PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



that they cannot swim, and in which they can wade at 

 pleasure. The water should be changed often and kept 

 in good drinking condition. For the first food nothing 

 is better than the yolk of hard-boi]ed eggs or boiled 

 liver, chopped very fine. The food had better all be 

 cooked for the first week. It may then gradually be 

 changed to coarse scalded Indian meal, oatmeal, wheaten 

 grits, or rice, as suits the convenience of the feeder. 

 Bread-crumbs and sour milk are excellent food, as are 

 angle-worms and snails. Ducklings are quite as good as 

 chickens at devouring insects, and nothing seems to 

 harm them but rose-bugs, against which they should be 

 jealously guarded. For this reason they should be kep 

 away from grape-vines and other plants specially attrac- 

 tive to these insects. As the ducklings grow older they 

 may have more liberty and a greater variety of food. If 

 they have not plenty of grass, its place should be sup- 

 plied by lettuce, onions, cabbage, or other green succu- 

 lent food. If you desire exhibition birds of the largest 

 size, it is particularly important that the ducklings 

 should be fed regularly, and at frequent intervals, hav- 

 ing all the food they can digest. Five times a day is 

 none too frequent feeding. We have usually succeeded 

 quite as well with ducks as with chickens in a villnge 

 yard. When grown, we give them a larger range. 



AN ARTIFICIAL DUCK-POND. 



Ducks and geese may be raised successfully without 

 any pond or stream; yet some prefer to give them an 

 abundance of water, and such can make an artificial 

 pond on the plan shown next page. This is a wooden 

 box ten inches deep and four feet square, or it may be 

 two feet wide and six or eight feet long. This is set in 



