DUCK-FARMING IN AMERICA. 



575 



due to some mistake in feeding, the only other 

 trouble usually met with is feather-plucking, 

 the causes of which are either over-crowding, 

 or a deficiency in meat-scrap and greens. As 

 a general rule, the yards are finally vacated in 

 August, being immediately ploughed over and 

 sown with rye, which grows profusely and purifies 

 the ground, as well as providing much green 

 food in due time. When ready for market, the 

 ducklings are usually killed in America by a 

 knife stuck in the roof of the mouth. The 

 weight at the universal ten weeks ranges from 

 lo lbs. to 13 lbs. per pair ; but this depends upon 

 the amount of food given and the weight really 

 worked for, as much as upon the stock. The 

 best-formed birds, meant for stock, are generally 

 picked out at three or four weeks old, when 

 transferred from the nursery brooders, and 

 brought up with as much liberty as convenient 

 in a somewhat hardier way. 



Space will only allow of any details respect- 

 ing a very few American duck-farms. These are 

 not selected as being largest, there being several 

 which raise more than most of those mentioned 

 here, but partly for some variety of their circum- 

 stances or practice, and partly for the reputation 

 of their owners as breeders ; many of those who 

 raise largely for market also having a reputation 

 for eggs or breeding stock. And all are confined 

 to establishments which have now had years ot 

 experience and continued success. 



Some raise a relatively considerable number 

 on a small space. Mr. George Pollard, well 

 known as a breeder, raised 5,000 on less than 

 two acres, and if he had continued with that 

 plant, stated his ability to raise 8,000 on it, 

 purchasing, of course, all the food ; but he 

 afterwards bought a sixty-acre farm as a larger 

 ranche. It may be useful to state that he 

 bought the small plant from an enthusiast 

 who had rushed into it and sunk 5,000 dollars 

 therein, selling out " on account of his health." 

 As Mr. Pollard remarks, many others think like 

 that young man, that it is an easy business 

 and quick road to fortune ; his stock had also 

 become weakly from in-breeding. The ex- 

 perience of all the successful men is that 

 duck-raising requires intense application and 

 constant supervision ; and many of the largest, 

 who are making thousands of dollars a year 

 by it, work sixteen and seventeen hours a day 

 during the busy part of the season. 



Mr. James Rankin, now eighty years of 

 age, but quite recently retired from business, 

 raised about 15,000 for market. He also 

 sold 1,200 to 1,500 breeders at two to five 

 dollars each, and in the last season of which 

 we have any statement sent out about 50,000 



eggs for hatching. He bred from about 1,000 

 stock birds, and these had no water except 

 for drinking. The area not used for duck- 

 yards was mainly devoted to growing green 

 and vegetable food — rye, turnips, cabbage, 

 clover, etc. — of which tons were accumulated 

 to supply his breeders during the winter. Grit 

 was constantly mixed in the food, in the pro- 

 portion of 5 per cent, of its weight, and this 

 practice is very general. 



Mr. A. J. Hallock, of Speonk, Long 

 Island, as before intimated, has also been in 

 the business, or rather his father had before 

 him, since about i860. His ranche is about 

 fifty acres, and all his stock have swimming- 

 water. He markets annually nearly 70,000, 

 and keeps 4,000 or more for breeders, the spare 

 ones selling from two to as high as twenty-five 

 dollars each, being well known as exhibition 

 stock. He reckons his laying average at 135. 

 Though many of the females are more, he 

 prefers to breed from ducks about 8 lbs. and 

 drakes 12 lbs., finding birds of 13 lbs. less 

 satisfactory. He raises many chickens as well, 

 and several years ago, when rearing consider- 

 ably less than now, 3,000 lbs. of food was 

 fed per day to the birds on this ranche, to 

 facilitate which a rail or tram-line is carried 

 across the yards, over the tops of the low 

 fences. His breeders are weeded out after 

 three years old, and such ducklings as may 

 be behind in growth are put back betimes 

 among rather younger ones, when they often 

 catch up. He employs four or five men and 

 a number of women. 



One of the most successful duck-farms in 

 the States is that of Messrs. Weber Brothers, 

 at Wrentham, Mass. The father was a German, 

 who with his sons struggled along on the farm 

 with little success, till in 1888 they visited 

 Mr. Rankin's duck-ranche, saw his results, and 

 concluded to follow his example, raising in 

 1889 800 chickens and 500 ducklings. Though 

 still 3,000 dollars in debt, they were so 

 satisfied with the prospects that they bought 

 two incubators holding 600 eggs each, and 

 from forty breeders hatched in 1890 3,000 

 ducklings, marketing 2,800 and clearing over 

 1,500 dollars. That was their real start. Six 

 years later, in 1896, they had paid off all 

 debt and sunk 2,000 dollars more in plant, 

 and that year from 500 breeding ducks 

 hatched about 21,000, selling 19,000 and real- 

 ising 7,000 dollars. In 1899 they raised about 

 35,000 ducklings, to produce which they em- 

 ployed 1,500 breeders, and were collecting 

 from these six or seven bushels of eggs every 

 day. The plant comprises several large brooder 



