house fruit appears to be expanding excessively, with the system of distribution as it exists at present. But it is to be observed that there is a very wide margin between the prices paid by consumers of flowers and fruit and those received by producers, partly owing to a cumbrous and extravagant system of distribution, and that it is probable that a very great increase in the consumption of these products might be developed by more economical methods of supply. Some improvement in this respect has taken place in recent years, with the assistance of the railway companies, and it is to be hoped that progress in this direction will be continuous. It remains to tender my sincere thanks to the numerous gentlemen named in these reports as having allowed me to see their nurseries or plantations, and given me valuable informa tion. 70 Onslow Gardens, Highgate, N. WILLIAM E. BEAR, GEESE AND GEESE-BREEDING. It is recorded that on the grave of a good housewife the ancient Greeks placed the figure of a goose, as a tribute to her quality of vigilance. And to the same useful instinct is attributed the saving of Rome when in danger of capture by the Gauls, who were hard-pressing the Empire City nearly four hundred years before the Christian era. The birds which rendered this invaluable service had been spared, in spite of great scarcity of food, as they were sacred to Juno. But records of the goose can be traced back to an even more remote antiquity, if we may accept the testimony given to us on some of the tablets in the tomb of Tighe, in Egypt, for there is shown the system of cramming these birds by pellets of food. Certainly no member of the poultry yard has so long been brought into the service of man. Its chief claim to favour, however, has been by reason of its economic value. Hehn tells us that "by the Greeks the goose was considered a graceful bird, admired for its beauty, and an elegant present for favoured friends," but either the goose or our taste has changed, for no one now thinks of keeping the ordinary varieties for ornamental purposes, though the Egyptian is sometimes used in this manner. Throughout the centuries it has been cultivated for its flesh, its feathers-for did not Pliny lament that the Romans had arrived at such a state VOL. X. T. 8.-38 Y of effeminacy that even the men could not lie down to rest without a feather pillow?-and, ere the days of steel pens, for its quills, by means of which the writing of the world was done. during many centuries. We are, therefore, dealing with a species which has been a servant of man in many ways, and has had the good fortune to preserve more of its earlier type than any other race of bird under domestication. Darwin says that, "hardly any other anciently domesticated bird or quadruped has varied so little," and this statement is supported by naturalists generally. ORIGIN OF GEESE. Charles Unlike the domestic fowl and the turkey, neither of which is indigenous to Europe, the former coming from Asia and the latter from America, the goose in its wild form is a denizen of Europe and North Africa, and this fact doubtless explains much in relation to it. But members of the same family are known in other parts of the globe. Hehn indicates that references to the goose are found in Sanskrit writings, and says that "it would be rash to conclude from this that the goose was a tame domestic animal among the primitive Aryan stock before the Great Migration; it was doubtless well known and much sought after on the lakes and streams, and in the swampy lowlands, as it is now among the nomads and half-nomads of Central Asia. Where it was still abundant and easy to obtain there was no necessity for breeding it artificially in confinement; and so long as men's manner of life was unsettled, a bird that takes thirty days to hatch, and a proportionate length of time to rear its young, was unsuitable to the economy of a pastoral people. But when comparatively stationary settlements were found on the shores of lakes, the young birds could easily be fetched down from their nests by boys, have their wings clipped, and be brought up in the households; if they died the attempt was repeated, until it finally succeeded, especially as the wild goose is, comparatively speaking, one of the easiest birds to tame." As already stated, the wild goose, commonly called the Greylag (Anser ferus), is distributed all over Europe, but it conducts its young to the shores of the Mediterranean, both Northern and Southern, there to rear them, breeding, however, in the colder latitudes. Of wild geese the varieties known in this country at the present time are the Grey-lag, already mentioned, the Bean, the 1 Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their First Home. By Vietor Hehn, p. 278. White-fronted or Laughing goose, and the Pink-footed. It is very generally concluded that our domesticated varieties are all descended from the Grey-lag, which at one period bred extensively in the fen districts of Eastern England, but since the drainage of those districts it has been compelled to find a place elsewhere. In Scotland, both on the mainland and in the western islands, it is found, but to a much greater extent in Ireland, especially in some of the central counties. The Bean goose is much more common, and large numbers of the Whitefronted geese arrive as soon as winter sets in on the Continent of Europe. Between the Grey-lag and the Bean there are resemblances which are apt to mislead. At one time it was suggested that the Chinese goose was of a distinct species from the Grey-lag, but Mr. Blythe testified that the two breed together, and that their progeny were fertile. His opinion was that the common goose of India was a hybrid between these types. What has led naturalists to conclude that the domestic goose owes its origin to the Grey-lag is not only that the two will breed together, but that there are strong resemblances between them. In Wingfield and Johnson's Poultry Book (edition 1853), Mr. Yarrell is quoted as saying that "the Zoological Society of London, possessing a pinioned wild Grey-lagged gander, which had never associated with either Bean goose or White-fronted goose, though both were kept on the same water with him, a domestic goose, selected in the London market from the circumstance of her exhibiting in her plumage the marks which belong to and distinguish the true Grey-lagged species, was this season (1841) brought and put down to him. The pair were confined together for a few days, became immediately very good friends, and a sitting of eight eggs was the consequence. These eggs were hatched and the young proved prolific. Some were hatched in two following seasons, and some of their descendants still remain at the Gardens." And when at the Regent's Park the Grey-lag and the domestic goose have been placed side by side the resemblances between the two proved most apparent. It may, consequently, be taken as an accepted opinion that the origin of our domestic varieties is to be found in the Grey-lag goose. The method of domestication is not recorded, so far as I am aware, but we may suppose that it would be either by securing eggs or young birds from the nests of the wild parents. Charles Darwin writes, "Although the domestic goose certainly differs somewhat from any known wild species, yet the amount of variation which it has undergone, as compared with 1 Variations of Plants and Animals under Domestication, vol. i. pp. 304–5. that of most domesticated animals, is singularly small. This fact can be partially accounted for by selection not having come largely into play. Birds of all kinds which present many distinct races are valued as pets or ornaments; no one makes a pet of the goose; the name, indeed, in more languages than one is a term of reproach. The goose is valued for its size and flavour, for the whiteness of its feathers which adds to their value, and for its prolificness and tameness. In all these points the goose differs from the wild-parent form; and these are the points which have been selected." One other distinct gain from domestication is the increase of size, and this is noticeable in nearly all birds and animals which have adapted themselves to the altered conditions of life, and to the greater certainty of food resultant from domestication. And it is also true that more eggs are produced by the tame goose than by her wild sister. USES OF GEESE. We have already seen that the goose has valuable qualities apart from its succulent flesh. But this fact needs to be amplified, in order that we may realise its importance to mankind. As the Rev. E. S. Dixon wrote many years ago: "Roast goose, fatted, of course, to the point of repletion, is almost the only luxury that is not thought an extravagance in an economical farmhouse; for there are the feathers to swell the mistress's accumulating stock of beds, there is the dripping to enrich the dumpling, pudding, or whatever other farinaceous food may be the fashion of the country for the servants to eat, there are the giblets to go to market, and there is the wholesome, solid, savoury flesh for all parties in their due proportion." But the flesh of the goose is losing somewhat of the favour with which it was formerly held, and this tendency is one which needs to be watched as time goes on. Perhaps it is merely a return to former customs. With the increase of earning power on the part of our working people, and the making of Christmastide a family festival, there grew up an enormous demand for geese at this season. But Michaelmas in older days was specially linked with the eating of geese. A very apocryphal story is told that good Queen Bess originated the custom in commemoration of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but this cannot be accepted as the time of year does not fit in with that event. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, says that bringing in a goose "fit for the lord's dinner" on Michaelmas Day was customary in the time of Edward IV., and that Gascoigne, who died eleven years before the Armada, wrote: And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent, They bring some fowls at Midsummer, a dish of fish at Lent; At Christmastide a capon, at Michaelmas a goose, And somewhat else at New Year's tide, for fear their leave flies loose. The most probable explanation of this custom is that at Michaelmas geese were more plentiful than at any other season, that they were easily brought into good condition for killing by after-harvest feeding, and that they were fit objects with which to celebrate the successful harvest tide. So far as we can learn the custom is peculiar to England. In France and in Denmark the goose is eaten on St. Martin's Day and St. Martin's Eve respectively, though Twelfth Day and Shrove Tuesday both share in the goose eating in France. The old saying "If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day you will never want money all the year round," has died out. Its origin is explained in the British Apollo as follows: The custom came up from the tenants' presenting Their landlords with geese, to incline their relenting Perhaps, also, it meant that those who had so prospered in their harvest as to be able to eat goose on Michaelmas Day were ensured against poverty during the winter. Apart from the edible flesh there is the fat, which is very valuable for culinary and other purposes. Goose grease is relied upon by old-fashioned housewives for chapped and rough hands far more than any druggist's preparations. Giblet pie is a favourite dish with many people, some of whom prefer it to the flesh. And then there is the liver, which is so grossly abused and misused, not by the geese themselves, as in the case of man, but as a result of the forced and unnatural feeding to which they are subjected. Happily the system is unknown in this country, and we should strenuously fight against its introduction. If those who enjoy páté de foie gras could but once see the way in which the geese are treated, their desire for this so-called delicacy would be gone. It is a cruel and barbarous system, which has come down to us from the Roman times when the Empire was luxuriously riding to its fall. Pliny spoke of it thus, "Our folks are wiser, who are aware of the goodness of their liver. In those that are crammed it increases to a great size; when taken out, it is laid to swell in milk mixed with honey. And it is not without cause that it is a matter of debate who was the first to discover such a dainty, whether Scipio Metellus, of consular dignity, or M. Seius, a Roman knight at the same epoch. But (what is certain) Messalinus Cotta, the |