For breeding not more than four geese should be kept to one gander. Their breeding powers continue to more than twenty years old. It is often difficult to distinguish the sexes, no one sign being infallible except close examination. The goose lays early in a mild spring, or in an ordinary season, if fed high throughout the winter with corn, and on the commencement of the breeding season on boiled barley, malt, fresh grains, and fine pollard mixed up with ale, or other stimulants; by which two broods may be obtained in a year. The common goose lays from nine to seventeen eggs, usually about thirteen, and generally carries straws about previously to laying. Thirteen eggs are quite enough for the largest goose to sit on. They sit from thirty to thirty-five days. March or early April is the best period for hatching, and the geese should therefore begin to sit in February or early March; for goslings hatched at any time after April are difficult to rear. Food and water should be placed near to her, for she sits closely. She ought to leave her nest daily and take a bath in a neighbouring pond. The gander is very attentive, and sits by her, and is vigilant and daring in her defence. When her eggs are placed under a common hen they should be sprinkled with water daily or every other day, for the moisture of the goose's breast is beneficial to them. (See page 50.) A turkey is an excellent mother for goslings. She should be cooped for a few days on a dry grass-plot or meadow, with grain and water by her, of which the goslings will eat; and they should also be supplied with chopped cabbage or beet leaves, or other green food. They must have a dry bed under cover and be protected from rats. Their only dangers are heavy rains, damp floors, and vermin; and they require but little care for the first fortnight; while the old birds are singularly free from maladies of all kinds common to poultry. When a fortnight old they may be allowed to go abroad with their mother and frequent the pond. "It has been formerly recommended," says Mowbray, "to keep the newly-hatched gulls in house during a week, lest they get cramp from the damp earth; but we did not find this indoor confinement necessary; penning the goose and her brood between four hurdles upon a piece of dry grass well sheltered, putting them out late in the morning, or not at all in severe weather, and ever taking them in early in the evening. Sometimes we have pitched double the number of hurdles, for the convenience of two broods, there being no quarrels among this sociable and harmless part of the feathered race. We did not even find it necessary to interpose a parting hurdle, which, on occasion, may be always conveniently done. For the first range a convenient field containing water is to be preferred to an extensive common, over which the gulls or goslings are dragged by the goose, until they become cramped or tired, some of them squatting down and remaining behind at