150 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



As would be expected, the success of the big duck farms has 

 led many people with large capital to undertake to establish 

 duck farms on a still larger scale. But these undertakings do 

 not last long, because it is practically impossible to secure for 

 such a plant an organization as efficient as one developed by 

 the owner of a plant which has grown from small beginnings 

 under his own management. 



Description. A large duck farm is a very interesting place at any 

 time, but is most interesting at the height of the growing season, 



FIG. 137. Duck house and yards on seashore, Fishers Island, New York 



when all the operations in the business are going on at the same 

 time. The total number of birds on a farm at any time is very 

 much less than the product for the season, because the first ducks 

 hatched will have gone to market before the eggs which produce 

 the last are laid, but in flocks of more than 1 0,000 the impression 

 on the visitor is much the same, no matter what the numbers. 



Duck farms are of two types : those located on streams or 

 inlets have the yards for all but the smallest ducks partly in the 

 water ; the inland duck farms, on which the young ducks grown 

 for market are given no water except for drinking. Some of 

 the inland farms give the breeding stock access to streams and 



