608 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



cal powere and development, is as nnjust in it- 

 eelf, as it is inexpedient and pernicious as re- 

 gards the welfare of American society. In that 

 Department of the Farmers' Library then, 

 which is set apart for Housewives and their 

 concertt, there shall at least be one place reser- 

 ved for registering the merits and virtues of such 

 as in the performance of their housewifely du- 

 ties, may have most eminently deserved to have 

 it said of them: 



" Many daughters have done virtuouslj', but 

 thou excellest them all." 



Who will suggest a subject and aid us in the 

 performance of this promise ? We pan.se for 

 a reply. 



A SUCCESSFUL METHOD OF RAISING DUCKS. 

 From the Southern Agriculturist. 



Charleston, February, 1833. 



Believing it to be the duty of every individ- 

 ual to contribute for the benefit of society, any 

 information he may possess, however small, 

 and on subjects ever so humble ; and having for 

 several years past been in the habit of seeking 

 recreatiou during those hours which were not 

 devoted to severer studies and labors, in a vari- 

 ety of experiments on subjects of Natural His- 

 torj', I propose giving you the result of some ex- 

 periments in raising ducks, which w-ere carried 

 on during a number of years, and which finally 

 eventuated in complete success. 



It is sometimes beneficial to examine the 

 causes of our failures, and it atfords me pleasure 

 at this moment in retracing the steps by which, 

 after many disappointm^its, I gradually accom- 

 plished the objects to which my inquiries and 

 experiments were directed. As an account of 

 the process by which I arrived at these success- 

 ful results may not be uninteresting to tho.se of 

 your readers who devote themselves to rural 

 pursuits, and who pride themselves on having a 

 well-stocked poultrj-yard, I hope it may be no 

 tax upon their time and patience, if I go some- 

 what into detail. 



During many years I was struck wth the gen- 

 eral want of success which attended the raising 

 of this species of poultry. Not one-sixth of the 

 young were ever raised — they appeared to be 

 subject to innumerable diseases. Those that es- 

 caped w^ere stunted in their growth, and did not 

 arrive at full size till they were many months 

 old. The general complaint among farmers and 

 planters was, that this, the most valuable of our 

 poultry, was a puny bird, hard to raise, and sub- 

 ject to many disca-scs. They could raise fowls 

 and even turkeys, but there was no certainty 

 with regard to the duck. 



Desirous of investigating the causes of a fail- 

 ure in raising a bird which in its wild state is 

 very hardy — which, although exposed to all the 

 vicissitudes of the weather, raises large broods 

 of young, I procured several ducks, determined 

 to pursue my experiments in various ways till I 

 should either be successful or be satisfied that in 

 a state of dome.stication, there existed obstacles 

 to their successful rearing which no foresight or 

 care could prevent. 



At first I adopted the usual mode of giving 

 them access to as great a body of water as I 

 could provide for them in the yard. I therefore 

 _ (1268) 



had an artificial pond made near their coops, 

 to which they could resort as often as they chose ; 

 here they amused themselves at all hours of the 

 day, in dabbling around the edges of the pool, 

 and in swimming and diving in the water; but 

 they did not grow — they were .subject to cramps 

 and fits, and one after another died, till I began 

 to think that water was not their proper ele- 

 ment. I varied their food — gave them rice-flour, 

 corn-grist, boiled potatoes, hominj', bran, and 

 many kinds of vegetable food, bat with the same 

 results — and of a hundred young that were 

 hatched, I scarcely raised a dozen. 1 then be- 

 gan to mix with their food various medicinal 

 herbs, believing that this might correct some 

 deleterious properties of their food, but it was to 

 no avail. I next procured the different varie- 

 ties of ducks for breed, thinking that perhaps 

 one kind might be better suited to the climate 

 and tl\e confinements of the poultry-yard than 

 another ; but I was soon convinced that my want 

 of success was not owing to my breed of ducks. 

 Several years passed away and left me pretty 

 much where I began, and I was almost ready 

 to abandon any farther attempts at raising the 

 duck. 



The thought at last occurred to me that in the 

 food with which we usually fed this species of 

 poultry, we departed widely from nature, and 

 that, although the old ducks in their wild state 

 fed on rice and the seeds of various grasses that 

 are found along the edges of the rivers, brooks 

 and ponds, yet, that at the spring of the year, 

 when the young wild-ducks are hatched, there 

 are few seeds ripe, and it is questionable whether 

 at that early age they feed at all upon grain or 

 seeds. There appears in the digestive organs 

 of these young birds something unsuited to 

 this kind of food — it passes through them with- 

 out affording much nourishment. I had ascer- 

 tained by dissection that their gizzards were 

 filled not with vegetable food, but with the frag- 

 ments of small craw-fish, worms, and various 

 aquatic insects, as well as the spawn of fishes, 

 and I determined in the following year to try the 

 etl'ects of animal food. In due time my young 

 ducks were hatched, beef was given tbem at 

 first, after having been chopped very fine ; this 

 they devoured greedily, and eat it preference to 

 all kinds of vegetable Ibod. The effects upon 

 their health and growth was immediate and sur- 

 prising ! They appeared to grov/ faster than 

 any other poultry — in a few weeks they were 

 out of danger, and in a few months fit for the 

 table. As beef was expensive, I tried cheaper 

 kinds of food, such as the ha.slet of animals, crabs, 

 fishes, &c. The result was equally favorable. 

 I was now satisfied that in the article of food the 

 end is attained by simply following nature, and 

 giving the young ducks animal food. 



But although my experiment was thus far fa- 

 vorable, I found that many of my young ducks 

 died after having been suffered to go in the dews 

 and water, and that after many showers of rain 

 they became thoroughly wet, and that when 

 showers were succeeded by hot suns, they were 

 subject to a disease of some apoplectic charac- 

 ter, or a coiip de soleil which killed numbers. — 

 Here I was much puzzled. I had succeeded in 

 one instance by following Nature, but I found 

 that I could not carry my theory through, and 

 that water affected the domesticated duck very 

 differently from what it did the snme bird iu its 

 wild state. The fact was not unknown to me 

 that the down of young wild-dacks is almost im- 

 pervious to water ; they are exposed to dews 



