subject to disease and therefore losses are small.
Geese live and breed for a long time and this makes it possible to turn
off to market a larger proportion of the young stock reared than is the
case with most other classes of poultry. For all of these reasons,
therefore, a small flock of geese will return a good profit to the
farmer without having to supply any great amount of equipment or without
having to feed very much in the way of expensive feeds. In addition to
the geese which can be marketed, the maintenance of a small flock also
helps to provide a variety in the farmer's diet by furnishing suitable
birds for the holiday seasons such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In addition to the opportunity for goose raising in small flocks on
general farms there likewise exists a definite opportunity to specialize
along this line somewhat more extensively. In certain places, notably
the state of Wisconsin, goose raising becomes a more important activity
on some farms than merely that of a by-product. Larger numbers are
reared and special steps are taken in fattening and finishing them for
market either by means of pen fattening or by means of hand fattening or
noodling the geese. Geese so finished for market bring a special price
and allow a good profit to the raiser for the time which he has put into
them.
An outgrowth of the goose raising industry which has been worked to a
limited extent consists of the gathering together of the geese raised in
any particular portion of the country on one farm and the feeding of
them there in large flocks in the fields so as to fatten them for
market. There are not many of these special fattening farms but several
persons in different sections of the country who have made a practice
of gathering together and marketing the geese in this way have found it
very profitable. Probably a similar opportunity exists in certain other
sections where goose raising on the farms in small numbers is common and
where no one has yet made the effort to collect and fatten the geese
before marketing them.
While geese are not exhibited to the same extent as chickens, still
there will always be found a market for birds of good quality, both for
the purpose of exhibition and also as breeders to be used in improving
the stock of other goose raisers.
_Goose Raising as a Business for Farm Women._ Like turkey raising goose
raising as a side line on the farm offers an excellent money making
opportunity for the farm women. Without any great outla