CHAPTER XXI. 



RAISING DUCKS. 

 PROFITS IN DUCK RAISING. 



Most farmers have a prejudice against water-fowl, 

 especially ducks. They tolerate geese better than ducks, 

 because they will forage for themselves, and live wholly 

 on grass through tlie summer, after the goslings are 

 started. Ducks will not bear neglect so well: they are 

 more prone to wander and get lost or devoured in 

 swamps or brooks. They have a foolish way of drop 

 ping their eggs in water, and of following a brook, or 

 river, into neighboring farms; unless they have suitable 

 quarters, and receive regular attention, it is a good deal 

 of trouble to look after them. The half-starved duck 

 disposes of a good deal of corn at a single feed, remem- 

 bering the past and anticipating the future. The slip- 

 shod farmer is prejudiced against the bird, and will 

 have none of him. But the duck has so many good 

 qualities, matures so early, and furnishes so rare a re- 

 past, that the owner of a country home with cultivated 

 tastes can hardly afford to do without a duck-yard. 

 The flesh, in our esteem, is the greatest delicacy raised 

 upon the farm; and if they were much more troublesome 

 than we have ever found them, we should not hesitate 

 to keep them. The fact is, a large part of the trouble 

 is owing to sheer neglect, and the reputation of the bird 

 as a gross feeder is owing to irregular supplies of food. 

 If grain or other food is kept within reach, they devour 

 no more than other fowls that mature as rapidly. If in 

 suitable quarters and well fed, they get most of their 

 growth in four months, and can be marketed in August 

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