some having been known to attain the age of forty j'ears. Birds fifteen and twenty year.s old are not uncommon. Mature geese, at least two years old, should alwiiys be used for breeding. Breed- ing stock .should be pastured in the tall, and later fed on grain with some beef scraps. Ten per cent, of the ration should be green feed, stewed clover and cooked vegetables. The eggs may be hatched by hens or by geese. When goslings are four or five days old they are able to take care of them- selves, but should always be cooped at night. The first food of goslings is grass fed as sod. and a little corn meal sometimes mixed with a little sand and charcoal. Very soon they may be fed a mixture of ground grains, grass, and vegetable food. When yoiuig geese are fattened they should be placed in a rather small pen so that they may not exercise too much, and should be fed three times a day a mixture of corn meal and beef scraps. They should he kept as quiet as possible. At ten weeks of age, or when the tips of the wings reach the tail, the}' should be ready for market. Geese require a wider range than do ducks, and. unlike the latter, will not do well un- less they have access to water. Economic Uses. Geese are valuable for their feathers, quills, eggs, and as food. The flesh is most commonly roasted. It contains on an aver- age some 18 per cent, refuse (waste, bones, etc.), and 82 per cent, edible portion. The edible por- tion has on an average the following percentage composition: Water, 46.7: protein, 16.3; fat, 36.2 : and ash, 0.8. Goose-livers are esteemed a delicacy. The liver, morbidly enlarged by ex- cessive feeding combined with lack of exercise, is used for making a delicately seasoned, paste-like food called pate de foie gras, for the manufacture of which Strassburg is especially famous. In Germany the breast is pickled and smoked under the name of Pomeranian goose-breast. Goose-fat is used to a large extent for culinary purposes, especially by IMohammedans and .Jews. Consult Howard, "Ducks and Geese," in Unifed States Department of Aqricultnre, Farmers' Bulletin ^^o. G'l (Washington, 1897). GOOSE, Tailor's. A name applied to the smoothing-iron used by tailors, and supposed to have been given on account of the shape of the handle, which somewhat resembles the neck of a goo.se. GOOSE-BARKTACLE. See Barnacle-Goose. GOOSEBERRY, gooz'ber-rl or goos'-. The fruit of a prickly shrub of the genus Ribes, order Grossulariaceee. The genus is common throughout the north temperate zone, being represented by numerous species in America, Kurope, and Asia, the great majority of which belong to North America. Of all these only four or five species have .attained prominence in cul- tivation. The cuiTant (q.v.) (Rihcs rtihriim) is one of the most important representatives of the genus, and carries its distribution into the Orient. In the gooseberry, however, we find <a very popu- lar shrub in both the New and the Old World ; it is especially prized in England, where it has at- tained its highest perfection, and where it has been in cultivation from the sixteenth century. Since it occurs only sparingly in Southern Eu- rope, where the grape thrives so well, it is little wonder that the gooseberry was neglected by the Greeks and Romans, even if they were familiar with it. The European gooseberry (liibcs grossu- laria) is in its natural state a strong-growing upright shrub with very formidable spines upon the branches and a hairy, more or less spiny, fruit. It is the progenitor of all the mammoth FRUITING TWIG OF GOOSEBERRY. fruited varieties which have caused so much emulation among the gardeners of England, who have produced fruits weighing as much as 30 pennyweights; the unimproved fruits hardly average four pennyweights in weight. Varieties of this species were brought to America by the early pioneers, but the climate was uncongenial, and they suffered from disease and soon perished. Not until the middle of the nineteenth century could America claim to have a cultivated goose- berry, and then only a seedling of one of the wild forms, Rihes oxgaeanthoides. common throughout the country. This was Houghton's seedling, which, however, is not the most common wild species even at its place of origin. Massachusetts. It was soon followed by one of its own progeny, Downing's seedling or Downing. The popularity and universal cultivation of these two, which are still in the lead, is due largely to their ability to resist mildew. With the advent of spraying to check plant diseases a new era opened for European gooseberries in America ; and since 1890 the English varieties have been planted with more assurance of success. There are now numerous hybrids of the European with native species, which promise to combine the resistant characters of the latter with the desirable size, color, and form of the former. The gooseberry is easily propagated by means of suckers, cuttings, and layers; cuttings are most frequently employed, as they grow readily and give a well-formed plant. The gooseberry thrives on all good arable soils and demands the same treatment as the currant. It is usually planted three by six feet apart in field culture, kept free from weeds, and sprayed with an arsenical poison early in the season to protect it from the worm which is as fond of it as it is of the currant. If the English varieties are grown the poison must be supplemented with a fungicide. The fruits nf the gooseberry are used extensively for jelly, jam, marmalade, etc., both in England and in America, The ripe fruits are also used to some extent in the manufacture of wines and vinegar. Besides the two species above mentioned, the fol- lowing species, being ornamental, should receive