as Englishmen will never think of. They will get fat enough
without the use of any of these unfeeling means being employed. He who can
deliberately inflict _torture_ upon an animal, in order to heighten the
pleasure his palate is to receive in eating it, is an abuser of the
authority which God has given him, and is, indeed, a tyrant in his heart.
Who would think himself safe, if at the _mercy_ of such a man? Since the
first edition of this work was published, I have had a good deal of
experience with regard to geese. It is a very great error to suppose that
what is called a Michaelmas goose is _the thing_. Geese are, in general,
eaten at the age when they are called green geese; or after they have got
their full and entire growth, which is not until the latter part of
October. Green geese are tasteless squabs; loose flabby things; no rich
taste in them; and, in short, a very indifferent sort of dish. The
full-grown goose has solidity in it; but it is _hard_, as well as solid;
and in place of being _rich_, it is strong. Now, there is a middle course
to take; and if you take this course, you produce the finest birds of
which we can know any thing in England. For three years, including the
present year, I have had the finest geese that I ever saw, or ever heard
of. I have bought from twenty to thirty every one of these years. I buy
them off the common late in June, or very early in July. They have cost me
from two shillings to three shillings each, first purchase. I bring the
flock home, and put them in a pen, about twenty feet square, where I keep
them well littered with straw, so as for them not to get filthy. They have
one trough in which I give them dry oats, and they have another trough
where they have constantly plenty of clean water. Besides these, we give
them, two or three times a day, a parcel of lettuces out of the garden. We
give them such as are going to seed generally; but the better the lettuces
are, the better the geese. If we have no lettuces to spare, we give them
cabbages, either loaved or not loaved; though, observe, the white cabbage
as well as the white lettuce, that is to say, the loaved cabbage and
lettuce, are a great deal better than those that are not loaved. This is
the food of my geese. They thrive exceedingly upon this food. After we
have had the flock about ten days, we begin to kill, and we proceed once
or twice a week till about the middle of October, sometimes later. A great
number of person