parent ■wiVL set aa^n on other eggs ; and I have 

 thus known a single fowl to bring out three, and 

 even fear broods o!" young ducks in succession. 

 In that case, she should be repaid for her faith- 

 fulness by being richly fed. The young duck- 

 lings, in tbis climate, leave the shell on the twen- 

 ty-sixth day. The Muscovy set a few days longer. 

 A fowl of a tolerable size will cover from thir- 

 teen to fifteen eggs. After the eggs have been 

 four or five days under the hen. you may. in the 

 evening, examine the egss by the lisht of a can- 

 dle or lamp. Place the eggs longitudinally be- 

 tween the fore finger and thumb. If the egg be 

 likely to hatch, it will be of a dark color, with 

 streaks of red frequently perceptible : and the 

 cavity on the thick end will be somewhat en- 

 larged and transparent If it be a clear egg, it 

 will be wholly transparent, and ought to be re- 

 moved at once ; and it" it have not been kept too 

 long in the nest, it is still fit for use. In this 

 way, when several hens have been set nearly 

 at the same time, it will frequently be practica- 

 ble to remove a sufficient number of clear eggs, 

 so as to place a fresh setting of eggs, under one 

 or more of them. The Muscovy duck sets faith- 

 fully, and may as well be permitted to hatch 

 her owTi young. 



4. Method of destroying fowl-lice. — The in- 

 sects which infest the setting hens may be easi- 

 ly destroyed by thoroughly sprinkling the nest, 

 and wetting the fowl, even to the skin, with a 

 strong decoction, made by pouring hot water on 

 a handful of common leaf tobacco, mixed when 

 cold with a table spoonful of spirits of turpen- 

 tine, and double the quantity of gunpowder. It 

 ■will be well. also, occasionally to take away 

 their old nest and make a new one of fresh hay 

 or straw. 



■5. Duck-coop$, food, and manner of rearing 

 the young. — Let your coop be made pretty 

 large ; say three or four feet in length and three 

 in depth. Let it be %vell shingled, so as to ex 

 elude all water, and have a good pitch to%vard 

 the ftx>nL Let it be tight on three sides and 

 barred in front, with a slide below the lower 

 bar, so aa to retain the ducks in unfavorable 

 weather. A space of ten or twelve feet square, 

 formed of common boards set up edgewise, will, 

 when you have not much room in your yard, 

 suffice for fifty ducks. Keep making coops in 

 proportion as your ducks increase in numbers, 

 and endeavor to keep the diiferent sizes sepa- 

 rated. The first brood, early in the spring, re- 

 quires for a few days, the warmth of the hen's 

 body ; and she should not be made to take care 

 of more than twenty or thirty. A little later in 

 the season, the young that are then hatched do 

 not require the services of their foster-mother, 

 and may from the beginning be placed in a coop 

 by themselves, to the number of fifty. Young 

 Muscovy ducks may be treated in the same way ; 

 and they and the mongrels and English ducks, 

 may all be indiscriminately reared together. 



As soon as your young ducks are hatched, let 

 them be placed together, for a few hours, in a 

 basket containing some warm inside lining ; 

 and when they have sufficient strength, place 

 them with the hen in the coop. Feed them with 

 meat, or animal food of any kind, chopped fine 

 with a chopping-knife. For convenience, I have 

 tisually had it boiled. A little rice-flour or corn- 

 meal may be mixed with it, and the latter may 

 be increased, if you have but httle meat. Let 

 this be continued for three ■weeks, and they are 

 out of danger and can be raised on any kind of 

 food. Still it is to be observed that ducks in all 

 -{1270) 



cases thrive better on animal food, and where 

 this can be conveniently obtained, it may as well 

 be given them. Those planters who live near 

 our sea-coast, by running a tight board fence 

 across any small branch of salt water, and pla- 

 cing in the centre a fish-trap made of laths, can 

 easily procure a sufficient quantity of fishes and 

 crabs to feed all their young poultry. A man 

 •with a cast net could in half an hour do the same. 

 I have known persons in the interior of the coun- 

 try, sub.¥titute squirrels, rabbits, and even veni- 

 son ; and one gentleman fed his young ducks on 

 he flesh of alligators, thus rendering that which 

 was a nuisance, subservient to his profit. When 

 your young ducks begin to be tolerably feath- 

 I ered on the sides, which ■will be in five or six 

 weeks, they may then be turned into the com- 

 I mon poultrj--yard — always bearing in mind, that 

 I those which are best fed, and obtain most ani- 

 mal food, tlirive the fastest. 



I have not treated of diseases to which ducks 

 are subject: since, by the above treatment, I 

 have generally found them healthy. 



As this is a long essay, and may be too great 

 a tax on your readers to peruse, I would give 

 in a single line, the substance of my directions for 

 the successful rearing of young ducks : 



Give them animal food and keep them dry. 



EXPERIMENTER. 



^^ For a long time, and in many forms that 

 may not be readily traced to the time, the place, 

 and the occasion, our readers wiU get the bene- 

 fit, much or little, of our (to us) most gratifying 

 tour among the hospitable sons and no less hos- 

 pitable daughters of the South. 



At Mobile, for example, as early as the 8th 

 and 9th of April, at the table of C. M., Esq., 

 one of the true old Virginia game breed, ■we 

 feasted abundantly on strawberries and peas J 

 Yet, after a lapse of forty-three days — this be- 

 ing the 21st of May — they have not been placed 

 on the tables of the Hotels iu New- York. This 

 is mentioned to show the wonderful difference 

 of climate in our vastly extensive and extending 

 Country : but this is not what we would be at 

 At the same hospitable table we partook of a 

 most excellent kind of soup, new to us, called 

 '' Frexch Gumbo.'' The lady of the house (and 

 what house or table was ever worth mentioning 

 that had not a lady to govern and preside over 

 it), gave us the following : 



Receipt for French Gumbo. — Cut up one 

 large fowl, season it with salt and pepper, 

 drudge it weU ■with flour ; have ready a soup- 

 kettle, put in a table spoonful of butter, one of 

 lard, a handful of chopped onion ; fry the fowl 

 then to a good brown, add to this four quarts of 

 boiling water, cover close, let it simmer two or 

 three hours, then put in fifty oysters with their 

 liquor, a little thyme and parsley : just before 

 serving, stir in a table-spoonful of ihefilee pow- 

 der ; season high with cayenne pepper. 



N. B. Cold turkey and beef-steak make also 

 very good Gumbo. 



The Filee or Felee (or however else it may be 



