198 SECOND THOUSAND QUESTIONS IN AGRICULTURE 



Milk for Ducks. 



Can I raise ducks on sour milk and have them do as well as if fed 

 beefscraps? 



It will depend on how the milk affects the bowels. If the ducks do 

 not scour, milk will do as well as beefscrap and make more bone. The 

 chemical difference between sour milk and buttermilk is little. Watch your 

 ducks to see if the milk affects their bowels too much, and if it does, keep 

 away a few days or add more middlings and less bran ; one of these things 

 is just about as high in price as the other, so it is just as cheap to feed 

 middlings as bran. 



The Quack-less Duck. 



I have heard of a duck which docs not quack. What is it? 



The exhibit of Muscovy or quack-less ducks at the Exposition poultry 

 show attracted much attention. In villages and towns, where the noise of 

 other ducks would be annoying to the neighborhood, the Muscovy is the 

 one. 



Fall Ducks and Geese. 



Is it possible to purchase day-old ducks or gccsc in the early fall and 

 can they be successfully raised at that season? 



It is possible to produce duck and goose eggs that are fit for hatching 

 in the early fall, but only a very few breeders understand how to do so; 

 besides, at that season of the year the demand for day-old ducklings and 

 goslings is so limited it is practically impossible to find any one prepared 

 to supply them. If hatched from good fertile eggs ducks and geese may 

 be raised in California at any season of the year, but abundant shade is 

 absolutely necessary in hot weather. 



Goslings Need Digestible Feed. 



What is the proper feed and care for goslings? 



The feed for goslings for ten days or two weeks should be something 

 easy to digest and not very much of it at one time. Bread soaked in 

 milk, and the extra milk squeezed out, a little rolled oats, chopped lettuce, 

 and a little milk curd are all good, not forgetting to add a little coarse 

 sand to the feed, or in the absence of sand a little fine chick grit. Give 

 warm water with the chill taken off, to drink at the same time food is 

 served. They need none at any other time, unless weather is hot. Keep 

 moderately warm at night, but a dry bed of straw is really the best, with 

 a cover of some kind ; and last, but not least, provide shade for the day 

 time. A dry bed and shade are the most important things to remember in 

 the care of goslings, for one hour in a hot sun will cause nice little goslings 

 to fade away before your eyes. 



Selling Goose Feathers. 



I have some Ai goose feathers which I should like to sell, but can find 

 no market for them. 



The Sunset Feather Co. and the Crescent Feather Co., of this city, 

 buy feathers. The former company pays 27 cents per pound for goose 



