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HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

AMERICAN PEKIN DUCKLING

One of our birds, a female, ten weeks old, saved for a breeder and with
some of her fat trained off by running around the range. The parallelogram
shape of body which is aimed at in breeding is here in evidence.

This is one of several poses which a duck assumes. She is in repose. At
feeding time, and when they are waddling, the necks of both ducks and drakes
are elongated and the body is tipped upwards, the whole poise being different
from what this picture shows. Many birds are so fat at killing age that their
bellies rest on the ground when they are standing in repose like this bird. When
such birds walk, they have to make an effort to pull their bellies off the ground,
and roll from side to side in their walk, like a sailor ashore,

HOW WE
MAKE DUCKS PAY

Actual, Successful Experience
Not Doubtful Theory

An Illustrated Guide to the Profitable
Breeding of Our Modern Pekin
All-White Mammoth
Ducklings

RON AN De TilOROUGE LESSONS FOR
BEGINNERS AN D OTHERS EVERYWHERE
VEHOF Reb ORT ELE “DET ALLS WAND
SECRETS OF OUR WATERLESS METHOD

How to SHELTER, How to Get PLENTY oF FERTILE
Eccs, How to Hatcu THEem, How to Broop THE
Younc, How To FEED at DirFERENT AGEs, How To
Fattren, How to Kit_, How to Pick, How to Pack
AND SHip, How to Market, How to Buy BREEDING
Stock, How to Setecr anD Mate For SIZE AND
Stamina, How To Make Money, WHat to Do anpD
Wuat Not to Do, Many Questions AND ANSWERS

145 PEARL STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
AMERICAN PEKIN DUCK COMPANY
1907

——

LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Two Coples Recelved
MAk 9 1907
Copyright Entry
ALE G0
Glass A XXc., No.
lFolla

COPY B.

Infringement Notice: The copyright protection
given this work includes both text and illus-
trations, from cover to cover. The reproduction
in any form of any part of the reading matter,
or any picture, is expressly prohibited.

Press of Murray and Emery Company
Boston

CONTENTS

Page

Grays KOKO KONA Ata) deniaecea. @ HE dhowecclio aie creer Bois oRactes a Gonieme ate pee 9
PMU CS OTMBMSIMESS 1) hie have meee iis tells, Lacrsy @ieicae em hale nie Sas itl
Ree Seliters ma ertilatioriet uo Aen pees tone et ce acti de cine ope 23
JUOL, | Caine Ot Isseeecbroy SWOOki Go ccsamesoucenonokopedoneuand 29
IW, Sex, IPewianane, WWieeechin? ss coscecsvvdsavvddsrdueonodeone 39
Wo. IRIS TB exer eile cares a Narerarte ya t sr Rar icc creuerae\a chs rgen sue an ean ean AN 47
Wile ousmcest yD cr clalimosh rie pagers silai ces sion Nase Gran ee 55
AWOL, 2 a TREHBIGeraubGNer get PAIS cuNI ER eo uegewn taetates REN Uhl a ee eaey eh trem ua Etc 69
WIDDL, Isaillbiine,, Jerielkatiner, Sloman is cosoccocasonccatsnoscscusoe - 79d
Nee lei netSerarisuna Mer memes, Sistine SiG eee tee felisia See ais 91
DOP ENO) tie Stl O1bils Ogos Apna Selina eee eres ile Grevst esas 117

UNDER THIS SHELTER ROOF TO GET OUT OF SUN AND RAIN

LIST OF VEY Usa AO uns

Page
American Pekin duckling (Frontispiece)
Wnderthis shelterroot torgeb out-of sum anderain ene ss eee 7
Here come the little ones out of the nursery for an airing......... 14
Ducklings five weeks old in yards of second nursery house........ 18
Feeding time for ducklings in the yards of the fattening sheds.... 20
PIMNStrMUESeiy Gyakd Sens. saa chino ease are ae eRe Cee en 22
Extemoror prooder botser', o's .F. a < hdeeor acy ea ee eee ae 24
Interior of prooder mouse... eee cea eee eee 26
ORNSTASS td vera costs ths teal ay lke oes Saas SOR eh ree a 30
loo denmatxcneim’a claim ele ree. jee aa aay eee ee ae 34
Drakes showinesctrl feather yeni aco ee keene een ele ee 40
Howatoumanidl eile iain! s van ci areas cl aero een ele eae ee ee 44
WihenerGheyaleiys tein (Cio aa ei creme reise ies rr ete eee 48
Incubator cellar, showing machines which hatch the eggs into
(Ghbkol hb ales: Aaa net cricete DEI M Aad ett ae eae SS. o 0 52
Bee-testiag, lamp... .oicye cates, Se Sales cd: SRO nae ieee ae ee 53
Rerilerees se vemitin claire ate eerce cae) a een ee 53
Diteldines<twionweekstolaey ray ac) Asa: eae nere a Cee ee 56
Water toumbaims anicetoocieln OciiGl/Si- ieee ane nna 58
Mhousands Ob syOungsStersan. a tsa). ke eee OI ae eee ee 60.
ID,wICL hha ism Me iol ANE TIANCEGENYS Cou Saadoonsdcdceedasecadanoee 64
Doubleyobrooder Mouse. oor Gescis 2 ei Hee enc Oe 66
Wanterscene. brooderhouses. 4.56 47 fee ne eee 68
Ready formeedime So ta, Mae he Rh oat ioe ocyeh eee eee ree 70
IN eve¥ (es 961 =a ae Ete an Sara Acro ceo o > Sicha eb ain coo 72
Battemme yardsi gl. suis ot sh sa cus te epee iG fn ener on oe en are 74
Sticking kite wt ais oar cade a aac cia eRe EN ECON cep reel oe ea 795
Kite usedvin pickings. co. 0 Sono. oon eo cane meen eae a eee tir
Duck:picker atworks 5. 5 Aves cee cee oe) eee ea ae ee 78
Readytorishipping sy hat: 2-4 eke ieee eae ea ee eae eee 82
Warmvhotise; andy ardsit\ scr mts acoso oretees oe een 88
Pen of ducklings on dirt run a week previous to killing.......... 90
Parallelogram body, depth of keel and plumpness.............. 120
Pattenmeshedtandipensrey-e aerate lero cies = eee eee 126
SHaKelhifere sfofoyt ioye Cholelkdsy Oia Wa TWAS 55 so monanconnenudsannoabuec 186

INTRODUCTION

The breeding of our modern large Pekin duckling
is an industry whose possibilities a few of us have known
for a long time, and demonstrated to the best of our
ability. We believe many will be interested in our methods.
We know thousands will see a light in these pages which
will astonish them, as our own work has astonished us.
The strength of ducks as a business deserves telling,—the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It is difficult for us to work day by day and at the
same time teach the business to beginners and others in a
convincing and satisfactory manner, without a book like
this. [he answering of hundreds of letters weekly from
those asking for advice and breeding stock is a tedious,
incomplete And poor method of telling the hows and whys.

We offer this instruction book to the American people
and all nations in the hope that we are doing this branch
of the great poultry industry a real and lasting service.
We know the country is just getting awakened to the idea.

The aim in writing it has been to give the details, and
all the details, with the fulln ness, clearness and simplicity
which a man or woman investigating a new subject de-
mands. We give them in the order in which the subject
naturally presents itself.

We have tried to keep out as much as possible from
this work our own enthusiasm over the duck business,
intending to present the facts calmly and soberly so that
the strength of the proposition would follow as a matter
of course, without exaggeration. At the same time, we
would not undervalue a proper amount of enthusiasm.
He who would make the most out of ducks must feel a
lively interest in the work,—that it 1s paying work,—work
which will reward him surely and amply, as it has rewarded
us. We would advise the beginner, if he decides to take
hold, not to go ahead in a listless, doubting, skeptical way,

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

but confidently, knowing that he is able, and can do what
others have done. ‘There are no difficulties in the duck
business which need appal the most timid, nor can great
financial loss overtake one who observes common prudence.

This edition of this instruction book is the second.
We printed one thousand copies for the first edition to see
how it would sell to the American people, and what the
would think of it. We have been highly gratified at the
reception given the work. ‘The entire edition was quickly
wiped out by an extraordinary demand from every section
from those whom the subject interested. Letters of
commendation, we are pleased to say, have poured in to us
not only from practical duck breeders but beginners eager
to know the best way of doing things. We are printing
many of these letters in pages of the free booklet which we
send out. [hey came to us in January, 1907, at the rate
of a dozen or more a day and they are now, in February,
coming at the same rate. We have room to print only a
part of them. Some of the writers have asked questions
covering additional points, and these we answer in the
question box, chapter ten, of this edition.

We intend to make this book a valuable, up-to-date
help, complete and satisfying in every respect, and we will
gladly welcome from you, after you have read it, any
suggestions for its improvement, either in the way of read-
ing matter or illustrations. It is pleasant to know that
one’s efforts are appreciated, and we heartily thank our
many correspondents for their kind words in praise of this
work.

1 fe)

CHAPTER ONE
DUCKS FOR BUSINESS

The Pekin 1s queen.—Other varieties and their character-
istics, briefly summarized.— Duck raising worth all one’s
time and attention, because it1s profitable in proportion
to the number raised.—Our ducks have web feet, but not
the desire to swim.—Pond not needed.— Ducklings ready
jor market in only ten weeks.—Cost of raising them
six to ten cents a pound, including labor.—Profit of fijty
cents a duckling to be figured.— Ducks have no lice, no
diseases, and hawks will not carry off the young.—Food
they eat 1s the cheapest fed to any live-stock.

The white Pekin is the queen of all ducks. ‘This breed
was brought to America from China, where they are raised
now, and highly esteemed. The first specimens of
Pekins were imported fifty years ago. In this com-
paratively short period, a great deal has been done to
improve the size and breeding qualities of this variety.

Other varieties of tame ducks are the white Aylesbury,
Indian Runner, white Muscovy, colored Muscovy, colored
Rouen, black East India, black Cayuga, blue Swedish,
Crested White, gray Call, white Call.

Everything written in this book applies to the white
Pekin strain which we have developed. ‘These teachings
do not apply to the other above-named varieties. Com-
mercially, we believe in the Pekin only. The other
varieties may be bred for show-room or for amusement,
but as to their money-making qualities we are in doubt.
We have no doubts as to our Pekins. They are easily
raised in great numbers and are in active demand in the
markets, and sold at a large profit.

America leads in the development of the Pekin. The
duck breeders in England are few and far between. They

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

have experimented most with the Aylesburys. The
Pekins mature more quickly than the Aylesburys and their
feathers come out more easily when picking. The Indian
Runner duck is smaller than the Pekin and has dark pin-
feathers. It is not so salable as the Pekin; side by
side in the markets the Pekin will beat it in looks, size and
price. The Indian Runner is a good layer but this does
not offset the other points mentioned. Muscovy ducks
are fighters and hard to handle. Gray and white Call
ducks are bantams bred for the show-room but never
for profit. The black East India is another bantam
variety, seldom weighing more than two pounds. ‘The
other above-named varieties are rare.

In disposition, as well as size, quick maturity and
fecundity, the Pekin is exceptional. Pekins do not
quarrel. They are easily driven and handled.

Duck raising should be entered into not for amuse-
ment or for a pastime, but to make money. It is worth all
of one’s time and attention and will richly reward the
earnest, methodical worker. The main thing is to know
how to do the work and then do it. We have tried to
make this book so simple and plain that there can be no
question as to procedure. ‘There are breeders of ducks
now in many parts of the country who have been working
with poor stock, and largely by guesswork, and what they
could learn by experience. Comment on duck raising
as given in the periodical press from time to time is for
the most part absurd, written by inexperienced experi-
menters groping in the dark. Many of these experi-
menters are breeding the common, or puddle ducks, or
the light-weight ducks of colored plumage, all of inferior
size and fed on lake or sea-shore fish until the flesh tastes
more or less fishy.

Our strain is as different from the common ducks as
day is from night. Our birds are what we have made
famous as the cross-bred, white-feathered Boston duck-
* lings, fattened on grain and beef scraps, weighing five to
six pounds when marketed at ten weeks of age. We have

192

DUCKS FOR- BUSINESS

shipped this breeding stock to beginners as well as experi-
enced breeders, and we find that a profitable success is
made with them.

We do not ask anybody to try what we have not done
ourselves. Ducks have been a gold mine for us. We
have done it as the ordinary breeder would do it, with
common, plain work, shipping to an every-day market.
For ten years we have been of the opinion that the advan-
tages of this business for the good of all should be made
known, and we are ready to do our best in this line now.
We ask a hearing by calm, sober, common-sense people.
We stand behind all statements we make, and guarantee
that they are the simple truth.

Perhaps the most surprising point, to the average
reader, is that our ducks are raised without water. Don’t
think you must have a pond or brook on your place. A
farm which is good for nothing from the farmer’s stand-
point is just the place for ducks. ‘The manure will make
the most sterile fields productive enough for the green
stuff and vegetables that may be grown.

Our ducks have web feet but we have bred out of them
the desire to swim and bathe. The advantages of no
swimming water were made manifest to us quickly. We
know the methods and flocks of a few duck breeders who
use water and we never could find that the ducks were
better in any way.

Perhaps you have a brook or pond. A brook 1s
handy, perhaps, in that it will reduce the work of water-
ing. But the ducks will not get any larger or fatter
because of it. They will drink from a brook or pond,
thereby lessening the work of their caretaker.

Anybody raising ducks with a pond on his place will
find that some ducks will lay eggs in the water. Unless
the water is shallow and the eggs easily reached, this will
be a source of annoyance and loss. As ducks lay at night,
or early in the morning, this trouble can be overcome by
shutting the birds up at night and not letting them into
the water until about 9 a. m.

ONISIV NV WOd AXASYNN AHL FO LNO SHNO LSHTILLIT FHL ANOOD ANGH

DUCKS FOR BUSINESS

If you have a spring or brook with a fall so that water
can be diverted and made to run through the duck house
or houses, t! at may be worth trying.

Most beginners without instruction think that ducks
must have swimming water to thrive and, lacking a pond
or brook, will dig a rainhole without inlet or outlet. This
quickly gets muddy and slimy and becomes an abomina-
tion, a menace to both ducks and owner.

We have heard of duck raisers on the coast of Dela-
ware, who have had trouble in the following way: ‘The
tides would force the stagnant marsh water back into the
duck ranges and when the ducks got into this brackish
water it was bad for them. Some actually would be
poisoned and die. Look out for this stagnant, foul-
smelling marsh water if you breed ducks on the sea-coast.

The rice-fields of the South are ideal for ducks. “They
will pick up plenty of free nourishment there. Ducks
are good also to go over harvest fields to pick up the left-
behind grain. This is a suggestion for large farmers
who breed ducks.

Our ducklings are not raised as a small breeder raises
chickens. An incubator is the device which multiplies
the money-making possibilities. In the first place, these
modern ducks will not reproduce their young by nest-
building and setting. ‘They have been bred to lay eggs,
and not to set on them. If you wish to start small and
without an incubator, you have got to take a common,
old-fashioned hen and set her on the duck eggs to hatch
them out. On account of the incubators we save great
expense by carrying only comparatively few breeding
birds from one year to the next. You see, from each
duck we get eggs enough to raise three-score ducklings
that year. Every duck worth five dollars to ten dollars
reproduces young worth three hundred dollars to six
hundred dollars (if saved for breeders). If killed and
sold at market they are worth three-score times the market
price of the one duck which started the big family. These
figures are not dreamed. We are doing it right along.

IS)

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

A duck reproducing at that rate must be good to start,
and must have intelligent care and feed.

Ducklings are on your hands only ten weeks. Then
they vanish to market and you get your money for them,
and their room also. his goes on day after day, raising,
killing, shipping. ‘There is no let-up until you get ready,
and the markets take them all the time, as they do chickens.
Prices for ducklings are highest in the East in April and
May. It is not necessary to get these high prices all the
year to make the business a success. We have taken the
markets as they have come every month of the year,
knowing all the while we were making a good profit, even
when prices were at times one-half to one-third lower
than at others.

We know by experience the cost of raising ducklings
(food and labor including expert pickers making from
twenty dollars to thirty dollars a week), to be from SIX
TO TEN CENTS A POUND, depending on the fluctuating
prices of grain. Others say the same, including the gov-
ernment reports from experimenters; so the reader does
not have to take our word alone for this fundamental
expense.

It costs, therefore, from thirty to sixty cents to get the
duckling up to the market and into the market. The
selling price is fifty cents more than this. For many years
after learning the business by hard knocks, we have
figured confidently on making half-a-dollar profit on every
duckling,—that is what actually happens.

That is what it will do for you, starting with our stock
and following our instructions. There is no legerdemain
about it. Nor is it ridiculously easy — do not believe that.

Anybody can start with half a dozen ducks and drakes
and not have a busy working day, exactly the way a few
hens may be kept by a man working eight hours daily at
something else.

You can demonstrate that they are money makers with
a few of them. To get an income of twenty dollars a
week you must send to market forty ducklings a week; to

DUCKS FOR BUSINESS

make your farm produce a profit of one hundred dollars
a week, you must send to market two hundred ducklings
a week.

The cost of from six to ten cents a pound to bring a
duckling to killing age, according to the location of the
plant and according to the prices of grain, includes labor as
well as food. Figuring food alone, five cents a pound
would cover the cost.

Of course a duckling does not eat so much when it is
small and newly hatched as it does when it has reached the
killing age. If you keep a duck from killing age on for
breeding it will cost you about twenty-five cents a month
in feed and labor to carry the duck. This is why good
breeding stock sells for much higher prices than the killed
ducklings.

The labor charge is cut down in proportion to the
increase in the number of ducks kept. ‘The care of thirty
thousand ducks may be divided among six men.

Bearing in mind what we have said about cost it may
be estimated accurately that a duckling of market age,
weighing five pounds to six pounds, will cost to produce
from thirty to sixty cents.

The wholesale selling price is at least twelve cents a
pound, depending on the market and the season. ‘Twelve
cents is the lowest we have ever known it here, and thirty
cents the highest. This means that each duck will be sold for
sixty cents to one dollar and fifty cents. A duck which
has cost the high price to produce will sell for the high
market price; for this is the way the market runs. ‘This
means that a profit of at least fifty cents a duck is going to
be made. Everything which we ever read on ducks con-
firms our own experience in the matter of profits, and it
will be found invariably that the breeder shipping ducks
to market, even on a small or large scale, makes this
proft. [he amount of profit depends on the number of
ducks handled.

What we say about the cost, selling price and profits is
positively and absolutely true. We hold no brief to boom

aSNOH AXYSAUNN GNOOUS AO SGUVA NI G1O SMAAM AAIA SONITMONG

DUCKS FOR BUSINESS

the duck industry. We insist respectfully and most
earnestiy that we have made, and are now making, the
profits which we say are in ducks, selling to market only;
and what we have done and are doing, others have done
and, are doing. Our statements will find ready corrob-
oration from any duck breeder who is really breeding
ducks, that is to say, who 1s actually turning them out and
shipping them to market, and not playing with a small
flock for fun, or secondary to other work.

In speaking of these profits, we do not estimate the
saie of breeding stock. If you keep what you raise until
they are of breeding age, and then sell them to your
neighbors, or to anybody, by advertising or exhibition,
you will make more. Nor do we take account of the sale
of duck eggs. Duck eggs are salable on account of their
large size and good cooking qualities, and many are in the
markets, but the big duck raiser has a better use for most of
his eggs than the table; he has his incubator in mind. He
wants them for seed.

_ Our ducks have no lice or other vermin. They are not
bothered by hawks. They have no diseases. Good,
strong points, those three. Lice are a terrible nuisance
in general poultry raising and have dissipated many a
dream of profits. When we say that our ducks have no
vermin on their bodies of any kind, we mean just that, and
we say it emphatically. Why it is exactly, we do not know.
One would imagine that a louse would live on any animal.
Still, there are others (rabbits, for instance) which have no
vermin.

Hawks are an ever-present pest in many parts of our
country. They will not touch the youngest duckling.

By no disease, we do not wish to give the impression
that ducks resist all ill-treatment. Fed improperly, they
will have diarrhoea. Kept in the sun constantly when
little and given no shade, they will be sun-struck. Given
a chance when very young to eat certain bugs, they will
be killed. Allowed to become crowded and _panic-
stricken, they will get lame and _ ctherwise injured.

SGGHHS ONINGALLIVA AHL AO SGUVA AHL NI SONTITMONG WOH AWIL ONICHA

DOCS? OR UBUSSENEES S

Starved, they will die like any animal. But these matters
are absolutely under the control of the breeder, with very
simple and sure arrangements. There will be no losses
from what is commonly known as disease. No medicines
or pills or drugs of any kind are of any use in the duck
business.

The beautiful white feathers picked from the ducklings
before marketing are worth good money, forty-five to
fifty cents a pound. Every twelve ducks will give a pound.
Generally this revenue will pay the picking.

The following food is given (See further chapters in
this book for details.): Rolled oats, bread-crumbs, bran,
corn-meal, flour (low-grade), beef scraps, green stuff,
vegetables, grit, ground oyster shells.

The rolled oats cost in New England $3.25 to $5 a
barrel (one hundred and eighty pounds). ‘This is the
most expensive item in the ration. They are fed only to
the youngest ducklings and to them only a brief period.

The bread-crumbs are made from stale bread given
away (or sold for little) by bakers. Bought in quantities
it costs only twenty-five dollars a ton.

The bran (also called shorts) is the outside shell or
wrapper of wheat. It costs only twenty dollars a ton but
in the West near the flour mills it is much cheaper.

The corn-meal is common yellow Indian meal which
has been ground (not cracked). It costs from $1 to $1.25
per one hundred pounds in the East; in the West it is
cheaper.

The low-grade flour costs twenty-eight dollars a ton in
the East; cheaper in the West.

The beef scraps cost $2.50 per one hundred pounds.
They form a small per cent of the ration, at a certain time.

By green stuff is meant anything growing, like common
grass, oats, clover, rye, millet, etc.

The vegetables are cheap on the average farm, and are
a fine duck food. Turnips and carrots are easily raised
and turned into duck meat.

The grit may be ordinary sand or gravel for a certain

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS Pay

period in the life of the ducks, after which the cheapest
granite grit is bought. Fancy grits costing as much or
more than grain are not used.

The ground oyster shells essential to the egg formation
are the widely known common and cheap kind.

The part which water plays in duck raising is an
important one. It adds volume to the food and it makes
the food cost less because it makes the same amount of
food more filling. Ducklings are given a vast amount of
water to drink between meals, also, and this fattens them.
Water fattens ducks more than any other poultry — they
absorb a lot of it in the course of a da

Does the reader know of anything raised on such a
cheap and simple ration as ducks, as above described?
No expensive grains are needed.

That is where the profits come in. The producing cost
is low but the selling price is high. Even when sold to
middlemen, the price is from three to five times the cost of
the food.

FIRST NURSERY YARDS

The little ones are seen poking in the dirt and running around enjoying
themselves. Wire netting eighteen inches high separates each pen. The birds
do not fly at any age, nor jump from one pen to another over the netting.

CHAPTER TWO
SIGUE INBIRG WISIN INOUE ATION

No buildings necessary to make a start with ducks on the
average place.—Progress in the business means buildings.
—Simple structures, all with dirt, not board, floors.—
Kind of buildings needed depends on where you live,
whether in warm South or cold North.—Run the first
incubator in cellar of house or back room.— Dimensions
of lumber for house construction.—Pens in the nursery
should not be more than three feet wide.—Some things
about ventilation important to remember.

Until one gets a large plant in operation, buildings for
ducks are a secondary matter. [he average home place
with a little land is big enough to make a start. Quite a
business in ducks can be done on limited ground. (See
our free booklet for one instance.)

We know of duck plants where double the number of
breeders are kept to produce less than half the number of
ducklings we market yearly. We produce from sixty to
seventy-five ducklings to each breeding duck a year, while
the breeders above referred to do only about thirty. We
relate this as proof of what a strain of Pekins will do when
it has been built up by selection, and attention to the
detaiis of the breeding. It is a waste of energy, time and
money to keep fifteen hundred birds producing eggs when
haif that number will do as well.

Every house has a cellar or back room where the first
incubator may be run. The few breeding ducks may be
housed in the wocdshed or small building or shack of any
kind. Not even wire netting eighteen ches or two feet
wide is needed to confine them; boards fifteen inches wide
will serve. Use carriage house, barn or outhouse. ‘The
mature breeders can stand any amount of exposure in our

EXTERIOR OF BROODER HOUSE

The hot water heater (coal for fuel) is in that end of the house nearest the
eye. The brick chimney leads straight up from the heater pit. Note the
ventilators at regular intervals in the roof. Never build a tight house for ducks
but always provide for ventilation.

The smail structure in the foreground is a simple shelter for ducks outdoors
to protect them from the sun and the rain. The posts are three feet high. The
ducks know enough to go under the shade without urging, whenever their well-
being demands that they should.

SlaLEJIOI IIR, [Te IN TIO ATE COUNT

winter, but they should have the chance of getting in under
where it is dry, and where they can squat on dry leaves or
other bedding so as to keep their feet warm. If a freezing
night comes and you have your breeding ducks in a very
cold shelter, better get them into the barn or other fairly
warm place where their eggs will not freeze.

After April, in the North, they can lay anywhete safely
without danger of frozen eggs.

If you are in the South, or any State where the climate
is warmer than ours, you should handle your ducks, as far
as shelter 1s concerned, as you observe poultry raisers do
whom you know. Understand, the pictures and descrip-
tions of buildings which you see in this book apply to cold
New England. Duck breeders here put up expensive,
substantial buildings, some with hot-water heaters, burn-
ing coal, and the fact that they can do this, covering their
farms with such structures, is proof of a substantial kind
that there is money in the duck business.

When the youngest ducklings come out of your incuba-
tor, they need a brooder, or foster mother wooden device.
If there is anybody who reads this book who dces not know
what a brooder is, the picture of it will tell, and the
machine, with the directions that go with it, will be under-
stood at once. Brooders are used both indoors and out-
doors. An outdoor brooder, however, should not be put
out in very cold weather, just because it is labelled for out-
doors. Protect it all you can in such weather by putting
it in a shed or under cover somewhere.

The little ones are managed in a small portable brooder
in the same manner as described in the chapter of this
book headed “ Youngest Ducklings.” What is written
there applies to your little ones, only we describe them
there as having a big house over their heads, whereas
your brooder is a small house in itself.

Progress in the duck business means buildings. ‘There
are single brooder houses, double brooder houses, cold
houses, fattening sheds, incubator cellar, killing and
shipping house, grain storehouse, and so on.

INTERIOR OF BROODER HOUSE

This is the nursery for youngest ducklings. The pens are three feet wide.
Cross boards are set halfway in the pens, as pictured, so that the little ones will
not wander far from the hover. The board tops of the hovers are seen. (The

milk can is on top of one section.)

The hot water pipes are directly underneath
the board tops.

The pipes (bent) are for the purpose of carrying water from
a central pressure supply so as to save labor when filling the small drinking
fountains used for the youngest birds.

The timbering of the brooder house is well illustrated in this picture. As
shown, the roof is double uneven, with the long side facing the sunny, or south
side, and the narrow roof facing the north. A house of this construction is
made any length, to suit the number of ducklings which it is desired to handle.

SIGUEIETIBIR, (IBIS IIUL ATA TON,

Ducks should always be on the ground. Do not have
floors in any duck houses.

The ordinary brooder house is built with an uneven
double roof (not single roof). ‘Vhat is, the back roof is
half as long as the front roof. It is high at the back to
give walking space for the attendant; this form of con-
struction gives headroom there. Erect the house so
that the long side of roof will face the sun, that is, the south.

For a house under one hundred and fifty feet long
(sixteen feet wide) use lumber of the following dimensions:
Studs two by three inches, plates two by four, sills two by
six, rafters two by five, collar beams one by six. For a
_ house thirty feet wide and over one hundred and fifty
feet long, use studs two by four, sills three by five, rafters
two by six, collar beams one by six, and for plates two
two-by-fours spiked together. In a house thirty feet wide
or over use collar beams two by five. A house of this
width should have posts to hold up the roof.

Lay the sills of all houses on posts, or brick or stone
piers. Set the piers about five feet apart.

In houses built with even double roof, the walk is down
the middle, under the ridgepole, and not down the back.
Such a house has pens on each side of the walk.

Good, substantial duck buildings can be erected
cheaply provided that roofing paper be used instead of
shingles. There is a great difference in roofing papers,
however. Many have to be painted frequently in order to
keep them efficient, and the cost of this paint, with labor of
applying, will soon amount to more than if shingles had
been used at first.

The pens in the nursery house should not be more than
three feet wide. Some recommend that they be four,
five or even six feet wide. Not more than fifty little duck-
lings should be put into a pen, and fifty will go into a
three-foot pen all might. ‘Those who have built wider
pens have found it not wise to put more than fifty into the
pen. They will crowd together anyway, and more than
fifty in a bunch may make trouble by walking over one

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

another. ‘The stronger ones will tramp over the weaker
ones and hurt them. No lanterns are used in the nursery
at night to keep the ducklings from crowding, because the
little ones are under the brooder covers, shut in the dark-
ness, where the lantern light could not penetrate anyway.

In a house with pens only three feet wide, of course
the ducklings should not be kept longer than three weeks.
After that age they should be transferred to more roomy
quarters.

Ventilation. Ducks need fresh air, and in building the
houses provision should be made for ventilation. Tight
houses are not to be built.

If you have a tight house full of ducks, and keep them
there three or four days and nights in bad weather, the
inside of the house will grow very warm, and ammonia
from the manure will rise, making your own eyes and the
eyes of the ducks smart.

Every one-hundred-foot house should have two ven-
tilators through the roof, and also should have windows
at the back to be opened when needed. ‘These windows
should be managed according to the weather.

Early in the morning, when you go into a house filled
with ducks, you will see the hot air and ammonia fumes
going off from'the ventilators.

If no provision whatever is made for ventilation, anda
large number of ducks are kept in a house, the air will get so
bad that some ducks actually will go blind from the irrita-
tion of their eyes by the ammonia rising from the manure.

When the weather in the spring begins to get warmer
so that there 1s no danger of the eggs freezing, take out the:
windows entirely, so that the air will circulate freely from
that time on, all through the house. Nail laths or wire
netting over the windows to prevent the ducks from getting
out at - night, and also to prevent cats and other animals
from getting in. You must manage the windows so that
the eggs will not freeze. Be governed by the time of
year and the weather.

CHAPTER TAREE
CARE OF BREEDING STOCK

Twenty-five ducks and five drakes should be put in each
pen. —Pens separated by boards inside the house and by
wire netting outdoors.—Growing food is the same they
had while at killing age.—Fed twice a day and given
plenty of water. —Whole corn in the ration to strengthen
the layers.—Bedding the pens for winter.—How to pre-

_ pare the vegetable food.—Ducks are fond of worms,
and root ajter them greedily.—Lanterns necessary at
might.— Ducks enjoy snow.—Breeders lay better in
winter if let outdoors daily.—Price tells whether stock
offered for sale for breeding 1s young and good or old and
played out.

Ducks and drakes which we sell you for breeding, and
ducks and drakes which after the first year you save for |
breeding stock, should be handled as this chapter advises.
If in winter, house them.

Thirty head should be put in each pen: twenty-five
aucks and five drakes. Allow ten square feet for each
bird. ‘That is to say, the thirty birds should have a space
of three hundred square feet. A pen containing three
hundred square feet would be twenty feet by fifteen feet
in size, or ten feet by thirty feet. ‘This is the space inside
the house. Each outside yard for a pen of that inside
size should have from thirteen hundred to two thousand
square feet. If the pen is fifteen feet wide then outside
the house it should be close to one hundred and thirty
feet long. An outside yard ten feet wide and twenty
feet long is not long enough. Yards for thirty head
should be fifteen feet wide and ninety feet long.

The pens are separated from each other by wire netting
which should be two feet wide. Eighteen inches is not

ON GRASS

When the ducklings are crowded out of the nurseries by the on-coming
hatchings, they are put out on the range. If they are kept for breeders, they
are allowed to stay on the grass. Ducklings to be killed, however, are taken
off the grass two weeks before killing time and placed on dirt. If allowed to
stay on the grass, their flesh will be yellow, not white, as it should be, and as
the markets demand.

On meadow land, ducks of the size and age shown above have a fine time
grubbing for worms. They do not scratch the surface like a hen, but get down
under the dirt with their bills and grub. They eat worms greedily, as many as
they can stuff into themselves all day long, until the food passage is distended
to large size. This diet of worms cuts down the regular feeding ration and has
a good effect on the breeding qualities of the stock, not only in producing
more eggs, but influencing the fertility to a remarkable degree.

CARENOE SBE E DENG S HOCK

wide enough for these big ducks, especially when snow
covers the ground. ‘The proper size ot wire netting is No.
19, two-inch mesh or three-inch mesh. The next finer
size of wire, No. 20, is not stiff enough.

In building these outside pens with the 24-inch wire
netting, drive the wood stakes first, then tack the wire
netting on with galvanized iron staples. Do not drive
the staples clear home. Drive them down three-quarters
of the way so that when you wish you can pull out these
staples with a cotton-hook. A very handy tool in handling
the wire netting and staples is a hammer and staple puller
combined. Do not nail the wire netting tight to the
stakes and later pull up stakes and wire netting together
and roll them into a bale. You will find this awkward and
clumsy work. A roll of wire netting and stakes ninety feet
long is hard to manage. The staples should be pulled
out and saved and the netting rolled up separately. The
stakes should be loosened with a sledge hammer and
pulled up and out of the way. This is done before you
plough up or spade up the yards previous to sowing them
down to rye or other green stuff.

A good time in northern latitudes to plough up the
yards is in August and the rye is then sown. In many
places in the West winter wheat should be sown instead of
tye. Inthe South wheat should be sown. Wheat should
also be sown in California. In this matter of sowing green
stuff you will be guided by what you see around you in
your State.

Inside this house where the breeders are kept use
board partitions two feet high, not wire partitions. “These
board partitions will prevent the wind from blowing in
draughts.

Either wooden troughs or wooden pails may be used for
giving the birds water in and out of this house. A gal-
vanized iron pail specially made so as to have a wide base
is the best. The ducks would tip over the ordinary pail
whose base is narrower than its top. The ducks do not
climb into the pails. “They do not try to take a bath.

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

They use them only to drink from. Always when giving
them water, provide a vessel deep enough so that the water
will reach above the nostrils and give the birds an oppor-
tunity to clean out their nostrils in the water.

Two food boards are enough for a pen of thirty head,
each board being five feet long and twelve inches wide,
with a three-inch strip nailed around the edges. “wo
gallons of water should be given at a time for a pen holding
thirty birds.

Ducks saved for breeders are fed on the same food
which they had while growing to killing age, but instead
of being on a dirt range they should be on a grass range.

This food is given to them twice a day, morning and
evening. ‘They should be watered more often during the
day. ‘his water is an important factor in their growing.
They can be watered five times a day in addition to the two
times at which they feed. ‘The value of water is strikingly
seen in the case of strawberries. By giving plenty of
water to his berries the strawberry grower can double the
size of his berries.

This food for the birds saved for breeders is as follows
(by measure): Vegetables, ten parts; green stuff (or cut
dried clover), ten parts; beef scraps, ten parts; low-grade
flour, twenty parts; bran, twenty parts; corn-meal, thirty ©
parts. In addition, grit and shells and a pinch of salt
should be put in. About one per cent of grit is enough,
also one per cent of shells. For salt, use the common fine
table salt. Do not use the coarse salt such as is used in
making ice-cream. ‘That is too coarse. Nearly all
animals need salt to keep them in a healthy condition.
It will improve their appetites and keep their blood in good
order.

About once a week put into the ration one per cent of
ground charcoal. The object of this charcoal is to
sweeten and clean the stomach of the bird. It corrects
any acidity in the stomach.

The food ingredients above are mixed up dry first so as
to get them thoroughly stirred up, then water should be

CARE OF BREEDING STOCK

added until the mixture becomes lumpy but not sloppy.
Test it by picking up a handful. It should be lumpy
and crumble but should not stick to the hands. If it
sticks to the hands, it has too much water in it.

Use one of your food-pails to measure the various
ingredients. .

Feed the mixture as soon as you have it mixed. In
the winter time, to save labor in the morning, you can mix
at night and have it all ready to feed in the morning.

A pen of thirty ducks should eat about a pailful of
this at each feeding.

When ducks are laying well, they should be given a
quart of whole corn at noon. We mean that each pen of
thirty ducks should have a quart of whole corn. ‘They like
it and begin to ask for it about noontime, each day. ‘The
object of this whole corn is to stimulate and fortify the
system. Cut open a duck’s egg after it has been germi-
nating two weeks and you see the large amount of blood
in it. Draining this out of the duck at the rate of one egg
a day is quite a strain on her system and the corn is fed
especially to strengthen the bird.

Clean food is essential. Do not let the food boards get
dirty. When the ducks are through feeding turn the food
boards over, face down, so as to keep them clean.

It is said that you can get hens and pigeons too fat to
lay, but this is not true of ducks. By overfeeding a hen
you can stop her laying but you cannot overfeed a duck
so as to stop her laying.

The pens inside the cold house should be bedded when
necessary. For bedding, hay, straw, sawdust, meadow
hay, leaves or baled shavings can be used. ‘The shavings
are best. They are cheaper and more convenient to
handle. A bale of them weighing from ninety to one
hundred pounds costs only about twenty-five cents.

This bedding should be put down inside the pens in
the house to a depth of one inch to start. “The foundation
is dry sand or gravel. A new layer of bedding should be
put down twice a week on top of the old bedding. It is

FOOD-MIXING MACHINE

This is really a machine used by bakers for mixing dough, but it is just
what is wanted for mixing the ration for ducks. ‘This size cost three hundred
and twenty dollars, but it saves the labor of two men. ‘There is a smaller size
sold at half that price. The mixer shown in above picture is run by power, a
gasoline engine. The steel hopper is stationary and the mixing is done by
two horizontal revolving metal paddles, moving in opposite directions.

CARE OF BREEDING STOCK

not necessary to clean out the old shavings. If the pens
are cleaned out with a fork twice a year, that is enough.

The bedding should be changed on some fair day when
the ducks are outdoors out of the way. Do not change
the bedding while they are inside of the house, for if you
do it will frighten them.

The ducks tread down the manure and shavings
into a hard layer. ‘he peculiarity of this manure (for the
mass is nearly all manure) is that it does not heat and
ferment in the pens indoors but when you throw it out-
doors in a pile it does heat and ferment. It is a splendid
dressing for lawns or for general use about the farm, same
as any manure. Itis very rich and vegetation to which it is
applied will thrive luxuriantly.

Grow vegetables in the summer to feed to the ducks in
the winter. Anything in the vegetable line is good, such
as turnips, carrots, mangels, cabbages, small potatoes and
beets. A change in the food can be made with advantage
every other day, giving the same vegetables to the birds
only three times a week. For a large number of ducks, a
great labor-saving machine is a vegetable cutter. Run
the vegetables through the cutter so that when they come
out they will be in pieces about three-eighths or one-half
an inch square. The ordinary hand cutter is sufhcient
even for a big lot of ducks. It is not necessary to run the
cutter by power. After the vegetables have been cut,
boil them in kettle, tank or caldron. Small potatoes
should be boiled and then mashed while hot with a pestle,
skins and all. ‘The vegetables should be boiled until they
are soft. It takes carrots about two hours boiling to
soften.

Cut clover for ducks costs about $1.50 per one hun-
dred pounds. It is cut clover which has been cured dry.

Ducks use their bills in rooting as pigs root with their
snouts. Loam frequented by a flock will get to look as if
a harrow had been run over it. Ducks root to get grubs
and worms, which they love and which do them good,
making their eggs more fertile. Hens scratch the surface

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

of the ground only, but ducks get under the surface.
A newly ploughed field or a swamp is much enjoyed by
ducks. They will root there until they are filled clear to
the neck with worms. Insect life of all kinds is relished.
If a young duckling by chance eats a bee or a hornet, the
duckling will be injured or perhaps killed. ‘There are
many homes with orchards, sink-spout or a little meadow
where a flock of ducks would be very much at home and
have a fine time. It is good business to turn ducks into
such places because the worms cut down the grain bill and
are just so much clear gain in cost.

The proper number of ducks (which you are saving for
breeding) to be kept out doors in the summer in one flock
is one hundred. Do not keep more than one hundred on
one grass range. If you do, they are more liable to run
over each other in case of fright or panic and hurt their
wings.

The grass range for one hundred ducks should be at
least one hundred and fifty feet long and fifty feet wide.

The ducks are up and about all night long more or less.
They rest in the sun in the daytime, but at night they do
not care to be absolutely tranquil.

During a black night with no moon they are liable to
take alarm and crowd over one another in fright in a
corner of the pen and this will result in injured wings and
lameness of some of the birds. “To avoid this a lantern
should be lighted and hung from a limb of a tree in the
grass range or from a wooden post planted in the middle
of the grass range. The light from this lantern will
enable the birds to see the pen and one another and they
do not take alarm nor crowd. ‘The oil in the lantern lasts
easily all night long. ‘The lantern should be filled with
oil every day. This item of kerosene oil for the lanterns
is a small one even on big plants.

Some breeders with fancy houses and pens, who have
electric light on their premises, also have electric light for
their ducks, having one small twelve or sixteen candle-
power bulb for each pen.

CARE OF BREEDING STOCK

Ducks in a new home or even ducks in their old home
do not lay eggs together all at once. Given a certain
flock of ducks, if half of them are laying by February first,
that is doing very well. One month later all of them may
be laying. We are speaking of our latitude now, remem-
ber. In southern latitudes like that of Virginia, for
example, ducks begin to lay earlier. Birds that are
hatched in March begin laying in August. This is true
all through the South and on the Pacific coast.

Our ducks do well in Canada. Unlike hens, they are
fond of snow. ‘They will wade around in the snow and
slush and enjoy getting out on snow during the daytime,
~even in the coldest weather. However, to get eggs from
them, their feet should be kept warm and this means that
in cold, snowy places like Canada they should not be
allowed to stand on the snow all the time but should be
protected by being given a chance to go inside a house.

The breeding ducks will lay better if you let them out-
doors every day during the winter, except when it is
bitterly cold. If there 1s water in the yards which has not
frozen, or which had been melted by the sun, they will play
in it and it will not hurt them. After a fall of snow, it is
well to shovel about ten feet from the house out into the
pens so that they will have a space to rest in during the
day without being liable to cold feet. [hey will play on
the snow but they will not lay so well when their feet get
cold. Of course they know enough to court the bare
ground in preference to the snow, and you do not spend
any time driving them from the snow to the dirt.

We believe in keeping the old birds breeding and lay-
ing for two full years, or until they are twenty-eight to
thirty months old. ‘hen they can be sold off for market.
If sold alive, they will bring from eight to nine cents a pound
—if dressed, from eleven to twelve cents a pound. They
are not worth so much as a duckling because they are old
and tough. ‘They can be told by their extra large size, the :
darker color of the bill, and the hardness of the breast-
bone. The breastbone of a duckling at killing age is not

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

hard, but soft—it is only gristle. We do not keep breed-
ing ducks at work longer than two years because they have
done a lot of work by the end of that period and are not
equal to any more. At any rate, with plenty of young
stock coming along all the time, there is no need of taking
the risk of infertile eggs. You can always find live ducks
of breeding age advertised for sale, but the price tells
whether they are young stock suitable for breeding, or the
old, wornout birds, good only for the pot. If the price is
one to two dollars each, you can be sure that the birds are
not good for breeding, but are castaways, no longer wanted
by their owner, who is trying to get rid of them alive for
something above the market price for killed old birds.
Remember, a bird of breeding age is two or three months
older than a duckling of the killing age. No breeder can
afford to feed and keep his choice birds that length of
time, culling out unfavorable specimens meantime, and
sell them at low prices, if he has any reputation for breed-
ing, and pays his bills. If he wanted the one dollar selling
price with the least cost price to himself, he would have
sold the duckling to market at killing age. The fact that
he has kept the bird for months beyond the killing age and
then offers it for one or even two dollars shows that he is
letting it go at less than cost, and therefore he is getting rid
of it because he has no further use for it. It is not right
for anybody to sell such stock alive, representing that it
is good for breeding. The market for prime young breed-
ing stock always is steady at good prices.

CHAPTER FOUR
SEX, PAIRING, BREEDING
How to tell the duck from the drake.-—Signs of patr-

ing.—Birds are giants to corner the
bird you wish, and how to pick it up.—Never walk
through a flock of ducks.— Definition of a yearling.—
Selection of breeders—T hree-legged and four-legged
birds and other freaks— Do not do any inbreeding.
—Stock should be outbred, choosing the best specimens
jrom each pen.—When new blood is needed.—Do not
start with scrub stock, for 1f you do it will take you
years to accomplish what you can have at the begin-
ning by more judicious buying.

The duck is distinguished from the drake both by
sight and by hearing.

The drake, when full-feathered perfectly, has in his
tail-feathers one feather which curls up as shown in the
picture. ‘This is not an invariable test because sometimes
the curl feather may have been pulled out, or lost out from
moulting or other cause. The curl feather shows on the
drake when he is four months old and it is a sign of
puberty; in other words, that he is ready for breeding.

A duck quacks, but a drake does not. ‘The drake
makes a noise -—it is a sort of low, rasping, hissing-like
noise hard to describe, but much different from the quack
which the duck makes, and which you can instantly
distinguish.

A drake is generally larger than the cee but not
always.

The best and quickest way to distinguish the sex of a
bird is to pick it up by the neck and listen to the noise
which it immediately makes. When we are examining a
pen of them rapidly, we never take time to look for the

DRAKE, SHOWING CURL FEATHER

This photograph of a drake shows the curl feather in the tail which is first
seen at puberty and is the mark of the sex. The ducks do not haveit. Some-
times a drake will be found without this curl feather, which may have been lost
in moulting, or have been pulled out. In examining a lot of birds, the quickest
way to tell the sex is to pick them up one by one by the neck and listen to
the noise or note which each makes. See page 39 for further particulars.

SEX, PAIRING, BREE DING

curled tail feather. We pick each up by the neck, one
after the other, and listen to the note, or noise, made by
each, the decision being made instantly.

Fertilization Necessary. The act of copulation (con-
nection) of the male and female is a plain, unmistakable
ceremony, same as in the case of rooster and hen, and not
so blind as in the case of the smaller birds. We think we
ought to discuss this subject because it is a very important
one, the foundation of the business. Ducks will lay eggs,
but not fertile eggs, unless they have had intercourse with
a drake. We have known a beginner to run an incubator
the specified time filled with eggs laid by ducks with which
no drake was allowed to run; result, no ducklings from said
eggs, which was quite a puzzle to the beginner until she
thought the matter over. Some people have no imagina-
tion, or take everything for granted, or are actually
ignorant about the simplest things. Given a duck’s egg,
it does not follow that the egg is fertile. The beginner
should be sure that the eggs which he puts into the incu-
bator come from ducks which have received the attentions
of drakes. It is not uncommon for incubator experi-
menters to fill up the machine with eggs bought at a
grocery store. [hese beginners do not know, or seem to
care, whether eggs have been fertilized or not.

The duck in love-making makes the first move by
bowing her head low, then the drake bows his head low.
They bow faster and faster; the duck squats and permits
the drake to mount her. He seizes her with his bill by the
back of her head, wearing the feathers off as the season
progresses. Connection being quickly performed, the
drake drops, or falls, from the duck, and bolts ewe from
her five or six feet, then stops.

When you see the ducks and drakes bowing to each
other, this is the sign that they wish to pair, and will, then
or soon.

The first active period of heat comes on when the duck
or drake is about five months old. In excessive heat, and
without drakes, ducks sometimes will mount each other,

HOW, WE MAKE DOCKS “FA;

acting like two cows, or two female rabbits. Do not be
led astray in the matter of sex by observing such actions.

One service of drake to duck will fertilize a dozen eggs.
One drake will attend five ducks. Twenty-five ducks
to five drakes is the most successful proportion, no more.

Drakes have no preference for a certain duck in their
love affairs. Asa rule, they do not quarrel among them-
selves over a duck or ducks, or interfere with one another.
Sometimes all the drakes in a pen except one will annoy or
persecute that one. He seems to make all the rest jealous
or irritable unanimously, and they unite to prevent him
from paying attention to any duck in the pen. Such a
drake should be removed from the pen, as the others will
make his life miserable.

The drakes are strong, and one can force a duck to
have connection against her will. ‘This is not true of most
animals. It is best not to interfere with him. At first,
the ducks will invite him; as the period goes on, they will
not. ‘The drakes act in a bold, aggressive manner all the
time except when they do not wish to pair. ‘Then they
go about with their heads and necks drawn in. ~ When
they are making love, they extend their heads and necks,
and walk proudly.

The drakes keep cleaner and whiter than the ducks.
Their bills are a darker orange color.

Drakes and ducks are stronger sexually than other
animals their size, or anywhere near their size, and their
reproductive work proves it. ‘The testicles of the drake
(inside the body) are of extraordinary size, as large as eggs
or lemons. ‘The duck lays an astonishing number of the
big, fertile eggs.

How to Catch Ducks. Suppose you wish to pick out
certain ducks or.drakes from a pen, for breeding or for
killing, or for examination, or for any purpose. Do not
go at it single-handed. Get a helper. Also a board ten
feet long and a foot wide. Give your helper one end of
the board and you take the other end. Both you and your
helper then walk to a corner of the pen, holding the board

DIBAG, TE AUURIONE Glee Je 18; IDO,

between you, driving the ducks along ahead of the board
into the corner. Then you can reach the duck or drake
you wish and pick her or him up by the neck. Never
attempt to drive more than twenty at a time into a corner.

How to Pick Up Birds. (This does not apply to
youngsters, but only to the grown ducks and drakes.)
Always catch a bird by the neck, in a firm grasp. Never
pick up a bird by the body. If you do you will make
trouble for yourself and the duck. You are liable to bend,
or twist, or dislocate or break the bones of the wings and
legs. You: can carry three or four ducks, or more, as
many as you can lift, between two hands, in front of your
body. Do not be afraid of strangling the ducks or break-
ing their necks.

The above applies only to birds beyond the age of four
weeks. Little ones just out of the incubator can be
gathered by armfuls or apronfuls. From one to four
weeks of age they can be handled best by picking them
up with the hand around the body, and this will not hurt
them.

Walk Around, not Through. Never walk through a
flock of ducks, young or old. Always go around them.
An inexperienced person always will try to go through a
flock, which will confuse the ducks, and some will crowd
under his feet and will get hurt either by his feet or by
themselves as they jostle one another. Just walk slowly
and take your time and they will get by you. Do not rush
around among them.

What a Yearling is. A yearling duck is not a duck
that has lived a year, but a duck which has passed through
one year’s work. For example, a duck may be hatched
in March, but she will not be a yearling duck the following
March. She will not be a yearling duck until the end of
the second December following the March in which she
was hatched. By that time she has passed through one
year’s laying.

Selecting Breeders. ‘he selection of breeders should
be going on all the time while you are killing. Select the

45D

Ficure 1. FicurReE 2.

HOW TO HANDLE LIVE BIRDS

This is the way to pick up and carry the live ducks and drakes which are
four weeks old or more. (Do not handle the little ducklings just out of the
incubator in this manner.) Catch the birds by the neck in a firm grasp, as
shown in Figure1. Never pick up a bird by the body. If you do you will make
trouble both for yourself and the duck. Carry them from pen to pen, or
from pen to killing-house, as shown in Figure 2. Do not fear that you will
strangle the ducks or break their necks.

You can carry three or four birds, or more, as many as you can lift,
between two hands, in front of your body.

SEX, JEGUUIUNG. tes/kdd JB IDYONE:

very best and save them for breeders and kill the balance
for market. To examine a bird in order to find out
whether it should be saved for breeding, pick it up by the
neck, look at it and feel of it.

In selecting breeders, first look for the largest, but do
not take a large bird that is sluggish in behavior. The
big, active ducks make the best breeders. Do not take
any birds which have black feathers. Black feathers are
not necessarily a sign of bad blood. ‘They may be what
is known as a “ throw-back ” in the breeding or a “ sport,”
liable to come out in any breeding, no matter how pure
the stock 1s.

In breeding large numbers of ducks there will occa-
sionally be freaks, such as three-legged and four-legged
ducks. We have seen three-legged and four-legged ducks
grow until we killed them for market. “The supplementary
legs were not as large as the two legs on which the duck
walked, but were dwarfed.

Sometimes a duck will be found with more than one
egg orifice. We have seen freak ducklings with as many
as five egg orifices.

No Inbreeding. We do not do any inbreeding. Our
stock is cross-bred. In the years that we have been build-
ing up our strain, we have greatly increased the size of
the breast and the depth of the keel. By poor selection
of breeders from year to year and thoughtless inbreeding,
some breeders of Pekins of our acquaintance have weak-
ened their stock, and cannot now produce the bird they
ought.

The breeder should aim to introduce new blood into a
certain pen or pens every other year, to keep up the size
and vitality. A drake which, for example, has served
three to five ducks for two seasons should be replaced by
another at the end of that time.

We do not do any pedigree or record-keeping. Such
drudgery is a waste of time and is a wholly unnecessary
detail. By separating the birds into flocks, each with its
drake or drakes, there cannot be inbreeding.

HOW WE MA KE (DUC Kee Age

It is surprising what improvements a duck breeder, if
he is careful and intelligent, can make in his flock in size
and good laying qualities, by selection of the best speci-
mens from year to year. We have got our birds up to the
point where they produce twice the number of fertile eggs
which the earlier generations did years ago, and the birds
have a longer and deeper keel, and weigh more. These
are important factors in money making, especially the
matter of fertility. “Those who start with our breeding
stock get the benefit of the years of study and selection
we have done. ‘They should continue the work with their
own breeding stock, remembering to save for breeders
only the largest and best birds.

Do not get the idea that you can buy any kind of a
white Pekin duck and in quick time build up a strain of
superior size and breeding qualities. You might just as
well try to breed a race-horse out of common drudge
horses. “he blood that makes for size and fertility can
be produced only by years of effort. It is much better to
start with a trio of stock at ten dollars a head than to buy
a bargain lot at two or three dollars apiece, or even less, as
they are sometimes sold. ‘The precious seed eggs from
first-class stock only are what you wish to secure from the
ducks you are breeding. By buying our breeding stock
you jump over years of effort which you will have to go
through if you start with scrub ducks picked up at bird and
poultry stores, or bought here and there of anybody who
happens to have a few ducks.

CCSUAE IER: IAs,
Wiss, ACE

Laid at night by the breeding birds.—Gathered in basket
in the indoor pens.—Washed in cold water.—Handled
occasionally so that they will not spoil. —Selected for the
incubator.—TI urned twice daily in incubator to give
new albumen to the germ.—Tested by lamplight.—
They pip on the twenty-fourth day.—Hatch should be

complete on the twenty-eighth day.—Leave the duck-
lings in the incubator until they dry, then take them to
the brooder.

Shut up the breeding ducks and drakes at night and
do not let them out until eight o’clock the next morning.
They lay their eggs during the night and early morning.
By eight o’clock in the morning they have all laid.

Fili the water pails in the outside yard and let the ducks
out to drink, then go from pen to pen inside the house and
gather up the eggs.

Sometimes a very cold night will come on in our lati-
tude. In that case it is necessary to go around as soon as
you can in the morning to get the eggs, so that they will
not have a chance to freeze. (This applies only to a cold
house. In a warm house you would not have to watch
out for frozen eggs so carefully.) One frosty morning,
in the value of eggs spoiled by freezing (provided you are
not on guard), would more than pay for the heater necessary
to warm the house.

If the weather is stormy outside, you do not let the
ducks out of the house, but go around from pen to pen
among them slowly gathering up the eggs. Do not go
hurriedly, for if you do you will scare chem:

Use a basket to gather up the eggs. Some eggs are in
the shavings where the ducks have Wielendnem. Someuses

WHERE THEY LAY THEIR EGGS

This house is heated by hot water so that the eggs will not be frozen on
cold winter nights. The pens havea dirt (not board) floor and shavings are put
down for bedding. The partitions between the pens are not made of wire
but of boards, so that the pens will not be draughty. The ducks lay at night.
Some try to hide their eggs in the shavings but they are easily found, and
the same ducks will try to hide them in the same places the following night.
Let the birds outdoors at eight o’clock in the morning and then go from pen
to pen and gather the eggs in a basket.

Wiss JG

a duck will make a nest three or four inches under the
shavings, then lay in the nest and cover the eggs with
shavings. She will do this night after night in the same
place, so after you have once located the place you can go
to it morning after morning unfailingly. Most of the
eggs are in plain sight, on top of the shavings.

The first eggs of a duck are infertile. After she
has laid several eggs then they begin torun fertile. The
first eggs should be used for cooking or sold at market,
where they bring from thirty cents a dozen up. ‘They
almost invariably bring more than hens’ eggs and there
is a good demand for them. ‘They are a trifle different in
taste from hens’ eggs. There is some prejudice against
duck eggs in some markets on account of the fishy taste
found in the eggs of common or puddle ducks. Ducks
which are fed on grain lay fine eggs of good flavor. As
far as cooking goes, duck eggs taste the same as hens’
eggs and a duck egg will equal two hens’ eggs.

The number of eggs laid by the duck steadily increases.
By February 1, in our climate, about half of them should
be laying. We begin to save eggs for the incubators as
soon as we see that the production of eggs 1s increasing
steadily from day to day.

The eggs should be taken in the gathering basket to a
cellar and washed there, as soon as gathered, in cold water
at a temperature of about forty-five degrees. Do not use
ice water or hot water. If you use ice water you will
freeze or chill the germs inthem. If you use warm water
you will start the germs to growing.

Use a cloth to wipe the eggs clean. After washing
them, put them in a basket in the cellar and keep them
there at a temperature of about forty-five degrees so that
they will not freeze and so that germination will not start.
The ordinary cellar of a house is just the right temperature.
The air should be good in the cellar, that is to say, not foul
or close, because the egg shells are porous.

While they are being kept in the baskets in the cellar,
the eggs should be handled every three or four days so that

HOW” WE MARE (DU CRS) PAs

they will not spoil. ‘That is to say, they should be taken
up and turned. The object of this is to prevent the
yolk from sticking to the sides of the eggs. In warm
weather, if the egg is allowed to stay in one position con-
tinously, the white will get soft and the yellow will go
through the white to the shell.

The eggs should be kept in the cellar no longer than
two weeks before putting them into the incubator. We
have kept them a month, but not over two weeks is the
best time.

If the temperature of the cellar rises to fifty-five or
sixty degrees, a slow process of incubation goes on inside
the eggs. Keep the eggs over two weeks in a cellar at sixty
degrees instead of forty degrées and they will hatch earlier
than others.

In selecting eggs for the incubator, do not take all of
them. Take only the perfect eggs. Eggs should be
rejected which are small, large, ill-shaped, and have
holes or pit-marks. The selecting or sorting of eggs
might be done after washing and the rejected eggs used
for cooking. ‘Iwo weeks in the cellar would not spoil the
eggs for household use.

Preparing the incubator. The incubator should be.
cleaned and put in order, the lamp lighted and the ma-
chine run empty for two days at a temperature of one
hundred and two degrees. Then put in the eggs. The
temperature will fall at once because the eggs are cool,
but do not fuss with the regulator. Leave it alone and let
the temperature rise to one hundred and two degrees, as
it will slowly in twenty-four hours. “The thermometer then
will be one hundred and two degrees again.

After the eggs have been in the machine thirty-six hours
take the tray out of the machine, put it on a table nearby
and turn the eggs with fingers or hand. Run the flat
of the hand over them so as to roll them around, stir
them. It is not necessary to turn them an exact half-
circle. The object of turning them is to supply new
albumen tothe germ. The embryo feeds on the white of the

THE EGG

egg. When you turn the egg with your hand you give an
opportunity for new food, new albumen to get to the
embryo. A hen turns her eggs in the nest twice a day for
the same reason instinctively.

The little duckling is made wholly from the white of
the egg. The albumen contains the feathers, flesh,
everything. ‘he object of the yolk is to furnish food for
the duckling during the last few days of its life in the shell.

After that first turning of the eggs thirty-six hours
after having being put in, the eggs should be turned
morning and evening.

The incubator cools off more or less while you are
turning the eggs on the tray on the table nearby, but this
‘should cause no alarm. When a hen leaves her nest, as
she does to go off for food, eggs which were being covered
in the nest are cooled off.

Testing the eggs. On the evening of the seventh day
after the eggs have been put in, they should be tested.
That is to say, if you put the eggs in on Saturday they
should be tested the following Friday. Duck eggs have a
white shell which is transparent and it 1s very easy to test
them. We have a box big enough to hold alamp. (These
egg-testing lamps are made and sold in various forms.)
Our box has a hole cut in the front of it a little smaller
than the eggs. Felting is glued around the hole so that
in handling the eggs rapidly they will not be knocked and
broken against the wood.

The operator should take four or five eggs in his hand.
He can test them very rapidly, as fast as he can pass them
in front of the opening. The light 1s confined by the hole
in the box and when the egg is put over the felting the
hole is stopped and all the light from the lamp must shine
directly through the ege.

If the egg is a fertile one and has been germinating
while it has been in the machine, you will see inside of the
egg something like a spider. Veins will cover almost the
entire egg. You can see the speck forming the eye of the
duckling and in fact the little duckling itself. The

SONITMONG OLNI SOOT AHL HOLVH HOIHM SHNIHOVWN ONIMOHS UVITGO AOLVANONI

THE EGG

development covers nearly the entire interior of the egg. If
you do not see this development, you will know that the
egg is infertile.

If you find an egg which is cloudy or addled, and
without the spider-like network of veins, it is not good.
Eggs that are addled can be mashed up, shells and all, and

fed to your growing ducks with their grain mixture.

FERTILE EGG, SEVENTH DAY

If the egg is fertile and has been germ-
inating in the incubator for seven days,
you will see something like above picture.

The white space at the end is the air-

EGG-TESTING LAMP space. The white line all around the egg
is the membrane just inside the shell.

Any eggs which you find black or bad-smelling should
be thrown away.

The clear eggs in which you find no germ and which
are not addled you can use in cooking, or you can sell them.

This testing should be done in the incubator house
alongside of the machine. In very cold weather we use
a cloth and cover the eggs while we have them out of the
machine so that the heat can be kept in them as much as
possible. Test a whole trayful before putting them back
into the incubator. Work quickly in cold weather.

There is no more testing of the eggs, but you must turn
them in the incubator night and morning, twice a day,
right along until hatching. If an egg shows black while
you are doing this at anytime, such an egg should be thrown

38)

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

out, for it is rotten. If when you open the incubator you
detect a bad smell, you can find the egg which is at fault,
if you cannot see it, by running your nose along the eggs
held close to them until you come to the bad one. It
should then be thrown out.

The eggs should begin to pip on the twenty-fourth day
after being put into the machine. When you see this
pipping starting among the eggs, stop turning them and
do not open the machine until the hatch is over. The
hatch should be completed if the machine is run proper-
ly, on the twenty-eighth day. Remove all eggs that have
not hatched at that time, and all shells.

The temperature of the machine for the first three
weeks should be one hundred and two degrees, and for
the last or fourth week one hundred and three degrees.

In minor matters not covered by our directions given
in this chapter, run the machine according to the direc-
tions which go with the incubator.

After hatching, the ducklings should be left in the
incubator from twelve to thirty-six hours, until they have
dried off. Just before the eggs hatch, the ducklings absorb
the yolk and live on that for thirty-six or forty-eight hours.
If they are taken out of the machine too quickly they are
not hungry and will not eat. You should leave them in
the machine from twelve to thirty-six hours so that they
will be not only dried but hungry.

Take them out of the machine gently. Pick them up
or guide them with the fingers by handfuls and sweep
them into the basket. [hen remove them to the brooder
or brooder house. ‘The temperature of the brooder or
brooder house should be near ninety degrees. The food
and water should be already in the brooder before you put
the little ducklings in from the incubator. They will be
hungry and will go to eating and drinking at once. See
next chapter.

CHAT PER slx
YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

How to handle and feed them from the time they leave
the incubator until they are eight weeks old.—First
jood in the brooder or nursery.—When to feed it, how to
feed it and how to water them.—The little birds are
tame. —Weaning jood begins on third day.—How to
mix it and give it—When two to three weeks old, they
are taken from the nursery to the second brooder house.
—When five weeks old they can go to the col. house,
where, for the first time, outdoor feeding is practised.

You have allowed the ducklings to stay in the incuba-
tor twenty-four hours after they have come out of the
shells. They are double the size of a chicken and in
appearance about twice the size of the egg-shell which
enclosed them.

A period of twenty-four hours in the machine dries
them so that they are strong enough to stand on their feet.
They have absorbed through the navel the yolk which
surrounded them at birth and this sustains them for the
twenty-four hours.

At the end of the twenty-four hours put them into a
basket and carry this basket to your brooder or nursery of
first brooding house. Put them in the runs, which are
three feet wide and nine feet long.

The hot-water pipes are not on the ground but are eight
inches above it. On top of the water pipes is a wooden
cover, one for each pen. The object of having the hot-
water pipes above the ducklings is to give them fens from
the top such as they would get from: under the natural
mother. Bottom heat would ealeen the legs of the duck-
lings and is not natural. ‘The little creatures huddle up
closely to each other under the hot-water pipes so as to

DUCKLINGS TWO WEEKS OLD

They are shown here in the yards of the first nursery house. When this
picture was taken, the small slides through which the birds pass from house to
yard were all open. These slides are left open during the day so that the duck-
lings can pass in and out at will. At night the ducklings are driven into the
house and the slides closed.

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

get the heat on their backs. Should they touch the hot-
water pipes they cannot be burned.

Take these youngest ducklings into the nursery just
before noon, the warmest part of the day.

Their first food has been previously placed on the food
boards ready for them. ‘There is a water drinking foun-
tain in each pen, the No. 1 or smallest size (see page 58).
This water dish, like the others, is arranged so that the
duckings cannot jump into the water and get damp, and
also so that no water can stand in it for any length of time.
A self-feeding reservoir fountain is exactly what is not
wanted. The water should be renewed at each feeding time.
It is not necessary to scald the fountains but they should
‘be rinsed out. ‘They may be scalded, say once a week.

The first food includes bread-crumbs and rolled oats.
The rolled oats are the same as are commonly used for the
table, costing from $3.25 to $5.00 a barrel, each barrel
weighing one hundred and eighty pounds.

The bread-crumbs are made from stale bread by run-
ning the bread through a meat grinder. Buy dry, stale
bread from the bakers for about one cent a pound, twenty
dollars a ton. Also use up dry and stale home bread.
Bread-crumbs for a small number of ducklings can be
prepared from the bread by hand without a machine.

Take half rolled oats and half bread-crumbs to make
this first mixture. “lake them by measure, not by weight.
Use for a measure an ordinary quart measure if you please.
Take one pail of rolled oats and one pail of bread-crumbs
or two pails of rolled oats and two pails of bread-crumbs,
and so on. Put in five per cent of good, sharp, ordinary
sand with the bread-crumbs and rolled oats. The object
of this sand is to provide grit, which the little ducklings
need as well as the old ones. Two handfuls of sand to
each pailful of mixture is what we mean by five per cent.
Put these three ingredients, rolled oats, bread-crumbs and
sand, into a box and mix them in the box. [hen moisten
this mixture with water, not enough to make the mixture
sloppy, but just enough to moisten the particles. If you

No. 2

WATER FOUNTAINS FOR DUCKLINGS

These three sizes must be used for successful results. The smallest, or
No. 1 size, is used for the youngest ducklings. The No. 2 size is used next.
When the ducklings are four weeks old, the No. 3 size is used. For birds near
killing age, or over, use an ordinary pail or water trough (see below).

The No. 3 size fountain above is too large for the little ducklings. They
would get inside of it and drown. The smaller sizes are not large enough for
the ducklings after they have grown, because the water then would not be
deep enough to reach their nostrils. The ducklings need water deep enough
to souse their bills wholly in it, so that they can wash from their nostrils any
sawdust or food which may lodge there.

FOOD AND WATER TROUGHS

These should be built in different sizes. They are used both indoors and
out as directed. There is no hard and fast rule for their size and construction.
The caretaker should use them according to the age of the ducklings.

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

have milk you can use milk instead of water because the
ducklings will grow faster when milk is used than when
water is used. Understand, do not make this first mixture
sloppy. Make it damp, that is the idea.

‘The above is the food for these newly hatched duck-
lings for forty-eight hours after being put into the nursery.
The food is there in each pen as the ducklings are put into
each pen from the basket from the incubator.

Do not stand and watch these little ducklings. They
will not feed until you go away and leave them alone. The
food is scattered on a board and the ducklings walk out
from under the hot-water pipes to the board and eat, now
and then going to the water fountain for a drink. The
‘run-way 1s partitioned off half-way with a board placed
there temporarily so that they will not wander too far from
the hot-water pipes and get down to the window where it
is cold. At night they are shut in completely under the
hot-water pipes by taking this board and moving it up to
the head of the pen, next the top board above the hot-water

ipes.
: ae the first two days, the food above described should
be before these youngest ducklings continuously. For that
reason, Visit the nursery five times a day for these first two
days to renew the food on the boards in the pens and to
renew the water in the fountains.

The food board is three feet long, the same width as the
pen, and six inches wide. This has laths nailed on the
ends and sides to prevent the food from sliding off or from
being pushed off. :

Care of Brooders. ‘The beginner should be constantly
impressed with the importance of keeping the brooders
scrupulously clean. [Every other day the droppings and
dirty sawdust should be removed from under the pipes.
The best way to go at this job is from the walk side of the
brooder. ‘Take off the cover. With a narrow shingle,
scrape out underneath the pipes, taking only the wet and
dirty sawdust out, and putting it into a bushel basket which
is carried outside when full; or, in a larger brooder house,

THOUSANDS OF YOUNGSTERS

This shows how they look on a pleasant day out in the yards of one of the
nursery houses. The narrow strips of wire netting which separate the pens
cannot be seen in the picture, but they are there. Ducklings this age are quite
an attractive sight. The small sliding doors are always up when the birds are
out. They were dropped when the picture was taken so as to get all the
ducklings in.

Each pen of the youngsters is handled precisely the same as the next. In
the fall, the wire netting is rolled up, the wood stakes pulled up and the ground
ploughed and sown (in our latitude) to winter rye. This sweetens the ground
as well as furnishing green food. If the birds were allowed to run on the same
dirt year after year, and make manure upon it, the ground would become
tainted, affecting both the size and fecundity of the stock.

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

use a wheelbarrow. As each brooder is cleaned, put in a
thin layer of fresh, dry sawdust from a-basket taken on
your arm from pen to pen.

The food boards should be scraped with a shingle or
piece of tin each day to keep them respectably clean.
‘Take up each board and scrape it into a basket. It will be
covered with sawdust, refuse, etc.

In our system of care of brooder house, this scraping
of the food boards and washing the fountains is done
regularly every day after the two o'clock feeding. ‘The
attendant goes along each pen, picking up the fountains
and food boards and placing them on the brooder covers.
The boards are then scraped (with a sheet iron scraper
about six inches square) into a bushel basket, this refuse
being thrown on the manure pile. The fountains are then
washed and rinsed, after which they are filled with water
while standing on the brooder tops. On a plant of large
magnitude, three men work together doing this job.
While the cleaning of boards and fountains is going on,
one of the men is bedding the pens, using dry pine saw-
dust for this purpose. When the task is “completed, the
men immediately begin putting down the fountains and
food boards, and the ducklings then are ready to receive
their next food.

The five feeding times are as follows: 6 a.m., 9 a.m.,
11.30 a.m., 2.30 p.m., 5.30 p.m. The ducklings will get
eager and hungry and will cry for food at each of these
feeding times. They are not old enough to make a quack-
ing noise, but peep. his peeping noise increases in
volume until they are six weeks old. ‘Then they begin to
make a quack more like the old birds.

When washing out the drinking fountains, use a rag or
dish-cloth and two pails of water. Wash in one pail and
rinse in the other.

Be careful not to step on the little ducklings in giving
the first food. They are very tame and will get all around
your feet if you give them a chance.

Their appetites should be kept eager.

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

Do not put down too much food on the boards. The
night feeding should be the biggest of the five because the
food eaten then has to last them through the night.

Be sure and keep them eager and hungry. Do not
load up the boards with the mixture so that they will over-
stuff themselves. Remember that for these first two days
they are learning to eat.

In hot weather water them twice as much as when the
weather is cooler. Fill the fountain often. They will
drink this water up quickly, within five or ten minutes, then
fill the fountain up again. Do this watering always at
each feeding. [he easiest way to get the water into the
little fountains is to pour it from a milk-can, which is better
than a dipper because it holds more and is handled easier.
Do not fill these milk-cans froma faucet. That would take
too much time. Let the faucet water run into a tub and
fill the milk-cans by dipping them into the tub. ‘This
saves work.

Beginning with the third day, the food for the young
ducklings changes to the weaning food. Mix the same
ingredients of food as the first two days with bran and corn-
meal in equal parts, by measure not by weight. ‘That is
to say, take one measure of rolled oats, one measure of
bread-crumbs, one measure of bran and one measure of
corn-meal, in other words twenty-five per cent of each.

By bran we mean wheat shells, also called shorts. It
is the outside, flaky shell of the wheat. It costs about twen-
ty dollars a ton in carload lots, but is cheaper in the West.
It is a by-product of a flour mill.

Corn-meal is common yellow Indian corn which has
been ground, not cracked. It costs here in the East about
the same as bran. ‘This weaning food is given for seven
or eight days.

When the ducklings are seven or eight days old, cut out
the expensive rolled oats and bread-crumbs and in their
place in the mixture put low-grade flour, which costs about
twenty-eight dollars a ton.

Remember, that all these mixtures are moistened with

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

water but not so as to be sloppy. They should be damp.
When you take up a handful which has been mixed
properly with water, it will not stick to the hands but will
hold compactly together in a lump.

The food which begins at seven or eight days of age
also has green stuff and beef scraps. “Io summarize, then,
prepare the food as follows: Equal parts of bran and
corn-meal, ten per cent of low-grade flour and ten per cent
of green stuff, such as green grass or rye or millet (which
has been chopped up in a cutting machine or by hand in
a pail), beef scraps five per cent, grit one per cent. The
scraps if too coarse should be screened, the fine part being
used for the small birds and the coarse part for the older
ones.

For grit use common sand and gravel off the farm for
the first three days of the duckling’s life. From then on
use our special grit made from granite in two sizes, fine
and medium. Use the fine grit at first and the medium
grit as the duckling gets older.

Keep the ducklings in the first nursery house two to
three weeks, depending on how you are fixed for room.
If you have a hatch coming off from the incubator, clean
out a sufficient number of pens in the nursery to make
room for the new-comers.

| The nursery house has a dirt floor, not a board floor.
‘This dirt (sand or gravel or dry loam or clay) should be
in each pen with dry sawdust laid down on top of the
sandy bottom. Carry this sawdust into the nursery house
in a wheelbarrow and shovel it from the wheelbarrow into
the pens, then rake it level to a depth of an inch. Use
dry pine sawdust. Almost any sawdust except oak can be
used. Do not use oak sawdust for if you do it will turn
the drinking water blue as it gets off the bills of the duck-
lings, and this bluish drinking water does not smell or
taste wholesome. Pine or spruce sawdust 1s good.

In the Second Brooder House. When the ducklings
are two or three weeks old, take them in a basket, a pen at
a time, to the second brooder house where the pens are

ald

)

Sure

DUCKLINGS IN THE SUN AT MID-DAY

These birds are seven weeks old. Youngest ducklings are harmed by the
hot rays of the midsummer sun, and should be given a chance to get into the
shade. Remember that ducks at all ages should have access to shade.

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

four feet wide instead of three feet wide, and ten feet long
instead of nine feet long.

All ducklings are fed four times a day in this second
house at the following hours: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m.,
5.30 pm. This second house has a hot-water heating
arrangement exactly like the nursery house, except that
the pipes are further from the floor.

‘The outdoor runs of this second brooder house are
twenty feet long. It depends on the weather whether or not
you let the three weeks’ old ducklings outdoors into these
runs from the inside pen. On bright, sunny days, not too
cold (if in winter) you can let them outdoors, and their
exercise outdoors will do them good. Remember, just
now we are talking about our latitude and our winters. If
you live in southern latitudes or in a warmer climate than
ours, or if it is summer-time with you in this latitude, you
can let the young ones outdoors more freely. Do not let
them out in the rain or snow.

All the feeding in this second house is done inside the
house, same as in the nursery house. ‘The food boards
in this second house are larger than in the nursery. They
are four feet long and nine inches wide or just wide enough
to be cleaned with a shovel. Before each feeding time,
scrape off the sawdust, refuse food, etc., from each board
with a shovel and throw this refuse into the walk of the
house. Every four or five days this refuse should be raked
into a pile and carted out in a wheelbarrow.

The No. 2 water fountains used in this second house are
made in the same style as the fountains used in the nursery,
only larger, and hold twice as much water.

When the ducklings are four weeks old, change this
No. 2 drinking fountain to the larger or No. 3 size.

You may ask why would not one size of water fountain
be all right for all ages. ‘The largest, or No. 3, fountain
would be too large for the little ducklings. ‘They would
get inside of it and drown. They would also struggle to
teach the water and would weaken themselves. The
smallest size is not large enough for the ducklings after they

HSNOH dO YALNHO HONOUHL MWIVM ‘SHCIS HLOd NO SGUVA “ASNOH AAdOOUd ATaNnod

YOUNGEST DUCKLINGS

have grown because the water then would not be deep
enough to reach their nostrils. The nostrils of a duck are
plainly visible. ‘hey are two open holes at the base of
the bill. “The ducklings need water deep enough for them
to souse their bills completely in it so that they can wash
from nostrils any sawdust or food which may lodge there.

To the Cold House. When the ducklings are five weeks
old, they are taken (on a large plant) from the second
house to a third, called a cold house, that is to say, it has no
heating apparatus. If the weather is cold when they are
five weeks old, use your own judgment as to putting them
into the cold house. Wait until a warm, sunny day. It
depends on the season and the locality. Ducks at this age
can be driven in large flocks.

Feed and water the ducklings outdoors in the pens of
the cold house. ‘They do better if fed outdoors. It de-
pends on the weather. If you put them into the pens of
the outdoor house in the morning of an early spring, and a
northeast storm comes up cold and raw, drive them back
into the house and shut the doors and windows. The
ducklings would not know enough to go into the house
away from the storm. [hey would go to meet the storm,
as far from the house as they could get, at the end of the
run. [he rain would not drive them in. The ducklings
would stand up as straight as they could so as not to get
their backs very wet, but they would not know enonen to’
go into the house. ‘The rain would beat down upon chem
and exhaust them and before long the little creatures
would fall down exhausted and this exposure might kill
them. Remember we are talking now about the young
- ducklings. The old ducklings know enough to go in out
of the rain. When the storm breaks, they will scoot for
the house. The ducklings eight, nine, ten and eleven weeks
of age, and older, will stand rain in our latitude.

May is the worst month in New England to watch for
weather in managing young ducklings.

The cold house is the home of the ducklings from five
weeks until they are eight weeks old, when they are ready

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS ePAT

for fattening. [he object of the cold house is simply to
keep them out of the rain and snow. In the summer
time or in southern latitudes, an orchard which has shade
trees will do for ducklings when five weeks old except on
days when big storms come up. On those days the young
ducklings must be housed.

Distributing the Food. Where only forty or fifty
pails of food are used daily, the best way to get it to the
different houses and yards is by use of a wheelbarrow.
The No. 7 size wheelbarrow will take ten or twelve pails.
If water must be conveyed, milk-cans (previously men-
tioned) are best to use, as the water will not spill in carry-
ing them in the wheelbarrow. If, however, several
hundred pails of food are used daily, a large, four-wheeled
truck may be used to advantage, providing the land is
level enough to allow the men to draw it, otherwise it is
best to use a horse and wagon.

WINTER SCENE. BROODER HOUSE

(CISUAIP ADIN SIE \VIEIN|
FATTENING

Growing to kill from eight weeks to market age.—T he
jattening sheds are simple roofs erected on dirt ground.—
The birds are fed three times a day.—Secret of feeding
properly the fattening mixture.—Keep their appetites
eager.—fudge by the appearance of the duckling when
it 1s Jat enough to kill—Look out for sour food.tHow
to utilize food which has soured.ctHow to avoid

yellow skin.—Winter rye for green stuff.

‘The fattening starts when the ducklings are eight weeks
old. ‘They are driven from the cold house at this age into
outdoor (or fattening) sheds. These are sheds which are
simply a roof on posts, the sides being open. The roof
should be tight but it is not necessary to make it absolutely
tight by shingling or paper. All! that is necessary is to
nail battens over the cracks between the boards which
form the roof. ‘he fattening sheds are used from the end
of April to November 1, in our latitude. In southern
latitudes their use could begin earlier.

In the fattening sheds, feed three times a day, morn-
ing, noon and night, 6 a.m., 12 m., and 6 p.m. Feed a
mixture of corn-meal, low-grade flour, beef scraps,
oyster shells and grit, and green stuff when you have it.
Mix the food in these proportions: Three parts of corn-
meal, one part of low-grade flour, three-quarters of a part of
beef scraps with about three per centofoyster shells and grit
mixed equally, then one part of green stuff, when you have
it. The ducklings like the looks of the mixture better and
eat more of it when the green stuff is in it to give it color.

This food is given until the ducklings are ten or
eleven weeks old, when they are killed. This is a rich
food mixture to fatten.

READY FOR FEEDING

On a large plant, wooden pails will be found to be the best means for carry-—
ing the food to the ducks. After the food is mixed in the house, it is put into
the pails, which are stacked up as shown. If the ground is level and a large
number of the pails are to be transported to the ducks, a four-wheeled truck
(not shown in picture) drawn by two men is the best device for wheeling them.
If a smaller number of the pails are to be transported, wheelbarrows are the
handiest.

Wooden pails are cheaper than galvanized iron and they are better because
they may be nested when empty and a lot of them carried by one man. Metal
pails might be nested but their combined weight on the arms of the operator
would be very tiresome.

FATTENING

The secret of feeding properly this fattening mixture
three times a day is to feed just what will be eaten up
clean in fifteen minutes. If there is any left over after the
ducks have eaten briskly for fifteen minutes, the food board
should be scraped entirely clean. When you get skillful
at feeding from practice you will know just how much to
feed. The idea is not to give these fattening ducks too
much food, for if you do they will not keep fat. You must
keep their appetites eager.

Make the morning feeding light. Make the noon feed-
ing light. At night be more liberal. Then give them the
food good and strong. This will last them through the night.
Keep them eager. ‘They ought to go to the man who

is feeding them at feeding time. Do not disturb the ducks
while they are feeding. Go on about your business to the
next pen. A green man standing around the food board
and watching them will keep them away from their food.
Scare them off and they will not go back to the food.

Always water before feeding. Give the water to these
fattening ducks in water troughs built like illustration.

Give the food to them on boards the width of a shovel.
Keep the water trough close to the food board. Do not
put it at the end of the yard, for if you do the ducks will not
go to it to get water, especially in hot weather. ‘They eat
at the food board greedily and they want water every
now and then handy, to keep them from choking. ‘They
do not like water which has been standing in the sun.
Give fresh water at each feeding time, also water between
feedings. ‘That is to say, this extra watering for the
fattening birds is done at 9 a. m. and 2 p. m.

You judge by the appearance of the bird when it is fat
enough to kill. Killing age may be at eight, nine, ten,
eleven or twelve weeks of age. Pick up the duck by the
neck and feel of the body. Feel of the duck’s back. If it
is fat there it is fat all over. If it is thin there, put it back
into a pen reserved for culls. ‘These culls should be
examined three weeks after being thrown back to deter-
mine whether they are then fat enough to kill.

: > gr US
| WE es de oe :
<<? es 2 :

he he | - a

MEAL TIME

Wire netting separates these pens. (It can hardly be seen in the photo-
graph.) These ducklings are in one of the cold houses and are six weeks old.
(In another week they will be ready to drive into the large fattening sheds.)

They are seen getting their food out of the boards with raised edges and
their water (look closely) from V-shaped watering troughs. It is important to
set the food and water troughs near each other because the birds run to the
water after every other mouthful, both to get a drink and to wash their bills.
In the fall, these yards, as well as the others, are ploughed and sown to green
stuff (winter rye) in order to keep the soil fresh.

FATTENING

If you cannot tell by feeling of the duck whether it is
old enough to kill, put it in a bag and weigh it. When six
or eight weeks old it ought to weigh four pounds, or four
and one-half pounds. At ten weeks it ought to weigh
five and one-half or six pounds.

When they are really fat they ought to be killed. Keep
them longer and they are going to lose some fat.

When they are eleven to twelve weeks of age they have
a light moult, shedding some feathers. They lose their
appetites and go back in weight a little. They should
be killed and sent to market just before this light moult
starts.

Do not feed any sour food. Do not mix at any one
‘time more food than you need at that time, or it may sour
over night. Get the knack of feeding so as not to have to
clean up the boards after fifteen minutes of feeding. An
experienced man seldom makes a mistake by overfeeding.
Sometimes in extremely hot weather the ducks’ appetites
are hard to gauge.

This stuff which may be cleaned up after feeding
should be scraped off, either into a pail or basket. It is
not necessary to waste it even if it is a little sour. It
may be mixed in and fed with new food, provided there
is not much of it. ‘(It is said of the duck growers in
France that they allow the food to sour a little purposely
for the reason that they think it fattens more quickly.)

Novices in the duck business have trouble in the
brooder house with ducklings dying from sour food;
watch out sharply for sour food there. If you should find
any sour food there, you can get rid of it by mixing it with
good food and giving it to the older birds.

The color of the skin of a first-class duckling when
ready for market should be white, not yellow. ‘This is
one of the reasons our ducks bring better prices in the
markets. Yellow skin is caused by too much green food,
or by letting the birds stay on green grass ground too long
before killing. For the last two weeks previous to killing

the ducklings should be kept on bare (dirt) ground. The
73

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

object of green food is to keep the bowels of the birds in a
good, open, healthy condition. “Too much eating of green
and too much lying on green grass make their flesh yellow.

In our latitude we use for green stuff much winter rye.
We buy the seed not of a seed man, because he charges
seed prices, but of a grain man, at grain prices. We sow
this winter rye in the latter part of September and the first
part of October. Sow it in September and you have a
chance to cut it twice before freezing. “The ground where
we plant 1 it (the runs) is so rich with the duck manure that
the winter rye grows much faster than on the average
farm. It does not freeze in the winter, but stays green.
If a warm day should come and the snow melt in the
winter, you can cut the winter rye and feed it to the ducks.
Just before we expect a snow storm we cut it and keep it
frozen in a building where no sun penetrates. It will keep
well. Use as necessary.

FATTENING YARDS
Road down the middle allows easy access to all pens with food and waiter

CHiArAl ie EG Eee

KILLING, PICKING, SHIPPING
How the picker uses first a knife, then a club.—Sharp

knives necessary to remove some feathers—What the
picker wears, and the wages he makes. — Washing the
bird. —The process of tying the head under one
wing.— Plumping the duckling in tanks of ice-water.—
The shipping box. —Express pointers.—Use of barrels.
—Not necessary to use 1ice.— Distance possible to
ship is almost unlimited. —Choosing a commission
man.—Shipping ducklings alive.-—How to scald and
pick ducklings. —Getting the food passage empty
before killing.—Care of the feathers, how to pack and
ship them.

The killing is done by the picker, who stands, holding
the duckling between his legs, takes a sharp knife, double-
edge, opens the mouth of the bird and cuts the roof of the

STICKING KNIFE

The duckling is killed with this knife. The blade is six inches long and one
inch wide. The whole knife, handle and all, is ten and three-quarters inches
long. The back should be ground and sharpened two inches down from the
point, as well as the front edge, and the point should be kept sharp.

duckling’s mouth inside, making a cut of considerable
depth so as to sever all the blood passages.

Then he stuns the duckling by striking it with a club.
This club is generally about eighteen inches long and not
too heavy. Part of a wagon stake or a hoe handle
answers very well. ‘The bird is struck a good sharp blow

HOW: WE MAKE DTC TGS eae

so as to make it insensible. One blow 1s all that is neces-
sary, although some pickers less skillful than others strike
the duckling two or three times. The blow is aimed
directly upon the top of the head with the club. The
skull is not smashed.

The bird is stunned immediately after sticking so that
the blood will run better.

While the duckling is bleeding, the picker goes imme-
diately to his chair beside the feather box, sits and begins
picking. The duckling 1s cooling now and when the tem-
perature of the blood gets below ninety-eight degrees it con-
geals and stops running out of the duckling. ‘The picker’s
feather box is about level with his knees so that he can drop
the feathers easily off the duckling into the box as he picks
them. He holds the head of the duckling between one
knee and the box to prevent its fluttering and soiling the
feathers with blood. ‘There is a pail of water suspended
from a wire directly over the feather box and the picker
frequently wets his hand in this pail. ‘This water causes
the feathers to stick to his hand, which also gives him a
grip or purchase on them so that he can pluck them out
without much effort. ‘The wing and tail and other coarse
feathers are thrown out, as they are too hard and rough.
The picker works by making a sharp jerk in the opposite
direction from which the feathers lie, the skin meanwhile
being drawn by the other hand so that it is tight. If very
tender, the skin at the roots of the feathers is held between
the fingers, and the feathers are pulled out straight, a few
at atime. ‘he pin-feathers are wet to cause them to stick
to the hand and are then caught between the thumb and
the blade of the knife held in the nght hand.

This knife is an important item to the picker. Each
picker has from a half dozen to two dozen of these knives,
and he sharpens them at noon or after work so that his
working hours are not used up in the sharpening. We
illustrate the style of knife used by the pickers. The blade
is good steel. It is ground and honed, then stropped on an
ordinary razor strop, Each picker has one of these leather

KILLING, PICKING, SHIPPING

razor strops hanging beside him from the feather box.
The knife is kept as sharp as a razor, for part of the bird
really must be shaved to make a clean picking job.

The pickers make from twenty to thirty dollars a week.
It is all piece work. They get so much for every duckling.

= - > —————

KNIFE USED IN PICKING

This knife is seven and one-half inches long over all. The blade is three
and three-quarters inches long, and three-quarters of aninch wide. It must be
of good steel so that a razor edge can be kept on it. Each professional duck
picker has from half a dozen to two dozen of these knives and it is an important
part of his business to keep them sharp.

When their price is five cents for every duckling, the
feathers pay for the picking. Some pickers demand eight
cents a duckling. It is money well earned, and the weekly
wages they make are not too much, as a degree of skill is
required. It is a real trade.

Old clothes should be worn in picking. The pro-
fessional picker takes off all his clothes before beginning
work in the morning, puts on an old shirt and a pair of full-
length overalls which are white to begin. ‘They are first
oiled with raw linseed oil and left outdoors in the sun to
dry for a week, then they are given a coat of linseed oil and
varnish. his makes the overalls moisture proof. “They
are generally worn by the picker until worn out. ‘Uhey
are never washed. ‘They are hard and stiff—like armor

late.
: In the picking room there should be a barrel or box of
lime, air-slaking. This air-slaked lime is sprinkled around
the picking room on the blood on the floor, to keep the place
sweet.

The picker who makes a slip and cuts the skin of the
duckling, or rips it, must sewit up. For this purpose each
picker has a needle and a spool of thread and if he makes
a cut or rip he quickly sews it. When he has done this it
is almost impossible to find the place.

DUCK PICKER AT WORK

JCULIION GTA CIKGON Gs SIeH IZING

The professional picker generally strops his knife by
turning it on the strop on the edge, not on the back, as a
razor is stropped. However, each man has his own way
of keeping his knives sharp.

A good picker should pick from forty to fifty ducks in a
day. More than fifty a day is above the ordinary. Often
a skillful picker is found who will average sixty-five a day.

Each picker has a counter or tally device like a baseball
umpire’s counter, and as he finishes a bird he turns the
counter.

He puts the bird, when he is done with it, into a tank
filled with water. ‘his tank is made with compartments,
eight or ten of them. Each picker has his own compart-
ment for the birds which he picks, so that his work can
be checked by the foreman. The foreman, who is gener-
ally the man who ties up the birds and carries them forward
to the shipping boxes, takes the birds one at a time from
the picker’s tank and washes them to get the blood off,
and the dirt off the feet. The washing is done in an
ordinary pail. It is finished in cleaner water in a second
pail. The foreman then puts the duckling into another
tub of water, not ice water, but ordinary faucet or spring
water, to get the animal heat entirely out of the carcass.
This saves ice when the ice is used later on in the process.

The foreman then ties up the bird and this is an inter-
esting process, as it makes a handsome, compact duckling.
There are one or two details about this work of tying
which should be noted carefully. The head of the duck-
ling is bent around and back and put under the wing. A
string is then passed around the entire bird at the middle
of the body and a common hard knot made at the wing.
The feet are allowed to stick straight out. ‘The string
confines the head and wings. A forming box or press
such as is sometimes used in tying fowls is not necessary
for ducklings. ‘The operator works on top of a table with
his hands alone. The string should not be fine, like harness
thread for instance. Such fine string or thread, although
it may be strong, will prove a nuisance because it will cut

HOW.-WE MAKE DUCKS “PAa

the fingers of the operator. ‘The string should be a good-
sized white kind which car be handled easily and rapidly
by wet fingers without cutting them. After the knot has
been made the operator cuts the string with his picking
knife. Be sure that the knot is on the side at or below
the wing. Ducklings are often seen in the markets with
the knot of their tying string directly over the centre of the
breast, just the place where it ought not to be, because
there it looks slovenly, and spoils the appearance of the
birds.

This string sinks into the flesh and is almost out of
sight and hardly shows when the flesh is soft and wet.

When the operator starts to tie up the duckling, it is
lying on the board, breast up. He grasps the head in his
right hand, swings it around to the right and puts it between
the wing and that side of the body. The duckling after
tying 1s put into one of the refrigerator tanks. Each tank
is a convenient size, about six or eight feet long, three or
four feet wide and three to four feet deep. ‘These refrig-
erating tanks are made of common Yankee pine or they
can be made of cypress, or any wood suitable to hold
water. If you give these tanks a good coating of paint
inside you will find that they will wash out much quicker
and better and will not become slimy like an unpainted
tank. Water is first put into the tank to about one-half
the depth, then the ducklings are put in. As a rule the
birds float in the water. Once in a while a carcass will
be found which will sink. As more and more ducks are
put in they press down those already in the tank. ‘The
ice of course floats on top of the water. The duck is
allowed to stay in the tank of ice-water until shipping time,
which is generally from twelve to twenty hours later. The
object of the ice-water is to plump the flesh and condition
it. [he water also adds slightly to the weight of the duck.

The ducklings should be plumped in the ice-water over
night and shipped the following day as the trains run.

The ducklings are shipped to market by express (not
freight) either in boxes or barrels. We use boxes in ship-

JTULIGIING, IP ICISIING, EVV ONG

ping by express to the Boston market and get the empties
back free by express. We use barrels in shipping to the
New York market because when we ship there the ship-
ments are handled by two express companies and we cannot
get back the empty boxes at a cheap rate.

The shipping box we use is a substantial affair. A
light, fragile box would not answer. The box holds twenty-
four ducklings. Sometimes twenty-six will go in.

The inside measurements of the shipping box are
twenty-four inches long, fifteen inches wide, fourteen inches
deep. It is built of one-inch pine. Better and lighter
wood can be found in various sections of the United States.
The cover of the box is not on hinges, but is bolted on
with two bolts, one at each end of the cover in the middle.
These boxes are used over and over again until they are
wor out. They last for four or five years. “Che common
or merchandise rate 1s charged by the express companies
for taking the killed ducklings in these boxes to market.
For the ordinary express-train journey of six or seven hours
or less, no ice is used. If the breeder is shipping long
distances, ice should be packed in the box along with the
birds. ‘There 1s practically no limit to distance which
killed ducklings can be shipped, as the markets are located
in America, if the shipper packs correctly.

Before putting the ducklings into the shipping box the
box should be lined with brown paper. We do not mean
that this paper should be tacked in. We have a supply of
brown paper such as grocers use, the sheet being long
enough to go across the box. We put a sheet on the
bottom of the box which covers one side, then another
sheet, then a third sheet on top of the ducks after they
have been put in. This brown paper prevents the ducks
from coming in contact with the wood, which may be
dirty. It keeps them clean and the interior of the box
has a sweet, clean look when opened.

Shipping boxes like these should be used by anybody
shipping to his market by one express company. If you
have a market reached by two express companies from

READY FOR SHIPPING

Ducklings killed, picked and ready for packing and shipping. The string
which confines the head under the wing has not yet been passed around over the
breast and tied. Observe the large frame, full breast and general plumpness of
these birds. When the photographer took the above picture, the ducks were
lying on a horizontal table and the camera was six feet distant, higher than the
table. The result is, that the three ducks on the inside (or bottom) row appear
larger than the four behind (being nearer the camera). They all, however,
were about the same size and weight, with the exception of the two at the left
of the lower row, which were exceptionally big.

These ducklings sell readily on their good looks and their delicious taste.
Their plump, white flesh and trim appearance make them marked objects in
any poultry or general market display.

The ducklings in the picture were eleven weeks old when killed and weighed
sixteen pounds to the pair.

KGULIDIONG, JUG ISIN, SJall IE JAUNIG,

your place, you will not get the empty box back free as a
tule, although you might in some cases. In that case
barrels can be used, as we use them in shipping to New
York City. We use sugar and flour barrels. ‘They cost
us eighteen cents empty. A sugar barrel will hold from
forty-five to fifty ducklings. We do not head the barrel,
but lay the paper in, then the ducklings, and on top of the
barrel we stretch a piece of burlap, tacking it around the
top of the barrel. A flour barrel holds from thirty-two to
thirty-five ducklings.

Sometimes an expressman, if he is green at handling
these duck barrels, will turn one over and stand it on its

head instead of on its bottom. ‘This jams the top layer of
~ ducklings but does not spoil them. In the summer we
put ice in the barrel. The ice melts, as it should, because
poultry keep better with cold water sprinkling over and
around them than they do with only ice on them. ‘The
water collects in the barrel and if the expressman turns
the barrel over it will run out and annoy him. ‘The best
way is to use boxes and not barrels if you are located so
you can. We can use the boxes, shipping to New York,
but it would cost us more to get the empty box from two
express companies than a new barrel can be bought for.

The New York market is a very strong one. People
who do business in New York and live out in the country
if they want to raise ducks need not fear for the market.
That city will take an unlimited quantity of anything in
the poultry line. The same is true of any other city in
America or Canada. Wherever people are gathered to-
gether there is a lot of eating going on, and anything in the
poultry line is absorbed naturally as a sponge takes up
water.

We never use ice in shipping ducklings to Boston.
The dealers give us fair weight. We have never had any
trouble with any marketman on ducklings. We have a
set of scales in the shipping room and we get the net
weight of every box as itis made up. We allow for shrink-
age in the dressed ducklings and are able to hit it exactly

HOW WE MAKE ODE CRS eae

right after experience. First we let the carcass drain
for five minutes before putting it into the box. We squeeze
it with our hands to get as much water out as possible.
For every one hundred pounds net weight of ducklings
there will be a shrinkage in going to market of three or
four per cent. ‘hat is to say, when a marketman weighs
them and pays according to his weight, he will return to
you a weight of ninety-six or ninety-seven pounds to every
one hundred pounds which you weighed.

Prepay the express charges when shipping ducklings to
market. ‘This ends the matter. See them weighed your-
self at your depot, pay your own agent and he will give
you a receipt. He is a friend of yours and he will weigh
them correctly. If you let the shipment go forward to
the city, express charges collect, you never know exactly
whether the charges are figured properly at the other end.
The expressman who does the weighing at the city end
may be a new boy, just entered the employ of the company.
The delivery-sheet writer may make an error. By the
time the box gets to the marketman there may be an
excessive charge. It is not for the interest of the market-
man to question the charge, because it does not come out
of him, but out of you. He will sign the driver’s sheet as
quickly as possible, pay the charges and that ends the
matter except when he bills it up to you; and you have to
stand for them, unless you wish to go through the red tape
and delay of getting a rebate. For these reasons we say
to you emphatically, always prepay your shipments. We
would not have the reader believe that express employees
are careless and inefhcient. We speak of these matters as
a warning, a possibility. Prepay the shipment and your
mind is at peace.

The question is often asked, how long a distance can
killed ducklings be successfully shipped to market? Even
breeders who live in the West sometimes want to ship. to
New York. It is hard to answer this question in positive
terms; it depends on the season, on the man who is doin
the shipping, on the express company which is handling the

IROL ILIONG, IEC ISUNG:, SIBU IRIN G

shipment and on the promptness with which the shipment
is picked up at destination. As a rule, we would say that
a distance of four or five hundred miles, such as from
Buffalo to New York City, is all right. However, as this
country is laid out with markets sprinkled everywhere, east,
west and south, there is no excuse for anybody having any
- doubts as to being able to ship poultry. Get to work and
turn out the ducks and such matters will take care of
themselves. In Chicago, while visiting there, we saw a
truckload of ducks-for the provision market of one of the
big department stores in that city. They had come from
Pennsylvania and probably had been bought in New York
City. Meats and poultry are sold cheaper in Chicago than
in the eastern cities, and if a firm of this magnitude in
Chicago can get its ducklings from such a long distance,
as we are informed it does steadily, any breeder can ship
ducks profitably any corresponding distance to market.

In choosing a commission man or marketman, it is a
good idea first to make him your friend. ‘Tell him what
you are going to produce. Write him or see him. Talk
to him in a friendly way. Do not look upon him as an
enemy. Do not change around from one dealer to an-
other. When you have found a good man and got him
acquainted with you and your ducklings, stick to him.
His customers will praise your ducklings, they will tell him
they are fine. He will write to you and say he is pleased
with them. His trade in them will grow, and he wants it
to grow because he will make more money. Let him push
your goods. Stick to him and he will stick to you if he
is any kind of a man. If you change around from one
dealer to another they will not take the interest in your
ducklings if they know that some other man will get the
next lot of them.

The whole duckling is not picked. ‘The wing is picked
up to the first joint. ‘The neck is picked half way up to
the head. The duckling is not opened or drawn. You
must not take out the insides of a duckling before shipping.
The birds will not keep nearly so well. ‘They will begin to

HOW WE MAKE. DUCKS PAT

mould on the inside with the slightest delay. “The market-
men want them undrawn and that is the way you always
should ship them. The birds are drawn by the marketman
when he sells them to the customer, or the customer cleans
them at his or her home, hotel or restaurant, or wherever
the cooking is done.

The killing and picking of ducklings can be avoided
entirely, by shipping them alive. Many small breeders
never ship any ducklings killed, but always alive. ‘There
are poultry gatherers everywhere who go about in wagons
picking up live poultry. You will find their advertise-
ments in the papers, asking you to write or telephone them, ©
then they will call and get what you have. ‘These gatherers
take their goods off to the marketmen to be killed and
picked. In some cases, they do the killing and picking
themselves.

Some marketmen will take the ducklings alive. Write
and find out whether the marketman to whom you propose
to ship will take the ducklings alive.

The Hebrew and the Chinese trade in the large cities
consume large quantities of ducklings. “They wish them
alive as a rule. Fowls have to be killed in a certain way
to conform to the Hebrew religion. An excellent trade in
live ducklings can be worked up with Hebrews and the
Chinese.

Ducklings sold killed or alive straight to the consumer
bring the money which the commission man or dealer gets.
A trade of this kind is worth working up, for the greater
profits in it.

Breeders are shipping ducklings to New York, Phila-
delphia and other markets outside of New England, which
have been scalded and picked. When a duck is scalded
before picking, the feathers come off much easier. Not
over five cents is paid for picking a scalded picked duck,
because it is much easier work. ‘The tail feathers are left
on.

A dry-picked duck in any of the eastern markets is
always called a Boston duckling.

KORIBICIONIG. PIC KING. SEITE PENG

Many city markets see nothing but scalded ducks.
The process of scalding is, first to immerse the duckling
in a wash-boiler of water that has just come to a boil.
The water must not be hotter than this. The duckling
is held by the head and feet for half a minute in the water,
then the feathers are immediately picked off. It is quite
common for women who have a few ducks and ship only a
few at a time to scald them before picking.

To show you the present condition of the New York
market with regard to scalded ducks and dry-picked duck-
lings, it is true that for every one hundred ducks marketed
in New York City ninety-five have been picked after scald-
ing. It is more trouble to dry-pick them in the manner
we have told in this chapter. Scald or dry-pick as your
trade demands.

Some picking is done before killing, generally in mid-
summer when the feathers come out easier. This is a
cruel practice which hurts the birds, and we do not think
it ought to be done.

We once had a man in our employ who claimed to be
able to kill a duckling so that the feathers would come off
_easier. His theory was that he had found a certain spot
in the brain of the duckling which when he ran his killing
knife into it affected the nerves of the whole body of the
duckling so that the feathers were, as it were, released by
- the duckling. ‘This seems silly to read but it is a fact that
this picker got his feathers of more quickly than his
fellows. He always ran the knife into the brain of the
duckling from a peculiar angle. We do not vouch for the
value of this information, but simply print it as a bit of
gossip of the pickers.

Ducklings about to be killed should have their last food
at night so that their food passage is empty when killed the
next day. They can be given plenty of water to drink
before killing, but if the food passage is filled with grain
when the bird is killed, this grain will ferment, sour, turn
green and spoil the flesh. If by mischance a duckling is

killed which has eaten and filled the food passage with
ay

SHVEULS ALIHM FHL ONISNVO ‘AUNLOId SIHL NI GAAOW NGd LSUId AHL NI suona

KGNISENG. PTC KING, SEPP ING

grain, the neck should be squeezed and the grain washed
out through the mouth before shipment.

The ducklings do not lose weight between their last
feeding and killing time provided they have all the water
they want to drink.

A large plant will kill and ship on an average two hun-
dred ducklings a day, when busiest four hundred a day.
An average of three hundred fifty to three hundred seventy-
five a day will keep nine pickers at work.

Every twelve ducks will give up a pound of feathers
worth on an average forty-five cents. This price may
vary in different parts of the country. We have been
getting fifty cents a pound this year — more than ever
before. There are feather buyers everywhere. ‘Their
advertisements may be seen in many journals. Write us
when you are ready to ship feathers and we will tell you a
good place to ship them.

The feathers are taken from the picking room several
times a day and put in the feather loft. We use the loft
of a grain barn. We throw them on the floor of the loft
and stir them up with a pitchfork once a day for three or
four days. By that time they are dried at the roots and
can be pushed together into a pile to make room for new
feathers from the picking room. ‘Turn the pile over with
a pitchfork once a week. The idea is to get the feathers
loose. Do not let them pack up and get heated, and
ferment.

To ship the feathers to market, use bags made of white
cotton cloth. Formerly we made the bags at our own
expense, then we found out that the feather men, if we
asked them, would send us the bags, so we got rid of this
expense. Write to your feather man, tell him what you
have, and he will send you the bags. A feather bag is
generally six feet long and two and one-half feet wide.
The feathers are packed into it tightly by hand. Sew up
the top of the bag with string. The weight of a bag
packed properly should be close to sixty pounds. It takes
twenty to thirty minutes to stuff a bag. A bag may be

HOW WE MAKE DU GES? Pat

filled easiest when it is suspended beneath a hole which
has been cut in the floor of the loft. The feathers are then
pushed, packed or shovelled in more easily than if picked
up by handfuls.

The feathers have a little odor when shipped. ‘The
feather man takes off this odor by using first a steam
renovator which dries the feathers and kills all the animal
germs in them with superheated steam which is very dry.
The feathers are then put through a* blowing machine
which separates the down. The feather men get more
money for this down than they do for the feathers.

These feathers are used to make bed and sofa pillows
and all kinds of pillows. They are also used to make
beds, especially for foreigners from Europe, where feather-
beds are much more in use than in this country. There
is quite a trade in these feather-beds, old-fashioned as
they are. The demand for feathers for pillows never
lets up.

PEN OF DUCKLINGS ON DIRT RUN A WEEK PREVIOUS TO KILLING

CHAR TE ReNINE
MARKETS

To learn the true market prices of ducklings, ask the dealers
what they want for selling to you, not what they will give
when buying of you.—Letters from remote sections of the
United States and Canada showing the wonderful
opening for our ducklings.—Encouraging reports from
everywhere, with the names and addresses of the writers.
—Interesting information from the middlemen.—T he
best way to sell.—Facts given by dealers — Demand
for our big tame ducklings is admitted to be great, with
assurance of high prices, even in those States where
grain 1s very cheap.

The best way to find otit how the market stands is to
ask the commission man or dealer for what he is selling
ducklings. Don’t tell him you have, or may have, some
to sell. Ask to buy some. Then you will learn the real
facts about the market. With that information in hand,
see the commission man and tell him you will sell duck-
lings at that price, less his five per cent commission.

There is considerable foolishness in the commission
business in this way. Some of the commission men claim
to be handling farm produce on purely a commission basis,
returning to the shipper the full price received, less ten
per cent commission. ‘This is not always true. ‘They are
not satisfied with ten per cent profit. They buy as low as
they can and take ten per cent off of that, then they sell for
what they can get and this selling price represents a profit
of from thirty to one hundred per cent.

In various sections of the country where we have sold
breeding stock, we have written to commission men and
poultry dealers (whose names we could learn in no other
way than by looking in city directories), in order to find

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

out what they would pay for ducks. We have done this at
remote points, as we had plenty of knowledge as to the
immensity of the big city markets.

We have always found by such inquiries that ducks are
sellers everywhere, and we know that ducklings bred from
our stock would go like wild-fire anywhere.

We recall one customer in the vicinity of Atlanta,
Georgia. In writing to three wholesale dealers there,
in October, when prices for ducklings are the lowest of
the year, we received the following replies:

M. D. Thompson, 42 Madison avenue, Atlanta, Georgia.
—‘ We are selling now old ducks that dress fat for sixteen
to eighteen cents a pound, and this demand will continue
throughout the poultry season. We could place stock of
your quality to the extent of eight hundred to one thousand
pounds a week.”’

McDonald & Co., 43 South Broad street, Atlanta,
Ga.—‘ Ducks such as you breed usually sell here at
sixteen to eighteen cents a pound. Our market prefers
scalded stock. However, dry-picked stock keeps longer
and better and can be sold all mght. Poultry is sold here
with heads and feet on, undrawn. Crops must either be
empty or drawn. We will be glad to serve you.”

Phillips Bros., 4 North Broad street, Atlanta, Ga.—
“Yes, we can use your ducklings at ten or twelve weeks
old weighing five to six pounds, and sell them for sixteen
cents to twenty cents a pound. If this class of ducks or
ducklings can be produced, it will be a darling for the
purchaser. We would be glad indeed to see them and you
can count on us as being a heavy purchaser. Let us see
some of those ducks. Only prove your assertion to us and
you need not go further South. It is good enough for us.
The above may seem to you that we are doubtful of your
production, but such can be done. Being from Missouri,
we want to see it.”

If the above dealers are ready to pay such good whole-
sale prices for good ducklings, the outlook in the South for
a high retail price is indeed excellent.

MARKETS

In the case of another customer (in Kentucky) who
negotiated with us for a large purchase of breeding stock,
we looked up the markets there and received the following
encouraging letters:

Carson-Proctor Co., 136 West Jefferson street, Louis-
ville, Ky. —“ We handle a great many common puddle
ducks, which are about all that is used in our market. In
case your customer should purchase a few of your ducks
for our market, we would be very glad to take the matter
up with him and handle his ducklings at market prices.”

H. M. DeBow & Co., 206 East Jefferson street, Louis-
ville, Ky.—‘ I know nothing of the quality of your ducks,
as I have never handled any of them. We have a good
demand for our home ducks and can sell all we can get at
prices ranging from eleven to thirteen cents per pound.
Our ducks weigh from three to five pounds. Both white
and colored are in good demand, though the white is more
salable than the colored. It might be your ducks would
command good prices in this market and a good trade
could be worked up for them here. I do strictly a com-
mission business; handle all produce on five per cent com-
mission, make no advances at all.”

Harshfield, Hile & Co., 251 East Jefferson street, Louis-
ville, Ky.—‘“ We handle poultry exclusively on a straight
commission basis and could sell to advantage at good
prices, large quantities of ducklings such as you describe.
Live ducks are sold exclusively on this market. The
fowl as described by you would certainly prove a profitable
investment, and we trust that you will succeed in intro-
ducing them in this locality.”

In the winter time, in Texas, the hunters bring in to
the markets wild ducks and sell them to the dealers for
forty cents a pair. These ducks, small, skinny and rank-
tasting as they are, sell readily to families. “Tame duck-
lings bred from our stock would be a revelation to Texans
accustomed to eating the fishy, small wild ducks. Many
of the Texas dealers wish the tame ducklings shipped to
them alive. We append the following letters which we

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

have received from Texas middlemen. Remember the
prices they quote are what they wish to buy them for, not
what the consumer 1s asked to pay:

Pabst Bros., Galveston, Texas.—“ You may refer your
customer to us for handling ducks picked or alive, but much
prefer them alive, as it gives us more opportunities for
sale, hence can get better results.”

F. J. McFarland, Central Depot, Houston, Texas.—
** T have looked into the duck market a little and think that
I can place your stock for you at a reasonable price, as the
market at this point is very short of such stock. I have
one or two places that I can place from five to ten dozen
per week.”

F. E. Jones & Co., toro Commerce avenue, Houston,
Texas.—‘ Ducks are generally in good demand in this
market. Should we be favored with any of your con-
signments we will sell them to the very best advantage,
charging five per cent commission for handling them.”

Frederick Produce Company, 908 Commerce avenue,
Houston, Texas.—‘‘ Ducks are very high in this section
during the months of November, December and January.
We buy only live stock. Let us know if you have any-
thing to offer at this time and oblige.”

W. F. Puls, 704 Preston avenue, Houston, Texas.—
“ T believe I could work up a large trade in them eventually
and get better prices and pay more. I have the best place
in the city for dressed poultry and handle more of it than
any firm here. The only trouble I have is getting choice
poultry. There is no doubt in my mind but that ducks
can be worked up to a large business providing the pro-
ducer does not want too large a price for his ducks and if
the cost of raising them, that is, the cost of the food, is not
too high.”

It will surprise Western people to learn that ducklings
are shipped to the New York market from as far west as
Iowa. We are in receipt of a letter from H. S. Webber,
Sioux City, Iowa, stating that the duck breeders there are
shipping to New York steadily. It is Mr. Webber’s

MARKETS

opinion that he could ship a great many more ducklings
to the New York market provided they were the equal of
the ducklings now being marketed in New York. Duck
food is cheap in lowa and the whole middle West, so much
cheaper than in the East that the express on the killed
ducklings from the Central States to New York would
not amount to much in comparison.

Six or seven years ago, the farmers in Illinois and other
neighboring States received only six and seven cents a
pound for their ducks, alive. Now they receive twelve
and thirteen cents a pound, live weight. Consumers in the
West have found out the fine quality and flavor of properly
raised ducks. That is one reason why prices have
increased as they have in the East the past few years.

Ducklings are handled by the lowa dealers both alive
and dressed.

In Minnesota and Wisconsin the duck markets are
very good. We have received the following letters from
that section:

Willard Hotel, St. Paul, Minn.—* There is a good
market here for your white ducklings weighing five to six
pounds when ten or eleven weeks old. We would like to
buy them.”

L. Eisenmenger Meat Co., St. Paul, Minn.—“ During
the summer months we have been buying our ducks, as
well as other poultry, alive, and we dress them ourselves.
Of course, now as the weather gets colder we prefer to
have them dressed, and are urging our shippers to that
effect. At this time we are paying ten to eleven cents per
pound for them dressed, delivered. We will use about
five hundred to one thousand pounds a week from now
until the holidays. Should you have some one in this
district who is handling your ducks, or who intends to
have them, we should be glad to have a sample shipment.
Then we will be able to know of its good qualities, and
can make prices accordingly.”

G. L. Bradley Company, Minneapolis, Minn.—‘‘ We
handle a great deal of poultry. Nice white ducks are sell-

oe)

HOW WE MARE DUCKS 2Ar

ing for nine and one-half to ten cents alive. We usually
have a good market after Christmas. Ducks always sell
better that season of the year. We can sell any amount of
ducks every week. Of course extra nice fine ducks would
sell at a better price. The kind you speak of ought to
bring twelve and one-half cents and later they might sell
at fourteen and fifteen cents dressed. We do not know
what we can do with this class, but it is our impression
that they will sell well. We should be glad to handle any
shipment you may favor us with to the best advantage
possible and give you prompt returns.”

Chapman & Eissler, 275 Broadway, Milwaukee, Wis.—
“At present ducks are selling at eleven cents a pound
alive. [he trade has not taken much to dressed ducks as
yet. Later we expect to be able to sell them dressed at a
good market profit. Will pay fourteen to fifteen cents
per pound and can sell lots of them.”

From a personal knowledge of the San Francisco mar-
ket (to cite one instance of many), we are aware that
most ducks for sale there weigh only four pounds. . There
are thousands of wild ducks in California but they weigh
only six or seven pounds to the pair (from three to three
and one-half pounds apiece) and they taste nothing at all
like our grain-fattened, tame ducklings. They are rank,
tasting oily, fishy and gamy, and cannot be sold in com-
petition with the tame, grain-fed duckling. We have the
following letter from a San Francisco firm:

California Poultry Co., Market and Eleventh streets,
San Francisco, Cal.—‘‘ We are glad to see that you have a
certain party to go into the duck business, and we will cer-
tainly use some of his ducks as soon as he gets them ready
for the market. Prices are running from $9 to $10.50 a
dozen. We use from five to twelve dozen every week and
like to get them shipped in alive.”

The markets in San Francisco and other cities on the
Pacific coast are great ones for ducks, and big money is
going to be made there by duck breeders. “The people on
the West coast spend their money freely and have the best

MARKETS

of everything for their tables. ‘hese fine ducklings would
make a sensation there in the eating line on account of
their novelty and worth. [hey are not known there as
they are in New York and Boston and will “go” in great
shape.

We had a customer in the vicinity e Los Angeles, and
he found out that the market there is a steady and paying
one, as the following letters show:

H. G. Spaulding, 308 Temple street, Los Angeles, Cal.—
“We are using about two dozen ducks per week, present
price twelve cents per pound. Of course, we use larger
quantities over the holidays.”

J. W. Harris, 122 East Seventh street, Los Angeles,
Cal.—‘ I could use two hundred ducks per week alive
from December 1 to May 1, at sixteen cents per pound.
From May 1 to December 1 we buy at twelve to fourteen
cents per pound.”

Marin’s Creamery & Poultry Yards, Figueroa street,
Los Angeles, Cal.—‘ We can use all the ducks shipped us.
They must be shipped alive. The price, of course, will
vary from week to week.”

The demand is insistent in Colorado. ‘The- prices
quoted by the following wholesalers are about half what
the consumer has to pay there:

Dickey-Farney Co., Denver, Col.— There is a greater
demand on this market for ducks of the description which
you give than your prospective customer could raise in two
or three years. At the present time we are paying twelve
and a half to thirteen and a half cents a pound for ducks,
and could very easily use a couple of thousand pounds a
week, and the trade could be very easily increased by the
superior quality.”

Pinkett Bros. Conmniccion Co., 1625 Market street,
Denver, Col.—‘ We are the largest dealers in poultry in
this Sey We offer ten cents a pound for live ducks,
delivered here. Dressed ducks are selling here today at
thirteen cents per pound. Our commission on STSSEST
poultry is eight per cent.’

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

There is plenty of money in Montana for a nice table
delicacy. ‘The following letters are from Butte City:

N. Davis, 1126 Arizona street, Butte City, Mont.—
“We have no regular prices for ducks. We get them as
cheap as we can and we pay market prices. We have
calls nearly every day for ducks and drakes for breeding
purposes.”’

Jonas Eisler, Butte, Mont.—‘‘ The average young duck
that is in demand here is about a three to three and one-half
pound duck.”

Fine poultry goes just as well in any part of Canada as
in the United States. There is no duty on our live breed-
ing stock shipped to Canada. he Hon. Sydney Fisher,
Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada, has
expressed his regrets that Canadian farmers have paid so
small amount of attention to duck raising. Before selling
to Canada customers in the vicinity of Toronto, and in
Manitoba, we made inquiries with the following results:

T. H. Smith & Co., 70 Colborne street, Toronto, Ont.,
Can.—‘‘ With reference to your ducklings, we presume the
quality would be a little beyond the average, and would
bring a larger price. We will be pleased to have your
shipments at any time, and will give them our best atten-
tion.”

F. Simpson & Sons, 734-738 Yonge street, Toronto,
Ont., Can.—** We cannot give you much information con-
cerning ducks as we have never gone into the business
very extensively. “Che wholesale price just now is fourteen
cents per pound.”

Gallagher-Holman LaFrance Co., Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Can.—‘ Concerning ducklings would say we think the
prospect very bright for a proposition such as you men-
tion. Just at present the wholesale price of ducklings is
twelve and one-half cents; this we consider is about the
lowest price which they can be obtained at during the
year. With reference to the supply might state the supply
is not sufficient for the demand, excepting at this season of
the year (October). We think there would be no difficulty

MARKETS

in finding a market for all the ducklings your friend could
raise.’’

The beef wholesalers handle an enormous quantity of
poultry. We have the following letter from a leading one:

Morris & Co., Poultry and Egg Department, Chicago,
Iil.—* We are at all times in the market for fancy ducks.
There is no limit to the quantity we could use.”

What is true of the above frm with regard to the de-
mand for ducks is also true of Armour& Co. and the others
of the great beef wholesalers.

The best ducklings now in the Chicago and St. Louis
and surrounding markets are shipped there from New
York. Anybody getting in now with our ducks in the
Central States and shipping to Chicago and the other
cities there will have abundant cause for congratulation.

George S. Sloan & Son, 124 South Water street, Chicago,
Ill_—* ‘There is a good demand here in ducklings you
mention, we are now getting them from New York, selling
from five to ten barrels a week. Prices ranging from
fifteen to eighteen cents per pound, f.o.b. Chicago.
Would want ducks dressed, scalded or dry picked, un-
drawn, heads and feet on.”’

Wellington Hotel, corner Wabash avenue and Jackson
Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.—** We cannot say definitely as to
quantity of your ducklings we may use, the price we will
pay, etc. We are always looking for At poultry and should
any one near us breed your ducks we could no doubt use
quite a number every week.”

Even the Utah market is looking forward to better
duck times. Note the following:

W. M. Rash Co., Salt Lake City, Utah.—‘‘ At the
present time we are paying ten cents per pound, live
weight, for ducks delivered at our place of business. “The
demand is not heavy, being principally confined to the
Chinese restaurants. If the stock is fancy and steady
supply sure, we might work up considerable business in
other quarters.”

J. M. Christensen & Co., Salt Lake City, Utah.—‘‘We

HOW WE MAKE DOCKS PAT

are not handling ducks now but if we could get a good and
steady supply, we would like to try to work up a market.”

Other letters follow, as we have received them from
other sections of the country:

John Blessed & Son, 347 Woodward avenue, Detroit,
Mich.—‘ Ducklings would be worth to us from fourteen .
to sixteen cents a pound, scalded and picked.”

Faltis Market Co., Detroit, Mich.—“* We bought several
thousand dollars worth of ducklings from New York this
and last season and of course will be glad to use the same
grade if produced nearer home. We use a large quantity
beginning early in the season and do not get any good
ducklings in this vicinity until about this time of the year
(October). Regarding price, we would no doubt be will-
ing to pay on the New York basis. As we said before, we
purchase a great deal on that market.”’

Edson Brothers, 110 Dock street, Philadelphia, Penn.
—“ Tf the ducklings which are produced from your stock
are as you say a wonderfully large, juicy bird and are
much better than the average Long Island duck in the
market, we think we could work up a pretty good trade on
them, as the prices which are prevailing now on White
Pekin dressed ducks are very attractive to the trade, and
we think more of these ducks have been consumed this
past season than ever before. Our market. on Long
Island ducks at the present time 1s from sixteen to eighteen
cents as to size and quality. ‘The larger ducks are most
in demand during the summer months when the hotels are
using them.”

P. S. Dewald, 344 North Front street, Philadelphia,
Penn.—‘‘ We have been using a great many ducks this
fall, more than usual owing to their low price. Just at
present we are getting the last of a flock of fifteen hundred
head for which we paid thirteen cents a pound and at the
same price could probably handle some more. It 1s
reasonable to suppose that the price is likely to improve.”

Hotel Havlin, Cincinnati, O.—“ We can always use
ducklings, such as you breed, when they are fresh killed

100

MARKETS

and dry-picked. At present we are using about ten pairs
per week. This is no criterion, as ours is a new house.”’

Charles H. Keith & Sons, 554 West Sixth street,
Cincinnati, O.—“ The duck stock which you breed is
rather new to this market. We had several inquiries last
spring, but it was so late in the season that we gave them
no attention. As we have not sold any white Pekin
ducklings, it would be hard for us to say how much we
could pay for them. Should we be able to use any, we
would want them alive. We are getting a fine line of
white ducklings that dress up to four or four and a half
pounds, that sell well. Later we will get celery-fed ducks
from Wisconsin, that weigh about six pounds each when
dressed. Tell your prospective patron to start in and
raise his ducklings. Just before they are ready for market
let him compute the price at which he can sell them, and
communicate with us.”

Rowland Poultry Co., 2005 Pacific avenue, Tacoma,
Wash.—‘ Yes we can sell your ducklings. ‘There is a
good sale during the winter season.”’

As a rule, most of the poultry markets in the United
States and Canada do not know yet what a good duck is.
There is a splendid opening everywhere for breeders with
the right birds. Get into your nearest market, capture
your share of it and get the good prices which your duck-
lings will bring.

What is known among epicures as a canvasback duck
is a wild duck from the breeding grounds of Chesapeake
Bay. They live largely on the wild celery which grows
there. They weigh eight pounds to the pair. ‘They are
much prized by many diners on account of their peculiar
flavor due to the wild celery and are worth about five dol-
lars a pair in the markets.

Most of the dealers whose letters we quote in this
chapter know only the common or puddle duck, weighing
only three or four pounds when full grown. At three
months they weigh only between three and four pounds.

The eggs are small and greenish in color. The Pekin eggs

IOI

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

are large and white. It takes the whole summer for the
puddle duck to mature. Compared to our Pekin duck-
lings they look like a sparrow alongside of a chicken.

It is not uncommon to see 1n the markets small, thin,
bruised, half-fattened, half-picked ducks. Many of them
have bloody bills and their feet are dirty with caked
manure and mud. Avoid sending to market anything in
that class. Open a box of our ducklings and you see first
the brown paper, a good introduction to the contents, then
the contents themselves, clean of bill and feet, white and
plump, something good which whets the appetite and
makes one long for possession. Ducklings properly
marketed give the buyer a good impression.

The red-head duck (wild) is thought to be good eating
in some sections, Maine for example. A friend of ours
killed a red-head down in Maine which weighed four
pounds. ‘Three trout were found in her gullet. She was
roasted with all skill at command but tasted oily and
fishy and was a disappointment.

All the letters from dealers which we quote in this
chapter were written by them in 1906, summer and fall.
At that time, everywhere, ducks are at their lowest price.
The figures given in the letters may be considered the min-
imum prices of the year. The spring prices are much
higher. We have not investigated the markets much in
other sections of the country except in a general way,
being advised by customers that they were selling profita-
bly everywhere. ‘There is not a place where ducklings
cannot be raised and sold at the same profit we make
here in the East, because it is all a question of finding
men, women and children who like table delicacies.
These people live around every market. Ducklings are
as salable as anything eatable they buy.

Lake, ocean and river steamers, dining cars on all
railroads, hotel and restaurants everywhere, clubs, etc., all
want good ducklings. Seil to them direct if you can and
make the fifty to one hundred per cent profit which a
middleman will make if you sell to him first.

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MARKETS

Commission men, poultry dealers, hotels, etc., are
pestered continually with letters from poultry experi-
menters and dreamers. Most of them pay no attention
to letters written by curiosity seekers and throw them into
the waste basket. They are always interested to talk
business with anybody who actually has poultry to sell,
and proves it by his letter. Anybody who starts off on a
campaign of letter-writing or walking tour of investiga-
tion as to whether ducklings are salable, and at what
prices, would better, as we have suggested before, inquire
for what he can buy them. Let the dealers come to you,
when you have the ducklings ready. If you are breeding
the right ducklings, they will drum you for the chance to
sell them. It is all under your control.

Make a start, turn out the ducklings and begin learn-
ing the markets as well as other details by actual practice.
An ounce of this practice, this actual handling of the
business, is worth a ton of theorizing. ‘The subject takes
on a near and real aspect. We have had customers write
four-page letters for weeks asking full details about size
of shipping boxes, locations of markets, names of market-
men who would take one hundred ducklings a day, etc.,
fearing that should they embark in the industry they would
flood their nearest city with ducklings which would be a
drug in the market — and all the while these beginners
did not have even a trio of ducks; their fears existed on
paper only. Anybody who can entertain doubts that
ducklings and other poultry can be sold profitably when
raised has not intelligence enough to succeed in poultry
raising. Such people should face at the start the fact that
they are unfitted for business on their own hook and
should keep on working for others more resourceful and
more enterprising. It is weak and pitiful, when a man
presumably intelligent and at the age of discretion will
write and say: “I live in a small place two hundred miles
from any city and I don’t think I can market ducklings if
I raise them, or make any money with them; do you be-
lieve I can?” What can be said to such a man to convince

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HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

him? Can anything be said briefly? Hardly. Sucha man
must be educated from the beginning. He has no imagin-
ation. He cannot conceive that there are people who
like to have good things from day to day on their dinner
tables: city people, and country people too, not only the
wealthy ones, but the comfortably well-off, who are search-
ing for nice, appetizing food to eat all the time. Never
having been in a great city market, he does not realize that
tons and tons of ducklings and car-loads of chickens and
eggs melt away there every day like dew in the morning
sun. We speak of this subject emphatically because it
is an exasperating experience to receive a letter from a
beginner expressing doubts as to the markets, and fears
that he will flood his nearest market, once he starts. Such
letter writers almost invariably state their alarm that the
whole country soon will be raising ducks, and that ducks
will drop in value to nothing.

Another doubt of beginners is that they cannot sell
ducklings except cheaply to commission men and dealers.
Why should a duck breeder sell to a commission man or
dealer, if he does not wish to? ‘The selling of his product
is always under the control of the breeder. He can sell to
whom he pleases and is not obliged to take the first offer.
We have always sold to commission men and dealers and
made a good profit, but we have been well aware all the
time that we could have made more money selling over
their heads direct. Some dealers and commission men
will not pay what ducklings are worth if they find they can
impose on the breeder, or keep him in ignorance of the
market.

New York and Boston will take all the ducklings offered
at what are now the highest prices in America. [hose of
our customers who raise ducklings in New England, and in
New York, Pennsylvania and other States within shipping
distance of New York and Boston are more favored than
* those in remote States, but the day of the latter is coming
quickly. An idea of what the Boston market is may be
obtained from the following:

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MARKETS

Nathan Robbins & Co., 33 and 35 Faneuil Hall
Market, Boston.—‘‘We find that we sell as many if not
more ducks than chickens and they are daily becoming
more popular. The public is beginning to realize that
ducks are delicious eating and when properly raised are
very meaty. The average price that we pay for our
supply of ducks during the year is about seventy-five
cents a duck. [hey weigh between five and six pounds.
Of course during March and April, when the new ducks
come in, we have to pay double this price. First-class
ducks such as are raised from your stock always bring
the high prices and are easily sold. We find that th
prosperous, first-class trade will always pay way up for
the best ducks. We use a great many ducklings during
the summer and store away a large number for winter
trade.”

Swan, Newton & Co., 18 Faneuil Hall Market, Boston.
—“ We can sell your white Pekin ducklings up to the
limit of production, and good ducklings of this breed never
go begging in this market. The native Pekin ducklings
that we put away in cold storage for winter trade sell much
better and bring higher prices than the so-called young,
fresh Western ducks shipped here during the winter. We
buy, however, quite a number of the Western ducklings
during the winter as the supply here is scarce. ‘There is
no special season for the sale of ducks. We find the
demand on the increase and good the whole year. During
March and April, when the green or new ducks come in,
the supply is very limited and they sell in open market for
thirty-five cents per pound. ‘he earlier the dealers get
them in the market, the better the price they get for them.”

Adams, Chapman & Co., 38 North Market street,
Boston.—‘ We handle more ducks than any other firm in
Boston, and are in the market at all times for ail we can
get. We pay from fourteen to eighteen cents a pound for
them and have never found the supply equal to the demand.
Many of the duck farms are increasing the size of their
output, owing to the increasing demand and the large

105

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

profits in the business. We get twenty-two cents a pound
for cold-storage ducks during the winter. The western
ducks shipped to the Boston market are old birds weighing
three, four, and five pounds. ‘They are not to be com-
pared with the fresh, native ducks bred around here. We
can sell all the ducks that are sent in to us.”

Harrison, Swan & Co., 1 New Faneuil Hall Market,
Boston (Mr. Richardson). —“ We buy large quantities
of Pekin ducklings at ten weeks which weigh between five
and six pounds apiece. We buy direct from the duck
farms and also from commission merchants in this city.
During January these ducks bring thirty-five cents a
pound, and during July and August, which are the
lightest months of the year, sixteen cents and seventeen
cents per pound. They seldom sell here for lower than
this. ‘There is an active demand for good, meaty ducks
and we can sell all we can get of them. One large
grower with whom I am acquainted averages the entire
year about one dollar per duck.”

J. P. Lawrence & Co., 30 Faneuil Hall Market, Bos-
ton (Mr. Woodman). — “ There is an excellent demand
for white Pekin ducklings and we easily sell all we can get
at a good price to hotels, restaurants, and private con-
sumers. We make from three to five cents per pound on
every duck we sell, and the raiser much more. During
the summer we put many ducks away in cold storage
for sale during the winter, when the supply is scarce. We
buy most of our ducks direct and pay cash for them.”

H. L. Lawrence & Co., 46 and 48 Faneuil Hall Market,
Boston.—‘ We pay for white Pekin ducks on an average
of fourteen cents per pound, and sell them for twenty-
three and twenty-five cents per pound. During January
and February they sell for twenty-five to thirty-five cents
per pound and we have to pay for them twenty cents to
thirty cents per pound. We have never known the
supply to equal the demand, which is good at all times.
Fine Pekin ducklings will always sell and people will pay
the top price for them.”

106

MARKETS

C. R. Corwin & Co., 2 Faneuil Hall Market, Boston.—
“We have been paying the duck raisers this year thirteen
cents and fourteen cents per pound, while last year we
were paying them seventeen cents and eighteen cents a
pound. The demand for Pekin ducklings has always
been good and we can sell all we can get hold of all the
year round. We are commission merchants and pay for
the ducks at the prevailing market price, deducting only
five per cent of the proceeds as our profit for selling them.”

W. E. Legg & Co., 6 South Market street, Boston.—
“We buy our Pekin ducklings alive, and can dispose of
a fair amount at good prices. ‘here has been a very fair
demand this year for these birds. Duck raisers can make
-good money selling their stock at fifteen cents per pound
and the price paid here is seldom lower than that. Last
year we paid seventeen cents and eighteen cents at whole-
sale for our supply. Send your live ducks in.”

Mr. R. Norton Crane, of the Mississippi Agricultural
College, writes: “How few farmers throughout our
Southern States grow ducks for market in any quantity
whatever. Yet in no other branch of the whole poultry
industry do we find such large profits coming so regularly
and sosurely. There is at all times a steady demand for
well-fattened young ducks on every market of the United
States. I tried Mobile last fall with some very inferior
ones several months old, and weighing only two and one-
haif pounds, but I received twenty-four cents a pound for
them. This is paid for poor stuff. What could we get if
we had first-class young ones?”

We furnish the breeding stock to breed first-class duck-
lings, and we would like to get into communication in the
South with duck farmers who mean business and will
profit by the above suggestion from Mr. Crane.

To settle the matter of duty or no duty on our breeding
stock shipped to Canada, we wrote the collector of cus-
toms at Montreal and received the following reply from
him: ‘In reply to your letter of inquiry, I beg to inform

107

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT

you that live poultry, thoroughbred, imported into Canada
for the improvement of stock, is admitted free of duty.
There must be produced with the entry at customs a cer-
tificate of purity of breed from the breeder of the poultry.
(Signed) R. S. White, Collector.”

When we ship our breeding stock to Canadian cus-
tomers, we send a certificate of purity of breed, as called
for, and the customer pays no duty. More letters follow:

Bruno Franz Sons, 447 Franklin avenue, St. Louis,
Mo.—‘‘ We have never handled the Boston ducklings on
this market. We are selling heavy young broiling ducks
and have been using the common spring ducks, and if
we can get first-class ducklings we can get a fancy price
for them as we have the cream of the trade. We would
want ducklings scald picked, and could handle several
thousand pounds a month. We sell more city dressed
ducks and geese than any other two houses in this city
and can get fancy prices for fancy stock.”

R. F. Brandt, Sheriff Street Market, Cleveland, 0.—
“We are in the market at any time for choice ducks or
other poultry. We can use almost any amount shipped
us; prefer scalded ones. Can use them alive if no con-
venience to dress. We consider the market good for
choice ducks.”

B. S. Schermerhorn & Co., 316 South Los Angeles
street, Los Angeles, Cal.—‘‘Most of the ducks come in
here as grown birds and are sold alive. Selling values
vary at from about ten to fifteen cents a pound, live
weight. The quality or breed of the bird makes but
little difference, so long as the bird is living. We handle
very few ducks, but believe we could work up a nice
business on fancy, young live ducklings. We certainly
would like to give ita try. We believe we could obtain a
premium on present prevailing prices. We believe a
man could make a nice living here, running a small duck
farm, stocked with fancy stock and feeding them on
grains, etc., rather than on mud, water and small
fish.”

108

MARKETS

Boston Market Quotations. It has been customary for
the Boston Globe to print quite regularly on Saturday
mornings market quotations on household supplies. “The
Boston Herald has a similar article now and then for the
information of the housewife. We print herewith quota-
tions monthly as we have seen them in the Globe, begin-
ning with January, 1904, and extending to the time this
book goes to press, February, 1907. A few of the quota-
tions (where indicated) are from the Herald. ‘These
quotations are interesting as showing the comparative
prices of chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc., in the months
specified. [he wide variation in market quotations as
seen in the daily papers and other periodicals was well
illustrated in the spring of 1904 and 1905, for example.
The Globe found the prices then to be about twenty-five
cents a pound, but the Herald found them to be thirty-
five cents a pound. If you actually go into the Boston
markets in the spring and try to buy ducklings, thirty to
thirty-five cents a pound is what you have to pay. Some
reporters for the newspapers, when they set out to write a
market article, announce themselves as reporters and ask
the dealers what prices they will put into the papers. The
dealers naturally talk low prices so as not to frighten off
the buying public from their stalls. Other reporters go on
an imaginary shopping tour, asking the dealers, without
disclosing their identity, just what they will take for this
and that, and in such a way they get the true market
prices. It all depends on the reporter who does it. The
quotations follow:

January 16, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
25 to 28c lb, westerns 23 to 25c lb, chickens 20 to 22c |b,
native chickens 25 to 28c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 18 to
25c lb, ducks 20 to 25¢ lb, capons 20 to 28c lb.

February 20, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 25 to 28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 20 to 25c lb,
native chickens 28c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 22c lb,
ducks 23c lb, capons 25 to 28c lb.

March 12, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good

109

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

22 to 25 to 28c lb, westerns 18 to 20 to 22c¢ lb, chickens 20
to 22 to 2c lb, native chickens 30 to 33c lb, fowl 17 to 18¢
lb, geese 21 to 22c¢ Ib, ducks 21 to 22c lb, capons 25 to 28
to 30c |b.

April 15, 1904, Boston Herald. A new-comer is green
duck, which looks very dainty. They are worth 35 cents
by the pound.

May 21, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
28c lb, westerns 23 to 25c lb, chickens 20 to 25c lb, native
chickens 33 to 35c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 20c lb, ducks
28c lb, capons 25 to 33¢ lb.

June 11, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
25 to 28c lb, westerns 22 to 25c lb, chickens 20 to 25c lb,
native chickens 30 to 35c lb, fowl 17 to 18c lb, geese 18 to
20¢ lb, ducks 25 to 28c lb, capons 25 to 32c.

July 23, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 22
to 25¢ lb, chickens 25 to 28c lb, native chickens 40 to 42¢
lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 18 to 28c lb, ducks 20 to 22¢ |b,
capons 28c lb.

August 20, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys, west-
erns 22 to 25c lb, chickens 20 to 22c lb, native chickens 35¢c
lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 24c lb, ducks 20¢ |b.

September 24, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 25 to 30c lb, westerns 23c lb, chickens 18 to 22c |b,
native chickens 25c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 20 to 22¢
lb, ducks 20 to 22¢ lb, capons 28c lb.

October 15, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 28 to 33c lb, westerns 22 to 28c lb, chickens 17 to 23c
lb, native chickens 20 to 25c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 22
to 23c lb, ducks 22c Ib, capons 28c lb.

November 5, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 27 to 33c lb, westerns 21 to 28c lb, chickens 16 to 23c
lb, native chickens 20 to 25c lb, fowl 17 to 20c lb, geese 20
to 23c lb, ducks 20 and 22c lb, capons 26 to 28c lb.

December 31, 1904. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 25c lb, westerns 23c lb, chickens 25c Ib, native
chickens 28c Ib, fowl 18c lb, geese 22c lb, ducks 25c lb,
capons 28 to 30c |b.

1B fe)

MARKETS

January 7, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
25 to 28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 28 to 30c lb, native
chickens 30c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 20c lb, ducks 23 to
DEC lID.

; March 11, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
2.5 to 28c |b, westerns 23 to 25c lb, chickens 20, 22, 25c lb,
native chickens 25, 28, 30c lb, fowl 17 to 20c lb, geese 17 to
22c lb, ducks 18, 20, 22¢ lb, capons 20, 25, 28c lb.

April 22, 1905, Boston Herald. A very choice and
toothsome bird is the young duckling. They began to
come in this week. ‘They are as round and as smooth as
an apple, and are quite aristocratic in price—35 cents by
the pound.

May 12, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 25
to 28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 22 to 23c lb, native
chickens 25 to 30c lb, fowl 17 to 18c lb, geese 17 to 18c lb,
ducks 22 to 25c lb, capons 28 to 30c lb.

May 27, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
28 to 30c lb, westerns 28c lb, chickens 20 to 28c lb, native
chickens 35 to 36c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 20 to 22c |b,
ducks 25c lb, capons 28 to 35c lb.

June 3, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 27
to 30c lb, westerns 25 to 28c lb, chickens 18 to 28c lb,
native chickens 32 to 36c lb, fowl 16 to 18c lb, geese 20 to
-22¢ lb, ducks 23 to 25c lb, capons 28 to 35c lb.

July 8, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 25c
Ib, westerns 25c lb, chickens 20 to 25c lb, native chickens
35 to 38c lb, fowl 16 to 18c lb, geese 20 to 22c lb, ducks
20 to 23¢ |b, capons 28c |b.

August 26, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 17 to 23c |b, native
chickens 25 to 28c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 25c¢ lb, ducks
23c lb, capons 28c lb.

September 23, 1905. Poultry and game—Chicken
turkeys 25 to 28c lb, western 25c lb, chickens 18 to 20c lb,
native chickens 22 to 28c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 22 to
23c lb, ducks 23c lb, capons 28c |b.

October 21, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys,

III

HOW WE MAKE (DUCKS “PAT

good 25c lb, westerns 25c¢ lb, chickens 16 to 20c lb, native
chickens 25c lb, fowl 17 to 20c lb, geese 22 to 23c lb, ducks
22 to 23c lb, capons 28c lb.

December 16, 1905. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 23c to 28c lb, westerns 22 to 25c lb, chickens 17 to 20¢
lb, native chickens 18 to 30c lb, fowl 17 to 20c lb, geese
20 to 23c lb, ducks 20 to 25c lb, capons 28 to 30¢ lb.

March 24, 1906. Poultry and Game—Western tur-
keys 25c lb, chickens 22 to 25c lb, native chickens 3oc lb,
fowl 18c lb, geese 20 to 23c lb, ducks 22 to 25c lb, capons
25 to 28c lb.

April 28, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 25¢
lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 20c Ib, native chickens 28c
lb, fowl 18c lb, geese 18c lb, ducks 25c lb, capons 28c lb.

May 26, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
25c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 22c lb, native chickens
35c lb, fowl 18c lb, geese 22¢ lb, ducks 20 to 22¢ lb, capons
25¢ |b.

June 9, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 25
to 28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 22 to 25c lb, native
chickens 38c lb, fowl 19c lb, geese 20 to 22¢ lb, ducks 20c
lb, capons 25¢ lb.

July 28, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good 25¢
Ib, westerns 23 to 25c lb, chickens 25 to 37 to 4oc lb, fowl
17 to 20¢ lb, geese 17 to 20c lb, ducks 20 to 22c lb, capons
23 to 25¢ lb.

October 20, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys, good
25 to 28c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 22 to 25c lb, native
chickens 25 to 28c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese 22 to 25c lb,
ducks 20c lb, capons 28c lb.

November 10, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 25 to 30c lb, westerns 25c lb, chickens 22 to 28c |b,
native chickens 25 to 30c lb, fowl 16 to 18c lb, geese 20 to
25c lb, ducks 18 to 25c lb, capons 25 to 30c |b.

December 9, 1906. Poultry and game—Turkeys,
good 25 to 28c lb, westerns 22 to 23c lb, chickens 17 to 20¢
lb, native chickens 23 to 25c lb, fowl 18 to 20c lb, geese
20 to 22c lb, ducks 22 to 25c lb, capons 28 to 30c lb.

112

MARKETS

January 5, 1907. ‘Turkeys, good 25 to 30c lb, western
22 to 25c lb, chickens 20 to 22c lb, native chickens 25 to
28c lb, fowl 17 to 20c lb, geese 18 to 22¢ lb, ducks 18 to 22¢
Ib, capons 28 to 30c |b.

With regard to the New York City market for duck-
lings, we have letters from dealers there written in Decem-
ber, 1906, as follows (in connection with this see letter from
A. J. Wallace & Co., West Washington Market, New York,
which we send out with our price-list for breeding stock):

B. Branin, with George F. Hinrichs Co., West Wash-
ington Market, New York.—“ I quote you on fancy young
ducks twenty to twenty-two cents. I am badly in need of
your kind of stock and if you are shipping anything at
the present time I should be pleased to have it. In cases,
I am getting more than these prices and, of course, if the
stock warrants better prices than I quote you, I can get it.”

A. Silz, 416-418 West Fourteenth street, New York.—
““ We are always looking to do business with people we can
depend upon. I will be pleased to take personal charge
of your ducks and bring them to the notice of the trade
here. In this way we could work up a premium price for
them; we are in a position to create a demand on any-
thing in our line. Regarding the price, send me one
barrel as a sample and on receipt of same will wire you the
price, which will give you an idea of the future. We can
use all the ducks you can ship,—it does not matter how
large the quantity as long as they are nice; they must,
however, be dry-picked, killed, as we cannot use them
alive. Last year we used over seven hundred thousand
pounds of ducklings.”

T. J. McMahon & Co., 323 Washington street, New
York (W. R. McLaughlin, Treasurer), I look for the
market on ducklings to open up (for the new season) about
twenty to twenty-two cents and gradually work down to a
basis of seventeen to eighteen cents and hang there as
steadily and for about as long as it did last season. We
are receiving quite a few ducks, but same are not of as
good a quality as they should be, and we are placing

113

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS: PAY

them from seventeen to eighteen cents. The great trouble
the past season was with the size of the ducks. We could
have placed more weighing six pounds each and better
than we were able to get. The raisers made no effort
to raise any over four and one-half to five pounds, and the
better class of trade would not buy that size for freezing
purposes. Some of our best trade outside of this city
won’t use many ducklings on account of their being under
five pounds and the same can be said about our best city
trade. We sell only on commission of five per cent. We
do not buy, either at point of shipping or here. Will take
all you can ship daily. We want them shipped killed and
either dry-picked or scalded and picked. We use now
from twenty to thirty barrels of ducklings a day. I think
the duck trade is on a steady increase.”

DeWinter & Co., Jay street, Washington to Green-
wich streets, New York.—“ We are in the commission
business and do not buy anything. We can handle your
ducks and eggs and can get the market prices at all times.
The amount does not make any difference to us as we can
handle any amount, ten packages or an equal number of
cars. Perhaps you are looking for some one to buy out-
right and if so would refer you to A.& M. Robins, Knapp
& Van Nostrand, A. Silz. ‘These people may purchase
outright but we purchase nothing as we confine ourselves
strictly to a commission business.”

G. H. Lewis & Sons, 43 Grace avenue, through to
Thompson avenue, West Washington Market, New York.—
“Regarding ducks would say we can handle same on a
commission basis. We quote you as follows, live or
dressed sixteen cents. “The demand is best on live. If you
can see your way clear to ship us a trial shipment on com-
mission as we have stated, will do the best we can to give
you Satisfaction.”

I. V. Cohen, 96 Vesey street, New York.— Referring
to the sale of Pekin ducks, would say, that if you are con-
templating arrangements about the disposal of same, I
think that I may be in a possible position to do you some

114

MARKETS

good. I have been in this market for several years and
stand high with the trade and could place your goods in
both large and small blocks. I have no stock but am
general salesman, and could introduce your firm to the
highest and best standing trade in the city.”

Semmei & Pollack, 611 East 18th street, New York.—
“There is a good demand for ducklings always. We will
pay about one dollar and twenty-five cents a pair for
them. We can take from twelve hundred to fifteen
hundred pounds a week. We want them shipped alive
to us. The demand is increasing and we think we can
work up a trade in your ducklings.”

Steers & Menke, West Washington Market, New
York.—“‘ There is a good demand for young ducklings
and we will pay top market price on day of arrival of
same. We can use all you can send us. We want them
shipped killed and dry-picked. We use from fifteen to
twenty barrels at a time now. The demand for duck-
lings is increasing and we think the demand will increase
every year.”

W. M. Stewart & Co., 345 Washington street, New
York.—*‘ We do not buy ducklings but sell on commission.
Green or new ducklings in the spring usually sell for
twenty-five to thirty cents a pound. We can take all that
are sent us, dry-picked or scalded. We use about a car-
load of ducklings a week now. The demand is increasing.”

T. W. Johnson & Co., 325 Washington street, New
York.—“ The demand for ducklings is increasing and we
are sure we can work up a trade if good stock is shipped us.
The future for ducks as a food is good. We do not buy
but do strictly a commission business. ‘The price depends
on the weight of the ducks. We want them scalded and
picked.”

Wooley & Highes, New York.—‘‘ We have the trade
that we can place ducklings with to advantage. ‘The
prospects for ducks are very favorable. We do a com-
mission business, securing the top market price. If

Tis

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

shipped regularly, will make a specialty of same. We
wish them shipped killed, dry-picked.”

Hance Bros., New York.—‘ We handle poultry on
commission. We want ducks shipped both alive and
killed. Dry-picked is usually the more satisfactory
method of shipment, as then they are better adapted to
freeze when necessary. [he demand for poultry of all
kinds is increasing with the population. We certainly
can work up a trade in your ducklings if we get a regular
semi-weekly supply.”

We have not tried in above letters to cover the New
York market in detail. Many of our customers have
friends or connections in that great city enabling them to
place poultry of any kind to suit themselves. Many fine
opportunities for selling ducklings direct to the con-
sumer are open to anybody who will take the time to find
them, or are so situated that they know of them.

The reader has noticed in above letters that some
dealers in New York wish ducklings alive, others killed;
some dry-picked, others scalded and picked. The best
way to ship our ducklings is dry-picked and if you ship
them that way even to dealers who say they are now getting
ducklings scalded, they will be better pleased. ‘They talk
and write as they do, in some cases, because they have
had no experience with dry-picked ducklings. You must
inform the dealer what you can do, get his instructions
and make recommendations to him as well as listen to his
recommendations.

116

CHARA EIN

QUESTION BOX

Queries and replies —Holding the head when killing.—
Restless at night—How not to scald.— Do not grow
celery to feed to ducklings. — Dangers of going too
jast, and the importance of getting experience. —
Demand in remote sections. — Not necessary to kill,
they can be sold alive-—Farms that raise part of the
ration.—Why ten to twelve weeks 1s the proper time for
killing.— A suggestion as to worms.— Regrettable ex-
perience in breeding to satisfy a false demand for
small ducklings. —Points as to feeding and _ other
details brought out by many letters.

Q.—You say that when you are picking the duckling
after sticking you hold the head between your knees. 1
don’t see how you can get the feathers off if you do that.
I have tried it and the bird flops around and I have diffi-
culty in getting the feathers off. 4.—Please read that
chapter on picking again. We do not write there what
you say we do. We tell you to hold the head of the bird
between one knee and the feather box. This leaves the
body in your lap, where you can turn it around to suit
yourself as you pick it. You hold the head tightly
against the box and this prevents the bird from flopping
around and soiling its feathers and body with blood, Sit
in a chair while you pick.

Q.—My ducklings have a yellow tinge to their flesh
when I ship them. What is there in the food which
causes this? 4.—This is caused by allowing the duck-
lings to lie on green grass before you killthem. You must
take them off the grass range one week or so before you
kill them, and put them onto dirt. The yellow color seems
to go through the feathers to the skin,

HOW WE MAKE. DUCKS PAY

Q.—My flock appear restless at times during the night
and do not always go to bed and sleep. This worries me a
good deal. Do you think they are sick? 4.—They do
not act like most animals when night comes. It is per-
fectly natural for them to be restless at times and move
about more or less. During the day they like to sit motion-
less at times with heads under the wing.

Q.—My marketman says to scald the ducklings before
taking off the feathers. Now, why can’t I put the whole
bird right down all over into my wash-boiler? You say to
hold the bird by head and feet and scald only the body.
A.—Do not scald the bill and feet because if you do you
will discolor them. You also will take the feathers off the
head. This you must not do. The feathers are left on
the head.

Q.—I am going to grow celery and feed it to my duck-
lings and get a higher price for the birds. Why don’t you
do it? A.—That is a foolish idea. It is true that wild
ducks which feed on wild celery bring better prices
because of the improved flavor, but if you raise celery
in a garden, you can get ten times more money for it as it
grows than in the form of duck-meat flavor. It 1s expen-
sive flavoring. It is also a failure as flavoring because a
celery-fed domestic duck does not taste anything like the
wild canvasback duck fed on wild celery, and cannot be
substituted for the canvasbacks. A big, grain-fed duck-
ling is better eating than a canvasback and will bring as
high a price when people get better acquainted with them.
Canvasbacks are sold at high prices because they are com-
paratively scarce and because fancy eaters have been in the
habit of paying high prices for years for them. The
demand has been cultivated by restaurants and_ hotels
along with the terrapin and champagne demand.

Q.—It seems to me strange, if there is so much money
in ducks as you say, that instead of marketing forty-five
or fifty thousand a year as you have done, you have
not marketed one hundred or even two hundred thousand
a year, and got rich much quicker. If your figures are

118

QUESTION BOX

correct, and the work, as it seems to me, is only a ques-
tion of hired help, why have you not pushed the business
harder? I am of good business ability and I see no reason
why I cannot accomplish in five years what might other-
wise take twenty. Please adviseme. 4.—Go slowly. If
you have been “figuring,” tear up the paper and listen to
reason. Is not experience worth acquiring? If ducks
could be turned out like a brick-making machine, it would
be necessary only to speed up the machinery and work
day and night. But they are living things and have to be
nourished and cared for. A manis busy and has quitea
good job on hand when he is shipping one thousand duck-
lings a week to market, making a net profit of five hundred
a week on them. If one ships one hundred thousand duck-
lings a year to market, he must erect more buildings, em-
ploy more help and be busier. To make a success, a man
must keep things under his control. Don’t bite off more
than you can chew. What is the use of trying to do three
years’ work and make three years’ profits in one year?
People who deny themselves every pleasure but money-
making find that when they are ready to stop work and
enjoy their fortune they have made a mistake. We have
known poultry beginners, fanciful dreamers, to start with
a plant costing as high as five thousand dollars, with fifteen
hundred head of birds, and the stories of their failures were
blazoned all over their districts. If the average person of
either sex, of ordinary intelligence and ability, will start in
a reasonable manner with ducks according to his or her
means, and follow our teachings as given in this book, and
by our letters, failure is next to impossible. An occasional
mistake is not going to put one out of the business. An
error can be corrected, and the lesson having been learned
will not be repeated. There is positively no “ out ”’ about
the duck business which will bring ruin. One man may not
make as much money as another, that is to be expected.
It is a question of starting with the right stock, following
the right teachings and acquiring skill, experience and
capacity, according to the individual.

119

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QUESTION BOX

Q.—In my State (Texas) there do not seem to be any
ducks like yours, and people with whom I talk do not
think there would be any sale for them. 4.—Texas folks
like chickens, or beefsteaks. You don’t live on cereals
altogether, down your way, any more than we do. You
have a clear field and, take our word for it, Texans will
buy good ducklings, pay your price, and come back to
you for more.

Q.—I have a solid gold watch for which I paid fifty
dollars six months ago, and it is as good as new. How
many ducks and drakes will you give me for it? I would
like to be your agent out here, please quote agents’ prices.
A.—We sell for cash only; we have no agents and our
prices are the same to everybody, to customers either in
our own county or thousands of miles away.

Q.—If these ducklings are such exceptional eating, as
you state, why can’t I get up an attractive little booklet
and circular and mail them around and get a list of steady
buyers that way? 4.—You can, and you ought to;
that is just the way the finest eggs, poultry, butter, etc., are
sold, at the highest prices.

Q.—I dislike the idea of killing the ducklings. Can I
sell them alive? 4.—Yes. There are thousands of poultry-
men in the business of picking up birds alive from farmers,
and marketmen everywhere who will take them alive.

Q.—I do general farming. Do you think I can grow
the foods your ducks eat and do better feeding them to
ducks than selling them separately? 4.—Yes, you can
get much more for them in the form of duckmeat. If
breeders make big profits with ducks by buying every-
thing, as we do, those farmers who have to buy only a part
of the ration, raising the most of it, will make more money.

Q.—Instead of buying so much food stuff, why don’t
you raise it on your farm? 4.—We wish to have our time
free for the ducks and do not care to be busy at general
farming, as we are satisfied with the profit on ducks from
feeding bought food. We grow vegetables and green

stuff for our needs, as that is no trouble.

121

HOW WE MAKE DOCKS IPAM

Q.—What is the proper time for killing ducklings?
A.—F rom ten weeks to three months of age. Keep them
longer and they eat off the profits every day. ‘he aver-
age farmer or housewife raising ducks for amusement by
guesswork does not realize that. The age of ten to twelve
weeks represents the maximum of plumpness and tender-
ness with the minimum of expense. After that age, the
plumpness and tenderness decrease and the cost of keep
is being added to all the time.

Q.—I read what you say, that worms are fine for ducks
and save on the grain bill. Why not raise worms? Is any
treatise published on propagating worms? Guess you will
think I am joking. 4.—Don’t know of any worm guide.
Would advise that you try the method seen in Belgium,
where there is considerable swampy land. It is not un-
common there to find a yokel walking in the swampy land
at the head of a flock of ducks, his wooden shoes at every
stride squeezing out of the muck worms which the ducks
gobble greedily—a sort of automatic self-feeding, non-
paying scheme. What Yankee can beat this?

Q.—Is there anything gained by breeding a small duck?
A relative of mine living near here who did some duck
breeding a few years ago used to get a good price for
small ducklings and said his dealer sold them quicker
than bigger ducklings. 4.—About ten years ago, some
hotel and restaurant men in New York went to their duck
and poultry markets and said: “ We don’t want you to
give us too large a duckling. We get a good price now
on our bills of fare and we wish from you (so we can
make all the money possible) a medium-sized bird. When
half of a medium-sized bird gets onto the table, it certainly
will be large enough for one or two people. A whole
big duckling is large enough for a family dinner. Keep
the size down so they will cost us less and make us more
money.” ‘The duck marketmen evidently did not argue
the matter much. They passed the word along to the
breeders in the territory south and west of New York,
where most of the ducks then were being produced, and

122

QUESTION BOX

these breeders, to please their trade, actually began to
breed for smaller size. Before long they were shipping
to market ducks weighing not over four pounds. The
result was what any sensible man could have predicted.
The consumers, the men and women who ate the duck-
lings, complained and would not order them so often
at hotels and restaurants. The hotel and restaurant
managers soon changed their requests to “ Give us the
big ducklings again.” The breeders went back to the
early methods. They found building up size not so easy
as pulling down. Qualities cherished and perpetuated
by years of study and skill had gone. ‘Today the flocks
of those breeders are not yet back to a big-sized duck-
ling, but feel the effects of the period of stunting. It is
safe in poultry breeding to work for the biggest and
juiciest. Anybody in any occupation who trades in an
inferior article, hoping to make a bigger proft by selling
it at the price of something better, is not playing fair to
himself or to anybody.

Q.—I live on the sea-coast. Is there anything in the
air that would be prejudicial to the duck industry? 4.—
Snow does not last long on sea-coast land, and this is a
point in favor of the coast, because the ducklings will get
out on the ground earlier in the spring, enjoy more exer-
cise and do better. ‘There is nothing in salt air or sea-
breezes unfavorable to ducks.

Q.—I see you have plenty of windows in your houses.
How many are advisable? 4.—Put in windows freely.
Light and sun are good for ducklings. When warm
weather comes the windows are raised or taken out
altogether so as to give plenty of free air.

Q.—My ducks like to play in the muddy and swampy
land. Willit hurt them? 4.—No, it will do them good.
You can’t keep them out of the muck. They will run for it.

Q.—How will I get my ducks to lay? 4.—Feed them
as we tell in the chapter on food. It is all a matter of food.
They cannot lay unless they are nourished. If you starve
them they will not do much for you.

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HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

Q.—My ducklings do not seem very bright. They
walked into a hole in the field and fell in and could not get
out. Some were lamed and injured before I got them out.
A.—Ducklings are more or less stupid and must not be
given a chance to fall into holes, or to run against sharp
obstructions.

Q.—I have read in poultry books that ground over
which fowls run becomes tainted and unhealthful in time if
something is not done to purify it. Is this true of a duck
farm? 4.—Yes, and that is the reason crops of green
stuff, like rye, are grown, to sweeten the soil. ‘They do it,
too, unfailingly.

Q.—In dressing my first duck for the table, I tried to
find the crop, to see if there was any food in it, but could
not find it. 4.—A hen has a crop, but a duck has not.
The food passage in a duck runs from the mouth to the
gizzard.

Q.—1I have an incubator for hens’ eggs. Can I use it
for ducks’ eggs? 4.—Yes. Of course, the ducks’ eggs
being larger, you cannot put in so many.

Q.—Why is an incubator house built like a cellar?
A.—Because it will not be freezing cold there in the
winter, and in summer it will be twelve to eighteen degrees
cooler than outdoors (making it a good place to keep
eggs then). ‘To built an incubator cellar, dig only three
feet deep, and use the dirt to bank up the walls outside.
Buiid the walls of stone and cement. Put a roof over it,
and a door at the end. Ventilate it well. Don’t forget
the ventilators, because egg-shells are porous. Dead
air, with a large proportion of carbonic acid gas, and little
oxygen, will influence badly the ducklings growing in the
eggs.

Q.—Why do you keep ducklings of different ages
separate? Why not turn all in together, the young and
the old? 4.—Because the old and strong birds would
trample on and kill the smallest and weakest ones.

Q.—At what age can ducklings be put out doors
safely? 4,—When they are six weeks old, rain and

124

QUESTION BOX

cold will not hurt them, and they can be left out in their
yards all night, unless it is bitter cold and stormy, and
they will thrive better for it.

Q.—What are your prices for breeding stock? 4.—
See the sheet of prices accompanying this book. If the
price-list 1s missing, or has been lost, write us for one,
addressing your letter as follows to the Boston office:
American Pekin Duck Company, 145 Pearl street, Bos-
ton, Mass.

Q.—At what age does a duck begin to lay? 4.—
When she is from four and one-half to five months old.

Q.— Don’t you lose any ducklings after you have
hatched them? 4.—There 1s a loss of only about two
out of every hundred.

Q.—Can you ship live breeding ducks and drakes
safely tome? I live in California. .—Yes; we ship the
live birds by express any distance safely. We crate them
lightly and strongly. For a long trip, a small bag of
grain is sent along for food on the journey. ‘The express-
men feed the birds and also water them. (There is a
water tin attached to the crate.) On a long railroad run,
the express agent, we find, gives the birds plenty of atten-
tion. It helps him pass the time away in the car, and he
enjoys watching the birds.

Q.— Do not the express companies make an extra
charge for carrying your ducks a long distance? 4.—
No. Live ducks and drakes go long distances at the
single, or lowest, merchandise rate. For short distances,
the one and one-half rate is charged (not the double rate,
as for some animals).

Q.—What is the color of eggs laid by your strain? 7.
—White.

Q.—If I buy some ducks and drakes of you, can I get
along without an incubator? 4.—If you try to work with-
out an incubator, you must have hens to set on and
hatch the ducks’ eggs. “The ducks are not broody and
will not set on and hatch their eggs. Better have an
incubator.

125

FATTENING SHED AND PENS

As shown, the shed is open on both sides, giving plenty of fresh air at
all times. It issimply a shelter from the sun, for the ducklings which are
being fattened for market do not mind the rain at this age. The roof is not
shingled. The cracks between the boards are covered with two-inch strip-
ping. (No roofing paper here.)

The yards are separated by wire netting, but under the shed boards are
used. The feed boards and water pails are shown in the yards. The pails
are near the food boards so that the ducklings can waddle quickly from food
to drink, and back again.

QUESTION BOX

Q.—In case I do use a hen, how many duck eggs shall
J put under her? 4.—Nine under a small hen, and eleven
or twelve under a large hen.

Q.—Will a hen brood the young ducklings, or would
you provide a brooder? 4.—Get a brooder. A hen is
awkward in brooding ducklings, as a rule, injuring some
by crushing.

Q.—How would you advise working up a duck market
in a place where ducklings are comparatively unknown?
A.—Make the prospective customer a gift of a duckling
and let him or her serve it for dinner. He will be won
over by the experiment and, we predict, will report to you
that the dish is ahead of chicken or turkey. Sales will
follow as a matter of course. This is a good way to get
acquainted with a hotel or restaurant keeper.

Q.—Is your system of feeding followed by many? 4.—
‘There are some breeders of ducks who care more for low
cost than they do for flavor of meat. They feed fish
caught from the ocean or lakes in nets. Ducklings
fattened on fish taste fishy and their flesh is not fine-
grained.

Q.—Would you advise a woman to go into duck rais-
ing? 4.—It depends on the woman, as it does on the
man, also. Some men get enthusiastic, and like to figure
the money they are going to make, but after a while cool
oft and become lazy and indifferent. A woman who likes
hens and chickens will like ducks. The work is not much
different. We know of good work done by women
raising ducks. Of course women should hire help if they
run a large duck farm. Some women are better fitted for
poultry raising than men.

Q.—What would you advise with regard to the selec-
tion of a farm? 4.—No matter how poor and how cheap
the land, the manure from the ducks will fertilize it. Land
which has a gentle slope, or which is gravelly, will be
drained better than low, level land. It ought not to be
possible for pools of water to form and get stagnant.

O.—FPlease explain more fully what a beginner should

Lay

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

guard against when buying breeding stock, 4.—It is
not uncommon for a_ beginner with ducks to buy
breeding stock of unknown sources. Ducks and drakes
may be offered at a low price in market stores or by
unknown and irresponsible breeders. The novice should
be very much on his guard against such stock. Unless
you can start with reliable stock bred skillfully under
proper conditions, it is better not to start at all. A
few years ago a gentleman, known in New England now
as the manager of a stock farm, experimented with ducks
and learned by sorrowful experience what we are telling
you here. He gives the story in his own words as follows:

‘We started with four large-sized incubators and about
one hundred and eighty Pekin ducks. Foods were figured
down to percentages, and we had to study arithmetic all over
to learn what the ducks should have for supper, and tackle
algebra to mix a proper breakfast. This was not the fault of
our teacher, but was about the type of the general instructions
for the feeding of poultry, and it is not yet all done away with
in some quarters. We filled the first incubator with four
hundred and eleven eggs. We managed to hatch seventy-
eight. Our second hatch was one hundred and thirty-four
out of four hundred and seventy-one eggs. Third hatch was
one hundred and sixty-five out of five hundred and twenty eggs.
About one hundred died after pipping. The hatches grew
steadily worse, and the ducklings correspondingly weaker. A
great many saw with one eye and walked with one leg. We
asked the authorities, and found that our food was too hot,
and that it was too cold; we fed too much meal, and too little
meal; we did not ventilate enough, and they had too much
air; we ought not to give them too much grit, and we must be
sure to give them plenty; we must keep the house warm, and
again it should not be very warm for ducks. They felt sure
the temperature in the machine was too high or too low, and
the «ventilation was both ways. We did not find one who put
the trouble where it belonged — in the eggs — and, back of
that, in the breeding stock. The next year we got as low as
seventy ducklings hatched from a full machine of eggs (four
hundred and fifty to five hundred). We found out that we
had been wasting our time with poor stock as breeders. We
got together another flock and this time did better. To pro-
duce strong, healthy ducklings one must have vigorous, hardy
breeding ducks that have been selected and fed to that end, and

128

QUESTION BOX

not, as is so often the case, merely chosen from a hap-hazard
lot of forced market birds and thrown out as being good
enough for breeders.”

The above should be read carefully and remembered.
Get your breeding ducks of us and you will have hardy,
vigorous birds that can lay fertile eggs. Do not start with
unknown stock or stock of doubtful value offered at a low
price and go through the worries and vexations described

in the foregoing paragraph.

Q.—On page thirty-three you say that in the winter
time, to save labor in the morning, the food is mixed at
night. How do you mix it? 4.—In mixing the food by
hand, use a common, ordinary square shovel and a box.
The most convenient size of box will be found to be six
feet long, thirty inches wide and two feet deep, set on legs
about eighteen inches high, and holding thirty-five to
forty pails of food.

Q.—On page thirty-nine you say that the mark of the
sex in the drake is a curl feather in the tail. I have some
drakes with two curl feathers in the tails. 4.—Cer-
tainly; drakes are seen with two curl feathers in the tail,
although sometimes one or both are missing.

Q.—On page thirty-two you give some details as to
watering. Please give further details. 4.—Ducks saved
for breeders, and on a grass range, are fed twice a day,
morning and evening. [hey should be watered more
often during the day in warm weather. It is a good plan
to keep cool water before the breeders all the time. On
page thirty-two we say that they can be watered five times
a day in addition to the two times at which they are fed.
We do not mean by this that one should be continually
carrying water to them, but that the object to be attained
is, cool water before the breeders nearly continuously.

Q.—On page thirty-three, care of breeding stock, you
say to feed the mixture as soon as it is mixed. Why?
A.—During the summer, it is a good plan not to mix the
food until it is needed, as it is apt to get sour. In the

129

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT

winter, to save labor in the morning, you can mix at
night and have it all ready to feed in the morning.

Q.—Some tell me that the down from ducks can be
marketed separate from the feathers. Is this so, and does
it pay? A.—The process requires special machinery and
is not practical except by feather merchants and feather
renovators. We never heard of a duck breeder separating
the down from the feathers.

Q.—I would thank you if you could give me good
directions for picking ducks wet, or by scalding, as this is
the method followed in this section where all of the ducks
and pouitry are shipped to the New York market. 4.—
Picking ducks by the scalding method is very easy after a
little practice and experiment. If anybody is in doubt,
go to your butcher or poultryman and he will tell you
further; and, perhaps, you can watch him while he scalds
a hen or a duck and picks it.

Q.—Your book in chapter on feed says (page thirty-
three) one pail is sufficient for thirty ducks. Is the size of
the pail ten, twelve or sixteen quarts or more? 4.—Ten
quarts. If you use a twelve or fourteen-quart pail, do not
fill it to the top.

O.—Would a good grade of what we term shorts take
the place of low-grade flour? 4.—Yes; flour is used
principally to make the feed hold together. In details
like this, methods of feeding different from ours will give
profitable results. Use the food materials which you have
in your State.

O.—We are forty-five miles from Detroit. Would
Detroit or Chicago be the better market? And how is
better to ship them, dressed or alive? 4.—If you are
nearer Detroit, we advise you to ship them there, dressed.
Chicago is the larger market, of course. We would say
it rested largely with you, as to the best terms you could
make and best acquaintance you could form with a duck
dealer or consumer. ‘Try both places with your product,
after you have started, and deal with the man or firm
which pays you most and treats you the best.

130

QUESTION BOX

O.—How few ducks need a light at night? 4.—
Twenty. ‘The more ducks one keeps in a flock, the more
noisy and restless they are in the dark.

Q.—Please give me the amount of feed necessary for
a pen of thirty breeding ducks. 4.—A ten-quart pail
twice a day. (See page thirty-three.)

O.—Your book gives no reference to duck markets in
the new State of Oklahoma, nor in northern part of Texas.
A.—We do not know the details about all sections of the
country. Wherever there are people to eat poultry, ducks,
eggs, meat, etc., there is the market, and there you can
sell ducklings. Such facts can easily be ascertained in
your section by observing or talking or writing. Get in
touch with the storekeepers who sell poultry and pro-
visions, or with men, women, hotels, clubs, dining-rooms,
etc., which consume them.

Q.—Please tell me the difference per pound between
ducks alive and dressed. 4.—In the Eastern markets,
the difference is four to six cents a pound. We mean by
this that live ducks sell for four to six cents a pound less
than dressed ducks.

Q.—I live within one mile of a city that has a popu-
lation of fifty-five thousand, but there is no market there
for ducks, so I am going slow and try to work up a home
trade. 4.—You are in error in stating that there is no
market for ducklings in the city of fifty-five thousand
people. [hey are not sold there now, perhaps, because
there are no ducklings to be shipped there to be offered
for sale there. You may have been told that there is no
market there by somebody who has no call for something
which does not yet exist for him. It rests with you to
ship to such a market and create the supply. “The demand
is there waiting for you. You will have to show your
goods and attract admiration for them and sell them on
merit as everything is sold. There are thousands of
families in that large city who would eagerly buy deli-
cious ducklings for a change of eating, once a week, or
oftener, and such people you ought to reach by circular,

Teh

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

or word of mouth, or by letter, and get them interested.
They are consuming milk, eggs and poultry now, of
course, and it rests with you whether they shall consume
ducklings. Give a pair of ducklings to the leading
marketman there, if necessary, and let him display them
in his stalls to his trade. You will find they will sell, and
the dealer will ask you for more. If you are the first
duck raiser to start in shipping to that city of fifty-five
thousand people, you are lucky, for you can get a foot-
hold with your stock quickly, and you need not worry
about selling all you can turn out. But you must tell and
show people what you do. Do not be afraid to talk and
advertise. If you hide your light under a bushel it cer-
tainly will not be seen, nor will people go to you inquiring
for the illumination.

Q.—I should like to know the cost of erecting a one-
hundred-foot duck house. 4.—A duck house one hundred
feet long by fifteen feet wide, covered with our duck-house
roofing (which never requires painting) 1s built in a good,
substantial manner for about two dollars and a half per
running foot.

Q.—I wish to ask only one question, and that is,
could ducks be raised profitably by attending to them in
the ordinary way, say with a few, giving part of my time
to them, as I am employed regularly at something else
which takes me from home? 4.—Certainly, you can
manage them exactly as a small poultry plant is managed
by men who work at something else for their main living.

Q.—How many ducks would I need to supply one
hundred eggs to fill incubators every two weeks? I
would wish to run two incubators, one hatching two weeks
later than the first. 4.—Twenty ducks and four drakes
would be about the proper number.

Q.—Brewers’ grains cost but three dollars per ton in
New York and make excellent feed for cows. Can brewers’
grain be fed to ducks and if so, with what result? 4.—We
have had no experience with brewers’ grains, but see no
objection to feeding them in moderate quantities mixed

1132

QUESTION BOX

with other feeds, say about twenty per cent, and fed to
ducks after they are six weeks old.

O.—You say that in selecting breeding birds, other
considerations besides size need to be considered. What?
Please enlarge upon the proper selection of breeding stock
from a flock. 4.—The most important consideration in
selecting breeders is contained in three words, stamina,
vitality and activity. [he experienced duck breeder has
these three features always in mind when making selec-
tions. Secondly, size and weight are in order, in con-
nection with shape, contour or symmetry.

Q.—You speak of that special granite grit, and I would
like to learn if that is really necessary and distinctly better
than other gravel which the birds might pick up anywhere.
A.—Where only a few ducks are kept, common sand or
fine gravel may be sufficient. Duck grit, however, is so
cheap that we use it for our birds and always recommend
iis

Q.—What is the relative proportion of duck eggs
needed to fill an incubator of one hundred and fifty hen
egg capacity? You may also give me the figures as to
geese and turkey eggs. 4.—An incubator of the above
capacity will hold one hundred ducks’ eggs and seventy-
five geese or turkey eggs. No matter what the size of
your incubator, you can put in it two duck eggs for every
three hens’ eggs.

Q.—If you were to turn the eggs with cold and clammy
hands, would it not be apt to chill the embryo at certain
stages, and thus impair its vitality? I have never noticed
any caution in this matter, but it seems to me that if one
were to come in out of a cold day, and especially with low
blood circulation which no amount of action or warmth
would generate, and do the work of turning the eggs, it
would not be just the thing. Perhaps people with cold
hands should don a pair of woolen gloves before turning
eggs in an incubator, or let some one else do it. 4.—No
danger. You do not pick up the eggs to hold them long
enough to chill them, no matter if your hands are cold as

13S)

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY

ice. You turn the eggs with the tips of the fingers. Cer-
tainly you can wear gloves as a preventive if you wish, and
your mind will be at ease on this point. We warm our
hands by holding them up against the heater of the

incubator.

Q.—I can get scraps, meats, etc., from the restaurants
and hotels here. Would you advise their use at any time
after the ducklings are six weeks old? 4.—Yes, this is an
excellent way to obtain feed for the ducks. ‘The stale
bread could be soaked in water and mixed with regular
grain with fine results.

.—When we scald a duck, can the feathers be made
marketable like dry-picked ones? 4.—Yes; the feathers
are put on the floor of a room very thin, and shaken with
a hay-fork every few days until dry, then are pushed upon
a heap to make room for more.

Q.—I have been observing the market quotations here
(Iowa) for several months, and find they never exceed
twelve cents. If the ducklings average six pounds, they
would average seventy-two cents. If it costs from six to
ten cents per pound to raise and market them, I am
unable to figure out fifty cents profit on each one. 4.—
The market quotations you see apply to the commonest or —
puddle ducks, always about a third to a half lower than
the quotations on first-cliss ducklings. They generally
apply also to old ducks, not to the young and tender
dry-picked ducklings, with which few markets are
acquainted. You cannot learn the true market prices by
what you see in the papers, as these frequently run for
months without change, and are inspired almost wholly
by dealers who wish to buy as cheap as they can. ‘To
find out the true prices in your city, go out in person, or
telephone, and offer to BUY ten-week-old ducklings of
good weight. In raising ducklings, you would have an
important advantage in getting your grain much cheaper.
In Iowa, ducks can be raised for less than five cents a

pound.

134

QUESTION BOX

Q.—The only thing I don’t understand in your book is
about plowing up the yards in August. How do you
manage this with the ducks? Are they inside the house
when the yards are being plowed up, or out on the range?
A.—Plowing in August, mentioned in the foregoing,
refers to the breeding yards. ‘The ducks are through lay-
ing, they have earned their money and should be dis-
posed of, or put on the range, and the yards gotten ready
for the coming fall, for the new breeders.

Q.—-Do duck houses need to face the south? 4.—It
is always advisable, in this section of the country, to face
the duck buildings either south or southeast.

Q.—How are the roof ventilators made? 4.—Make
a box thirty inches long and ten inches wide, open at the
bottom. Nail two boards on the top end, pitch-roof
fashion, to keep out the rain. Sawa hole in the roof of the
house just large enough to receive the ventilator. Nail it
on and fit snug with roofing paper.

Q.—When ducks are allowed to stay out doors at
night, is there no danger from skunks, weasels, etc.2 4.—
After ducks are six weeks old, there is no danger.

Q.—Will rats kill the young ducklings? 4.—Yes.
No danger after they are six weeks old.

Q.— Do you keep on hatching as long as the ducks lay?
A.—Yes.

Q.—Is there any special month that is better for hatch-
ing breeders? 4.—Yes. April and May are the best
months.

Q.—Will you sell me one drake to put with my own
Pekins? 4.—Yes, we have many calls for drakes, apart
from ducks. Price four dollars and six dollars each,
according to size and quality. See price-list.

Q.—If one wishes to keep breeding ducks over from
one year to the next, can the feathers be picked from the
live birds and marketed? If so, how often should they be
picked? 4.—It is not advisable to pick the feathers from
live breeders. It does not pay. ‘The birds would receive

135

HOW WE MAKE DUCKS YPAY

a setback, making them less valuable as breeders the fol-
lowing season.

Q.—When breeding stock have ample range, with
green grass, in spring and summer, is it necessary to give
either vegetables or clover, and might the meat be reduced?
A.—It is not necessary to supply any vegetables when
ducks have a green range. he meat ration should be
kept up, however.

Q.—.Do you advise saving stock for breeders from
yearlings, or two-year-olds? 4.—There is not much
difference in either case. ‘The important point is to have
the birds strong and vigorous.

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Size, too Acres
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Largest in the World

These duck buildings have been erected
since 1896 with profits made from ducks, |,44,
at a cost of over $35,000. (This does not f°
include the residences shown in the upper
left-hand corner.) This equipment is first-
class, thoroughly up-to-date.

TICKETS FOR FARM VISITORS
Visitors are admitted to the farm only by ticket,
and not on Sundays or holidays. Tickets may be
obtained at Boston office, 145 Pearl Street, by mail or
In person.

THE HOME OF OU

(The whole of the farm could not be shown here on account of limited space for this picture. Enougt
idea of the magnitude and capacity of the plant.)

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Full text of "How we make ducks pay ... an illustrated guide to the profitable breeding of our modern Pekin all-white mammoth ducklings; plain and thorough lessons for beginners and others everywhere who write for the details and secrets of our waterless method.."

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