146 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



After the ducklings are three or four weeks old, they may be 

 given as much freedom as old ducks. Unless natural food is 

 very abundant, they should be fed some grain for a while. 

 Ducks grown in this way cannot be sold to advantage as green 

 ducks. At this stage of growth they cannot be collected from 

 small flocks and marketed in condition to bring the prices paid 

 for those from the special duck farms, and as it costs the farmer 

 little or nothing to keep his ducks until mature, it is usually 

 more profitable for him to do so than to sell them earlier. 



FIG. 132. Duck farms at Speonk, Long Island 



On a farm near a market where there is a good demand for 

 green ducks it might pay very well to grow several hundred 

 a year. On this scale the methods should be similar to those 

 used on the special duck farms, except that the hatching might 

 be done with hens. It would not do to let the ducks run about 

 as recommended for stock which is to be kept until mature, be- 

 cause then they would not be fat at the age for killing them. 



MARKET DUCK FARMS 



History. The growing of ducks for the New York City 

 market began on Long Island at a very early stage of speciali- 

 zation in poultry culture. ' Many farmers there produced a few 

 hundred ducks for this market each year, and found it very 



