The most important goose-growing district in the United States is that part of Rhode Island where the colony system of egg farming is used. This district is well adapted to goose growing. The winters are not severe, and the birds can have grass almost the year round. The breeding geese are often kept in pastures occupied by hens and cattle, but there are also many small ponds and marshy places used exclusively for geese. The absence of foxes makes it possible to keep them in fields a long way from the farmhouses, and for this reason many spots are used for geese which in other districts would be too exposed. The large flocks of hens in this district give an abundance of sitters to hatch the early goslings. As the person who looks after the sitting hens and the young chickens on one of these farms has to give the greater part of his time to that work for several months in the spring, he can often use the remaining time to best advantage by hatching and rearing a few hundred goslings. So a large proportion of the farms which specialize in eggs also specialize in geese. The numbers grown on a farm vary from 100 to 500, the average being between 200 and 300. To produce this average number, flocks of 15 or 20 geese and 4 or 5 ganders are kept. A flock of this kind does not mate miscellaneously, as a similar flock of ducks would. It is composed of as many families as there are ganders, and if the pasture is large, these families will remain separate a great deal of the time. The method of handling the geese on these farms differs from the ordinary farm method in that the work is done more systematically and more attention is given to the goslings while growing. They are grazed each year on new grassland. Most of them are sold unfatted, as soon as they are of full size, to men who make a business of fattening and dressing them. GOOSE-FATTENING FARMS [Illustration: Fig. 152. Goslings grazing on a Rhode Island farm]