Food and Care 267 



of the yards that are most frequented by the 

 ducks. 



Young ducks should be fed from a shallow 

 trough, which should be kept as clean as possible. 

 (See Fig. 90.) Pure water and clean yards are prom- 

 inent essentials in suc- 

 cessful duck-rearing. It 

 is true that ducks will 

 make small ponds and 



, , , FIG. 90. A shallow feeding-trough. 



streams muddy and 



more or less filthy when they have access to them, yet 

 those that are confined in yards without a running 

 stream should be supplied with pure drinking-water. 

 If the young ducks do not have opportunity 

 to obtain for themselves green and animal food, 

 it should be supplied to them. Specialists fre- 

 quently feed young, rapidly growing ducks a ration 

 that consists of 10 or 20 per cent animal meal. 

 Rations which contain considerable animal meal 

 have proved superior to a purely vegetable diet. 

 "Rations containing animal food proved very 

 much superior for ducklings to rations of vege- 

 table origin which had, according to the ordinary 

 methods of estimation, practically the same nutri- 

 tive value. A ration of vegetable food supplemented 

 by bone ash proved much inferior to another ration 

 of similar 'composition/ in which three-eighths 

 of the protein came from animal food."* 



* Summary of Bulletin No. 171, New York Experiment Station. 



