Live Stock.——Pigeons—Inconveniences of keeping of. 1213

In many parts of this fenny diftrict vaft advantage is made by the frequent pluck- ing of the geefe. At Pinchbeck it is the practice to pluck them five times in the year, as at Lady-day, Midfummer, Lammas, Michaelmas, and Martinmas. The feathers of a dead goofe are worth 6d. three giving a pound. But plucking alive does not yield more than 3d. a head per annum. Some wing them only every quarter, taking ten feathers from each goofe, which fell at 5s. a thoufand, Plucked gecfe pay in feathers 1s. a head in Wildmore Fen*,

In the fattening of green geefe, care fhould be taken that a little green food be given them along with the oats or other grain that may be employedfor the purpofe when they are put up,and that they be well fupplied with water and fand. A fort- night or three weeks is long enough for this purpofe, if they be well and regu- larly fed; but, in the fattening of the older geefe, there will not be any neceflity for the green food. The place ir which they are confined with this view fhould neither be too light, nor too public in its fituation, as they do not feed fo well where thefe points are not attended to. They fhould likewife be at a diftance, fo as to be out of the hearing of the old or ftore-geefe.

Befides the benefits that may be derived from gecfe in the feathers and the birds as food, it feems not improbable but that they might be made to produce a confiderable advantage in the way of manure, if managed under a fyftem of con- ftant littering with ftraw, fern, or fome other fubftance of the fame kind, as from the great quantity of grafs they confume the difcharge in the night is very confiderable.

Pigeons. Though pigeon-houfes are common on many farms, it is in very few inftances, probably, that this kind of ftock, when the various difadvantages of it are confidered, can be converted to much profit by the farmer. It is well remarked by an intelligent cultivator, that“ the increafe of pigeons beyond a certain degree muft doubtlef$ be injurious to the cultivation of grain: within due bounds, they do little harm; but increafed beyond it, they prove pernicious vermin both to the new-fuwn crops and the early part of harvelt. They are particularly voracious in early peas; therefore the advantage arifing from their increafe for confumption as food, is more than counterbalanced by the mifchief occafioned by their depredations+.” And in Norfolk, pigeons are much fewer than formerly, as many of the pigeon-houfes have been dropped, on account of the injury which the pigeons do to thatched buidingst. The fameis the cafe in Kent and other countigs.

* Young’s Agricultural Report of Lincolnfhire. - Pitt’s Correéted. Report of Staifordfhire. t Ibid. of Norfolk. P+

j } . :