CHAPTER XXL 



SUCCESS WITH DUCKS. 



The outdoor exerciser, in a modified form, is especially 

 useful in commercial duck raising, an industry which 

 has already assumed enormous proportions and which 

 has come to stay ; for the Chinese, who, for thousands 

 of years, have made ducks a favorite source of food sup- 

 ply, knew what they were about, although Europeans 

 had, meanwhile, hastily concluded that they would not 

 pay as well as common fowls. 



There is no other valuable animal food produced that 

 is so cheaply raised as partly grown Pekin ducks by 

 wholesale, by modern methods, which insure quick 

 growth. On a small scale, without the benefits of care, 

 skill and system, they are not profitable, since, when 

 kept beyond a certain age, ducks of any breed will eat 

 their heads off. The ducklings need no apparatus for 

 exercise, being unlike chicks in this respect, for they 

 will shuffle around, even if kept in a very small space, 

 whether there is any incentive to move or not. They are 

 naturally exceedingly active when very young. Neither 

 do the laying ducks require special provision for exer- 

 cise during the laying season, provided they have unlim- 

 ited range and comparatively scanty feed during the 

 remainder of the year, so that they may be induced to 

 move about actively to forage on insects and vegetation. 



In this off season, they must not be kept under the 

 pressure of high feeding, which is advantageous to their 

 owner when the laying season approaches and early eggs 

 for hatching are desired. Now a good range, after the 



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