CHAP, xiii.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 277 



be left entirely to their own efforts ; but — 

 while stores — should always have a full 

 morning meal of chopped lettuces, half-ripe 

 buckwheat, with any garden-stuff, or kitchen- 

 offal, and at night, boiled potatoes with some 

 corn; for, if their flesh is intended to be 

 firm and well flavoured, care should be taken 

 to keep them always in good condition. 



At a more advanced season, acorns are 

 very fattening, and impart a high flavour to 

 the flesh. They have, indeed, been recom- 

 mended to be given in a pounded state to 

 ducklings : those persons forgetting, at the 

 same time, that acorns are not then ripe, nor 

 perhaps until six months afterwards ; but 

 when groiun ducks are to he fattened, both the 

 morning and evening meal should, during a 

 fortnight or three weeks, consist of oats; for 

 barley — which some people recommend, in 

 consequence of its being more nutritive — 

 renders the flesh insipid, or what the poulterers 

 term " chickeny," and should never be used 

 in the fatting of either geese or ducks. 



In giving oats, it is a good plan to put 

 them, whole and unbroken, into a shallow pan 

 of clear water ; as, this being their natural 



