Every so often I will publish material that did not make the script of “Marsh Fen and Town”. The following published in 1801[i] is an account of the rearing of geese in Lincolnshire and elsewhere giving some detail of the techniques with specific mention of Pinchbeck near Spalding. It makes grim reading, but it does illustrate the importance of this bird to the rural economy and the cruel methods in ensuring the maximisation of production and profit from the birds.
The Management of tame Geese, as yielding considerable Profit, will warrant our digression in giving the following Account of them :-They are kept in vast multitudes in the Fens of Lincolnshire ; a single person will keep a thousand old Geese, each of which will rear seven; so that at the end of the year he will become misier[ii] of eight thousand. The Goose in general breeds only once in a year, but will frequently have two Hatches in a Season , if well kept. The time of sitting is about Thirty days. They will also produce Eggs sufficient for three Broods if the Eggs are taken away in Succession. During the breeding Season these Birds are lodged in the same houses with their Owners, and even in their Bed -chambers ; three rows of wicker pens are placed , one above another in every Apartment; each Bird has its separate lodge divided from the other, which it keeps possession of during the time of sitting .
A person called a Gozzard attends the flock , and twice a day drives the whole to Water ; then brings them back to their Habitations, helping those that live in the upper Stories to their Nests, without ever misplacing a single Bird . The Geese are plucked five times in the year , the first plucking is at Lady Day for feathers and quills, and the same is renewed, for feathers only , four times more between that and Michaelmas : the old Geese submit quietly to the Operation, but the young ones are very noisy and unruly , Goslings of six weeks old are not spared, their Tails being plucked to habituate them, as it is said, to the Ceremony. About ten pluckers are employed, each with a coarse apron up to his Chin.
Should the Weather prove cold, numbers of the Geese perish from this barbarous Custom. In the Annals of Agriculture it is said , the time of Plucking is about the beginning of April; when the fine feathers of their breasts and backs should be gently and carefully plucked. Care must be taken not to pull or intercept their Down or Pin feathers.
The Quills should be pulled five out of a Wing : they will bear pulling in thirteen or fourteen Weeks again , or twice in a year, the Feathers three times a year of the old Geese and Ganders, seven Weeks from each pulling. The young Geese may be pulled at thirteen or fourteen Weeks old , but not quilled, being hatched in March ; but when late in hatching, the brood Geese should not be plucked so soon as April, but the Month after. When well fed with Barley and Oats they thrive and do better, and their feathers grow faster and are better in Quality, than where it is omitted. They must constantly have plenty of Grass and Water .
Mr. Young[iii], in his Agricultural Report of Lincolnshire, says, “ In many parts of this Fenny District, vast advantage is made by the frequent plucking of the Geese. At Pinchbeck , it is the practice to pluck them five times in the year, viz. at Lady Day , Midsummer, Lammas, Michaelmas, and Martinmas. The feathers of a dead Goose are worth threepence a-head per annum . Some wing them only every Quarter, taking ten feathers from each Goose, which sell for five shillings a thousand. Plucked Geese pay in feathers one shilling a -head in Wildmore Fen ."
Vast numbers of Geese are driven annually to London from distant Counties to supply the markets ; among them all the superannuated Geese and Ganders (called Cagmags[iv],) which, by a long course of plucking, prove uncommonly tough and dry. In 1783, one Drove of above nine thousand passed through Chelmsford ; Droves of two or three thousand are common. The Feathers are a considerable article of Commerce ; those from Somersetshire are deemed the best, and those from Ireland the worst.
The common price of Geese in Wiltshire, without the Feathers, is regulated by that of Mutton, both being the same by the pound : the usual weight of a fine Goose is from twelve to sixteen pounds ; but it is scarcely credible how far this may be increased by cramming them with Beanmeal, and other fattening diet ; and the Victims destined for this surfeit are by some nailed to the floor, by the webs of the feet, which causes no pain, and is meant to prevent the least probability of Action ; to which, we are told , the French add the refinement of putting out their Eyes. To what weight they arrive in France is not said , but it has been asserted in England , they have been fed up to weigh twenty -eight, and even thirty pounds. Poulterers who are clever, fatten their Fowls, as well as Geese, by mixing Gin with their food , by which they are said to become sleepy, and fatten a - pace ; and probably acquire enlarged Livers, as Swine are said to do which are fed at the Distilleries !
In Languedoc, in France, the method of fattening Geese is, after the bird has got its full flesh by feeding on green food , so soon as the Frost is set in (usually towards the end of November, ) they are shut up to the number of ten or twelve ( never more ), in a still place, where no Light is to be seen , nor the Cries of the Geese which are kept for laying can be heard. In this prison they remain until they have acquired the greatest degree of fatness ; that moment must be seized for killing them, otherwise they would very soon turn lean, and die.
Two modes of fattening are employed : the first is ,by filling a Trough with a grain called Sarde, (which perhaps may be Buck Wheat, for it is not clear what kind of grain is denoted by the word Sarde), so that the Geese may eat whenever they please. Those fattened on this food are very delicate. Others put into the Trough, grains of Maize boiled in Water ; of this they give them plenty, carefully keeping the Coop clean. In two or three weeks the Geese are all fully fattened : they are then taken from the Coop, and allowed to go at large into the Water for twenty - four hours: without this precaution, their flesh would have a disagreeable flavour. The second , which may be called the artificial method, is , by shutting the Geese up as before, and cramming them twice a -day , putting into their Craw, by means of a tinned Tube, as much as it will contain of Maize, boiled in Water ; by this feeding the Geese attain a prodigious fatness, so that a pair sometimes weigh from fifty to sixty pounds. Their Liver weighs from one pound to a pound and a half, is white, but has a slight bitterness in its taste, which a Duck's liver has not. The hearts are large, like a small apple, and when boiled are excellent eating ; the feet are first boiled , and then with the Tongue are fried .
[i] Daniels Rural Sports 1801
[ii] “misier” is a word derived from middle English the nearest meaning in modern language is “to own something for profit or trade”
[iii] Arthur Young did tours of English farms and reported his findings as secretary to the Board of Agriculture in 1771 publishing a book of his findings.
[iv] “cagmags” is a word derived from Nottinghamshire through to Lincolnshire meaning “worn out” or “of no further use”.
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