DUCK-FARMING IN AMERICA. 



573 



and a fair number whose output is consider- 

 ably more. A remarkable fact about this 

 American industry is that the supply appears 



to have really created the demand, 



Duck-Farming whicli the rapidly increasing popula- 



in tion has maintained. The pioneers 



Amenca. jj-, jj- ^^g admitted by all to have 



been Mr. James Rankin and Mr. 

 A. J. Hallock, both of whom began to raise 

 ducklings by artificial methods before i860, and 

 who soon found the business profitable, but for 

 the fact that there was then little market. It 

 was about 1876 before either raised any con- 

 siderable number ; and five or six years after 

 that, when producing only about 1,500 per 

 annum, Mr. Rankin records that he found these 

 hard to sell, aud had to solicit orders for them. 

 But the public then began to appreciate fine 

 ducklings, so that later on, when he reared 10,000, 

 he could not supply the demand. The many 

 others now in the business have also found, so 

 far, that if the quality be good enough the 

 demand and the price are both forthcoming. 

 Some reasons for this immense demand have 

 already been stated (see page 169), others being 

 found in the well-being of the people, and the 

 number of independent large cities widely 

 separated, which do not centralise sales in one 

 chief market as in London. 



This great industry has been built upon the 

 basis of the Pekin duck. Up to 1873 local 

 farm ducks were crossed with Rouen or 

 Muscovy drakes, Aylesburys being also tried, 

 and crossed with Muscovy too, the last being 

 generally considered best, but these best being 

 small and carrying little meat compared with 

 those now bred. In 1873 came Pekins, which 

 at once were found superior, but still were very 

 different from those of the present day, being 

 longer and narrower in body, coarser in bone, 

 and with far less development of flesh. The 

 Pekin as now bred is much broader and thicker, 

 and fuller in breast meat, with much less bone 

 and offal in proportion, and also differs much 

 from the bird as known in England at the 

 present time. Possibly some of the early 

 Pekins imported into America may have been 

 somewhat superior to those brought to England ; 

 but it is doubtful, as Mr. Rankin states that 

 thirty years ago it was difficult to find a young 

 bird that could be got up to real weight at ten 

 weeks old. It is more likely, perhaps, as the 

 breed admittedly needs more space to grow in 

 than the Aylesbury, that American conditions 

 more favoured it. At all events, this breed of 

 ducks has since been so improved in size, 

 precocity, and fecundity, that ten-weeks drakes 

 have weighed down 9 lbs. to 10 lbs., and ducks 



81 lbs. ; that many ducks will lay, if the least 

 forced, at five months old ; and some raisers 

 and many odd breeding pens average 150 egg: 

 from each duck in a year. Owing to this 

 advance ducklings now mature in three-fourths 

 of the time formerly required. English Pekins 

 are imported from time to time in order to 

 furnish strong out-crosses, which as such are 

 valued ; but these birds have rarely if ever been 

 found hitherto to equal in either size or shape 

 the best American Pekins, as may be seen 

 from the weights of breeding stock. Several of 

 the largest American raisers, who keep 1,000 

 breeding ducks or more, find drakes weighing 

 12 lbs. quite common in their flocks ; and one 

 of them (Mr. Weber) when pointing the repre- 

 sentative of a poultry journal to a certain flock 

 of his breeders, numbering sixty ducks and a 

 dozen drakes, made the statement : " Every 

 duck in that pen weighs 10 lbs. or over." These 

 results have been obtained by long and careful 

 breeding, with special reference to fine market 

 shape and quality of meat, avoiding that false 

 idea of " keel " which has done so much 

 harm in England. This English notion of 

 " keel " (as bred for exhibition) does not 

 seem understood by American breeders ; for 

 while Mr. Rankin writes expressly against 

 " deep-keeled " birds, and describes a " wide, 

 plump-breasted, and finely rounded contour," an 

 article upon another great duck-rancher speaks 

 of the " deep, long keel " of his stock, and 

 again of the " depth of keel " in even the 

 youngest birds. But there is appended to it 

 a set of drawings of a pair of birds at every 

 successive week of their age, and it is curious to 

 observe that in spite of all this, at no age is 

 there the least keel as understood by British 

 exhibitors : the American writer and artist both 

 mean merely a deep plump breast, covered with 

 meat level to the top of the breast -bone, which 

 every salesman knows to be the true model. 

 American breeders, in short, have bred the Pekin 

 systematically for fecundity, early maturity, and 

 deep flesh on the breast ; and the results are a 

 striking testimony to their skill. 



In management there are some differences 

 amongst the largest raisers, though in most 

 points there is practical agreement. The chief 

 difference is that some provide ponds or other 

 swimming range for their breeding stock, and 

 a few even smaller puddles for their market 

 ducklings, though nearly all raise the latter dry. 

 Others, including some of the largest, have 

 nothing but drinking troughs even for their 

 breeders, and these are found fertile provided 

 there is adequate yard-room for exercise. This 

 is more matter of location than choice, however, 



