RATIONS AND METHODS OF FEEDING 235 



America to-day feed them about the same as chickens. The prepared chick- 

 food mixtures are used for them with very satisfactory results. The half-wild 

 pheasants protected in the woods in some of the states often come to the farms 

 for food, especially in winter, when they sometimes take up their quarters 

 with the fowls. At planting time, too, they sometimes become quite as tame 

 as fowls. 



For ostriches. In South Africa, where ostrich farming is carried on more 

 extensively then in America, the most approved method of feeding is to pasture 

 the birds on alfalfa, supplementing this with occasional feeds of corn. For win- 

 ter feeding, or when pasture is short, hay, mangels, turnips, melons, etc. are used. 

 In feeding habits, ostriches resemble geese (on land) more than they do any other 

 poultry. 



RATIONS FOR DUCKS 



29. For ducklings. Corn meal i part, bran 2 parts ; add 5 per cent of beef 

 scrap and a little fine grit or coarse gravel ; give an occasional feed of vege- 

 tables or green food : feed five times a day until five weeks old, then three 

 times a day. Fatten on this, feeding all that the birds will eat. 



This is practically an irregular alternation of standard rations 2 and 3. It 

 is the ration used by one of the most successful of the smaller duck growers 

 of New England. On comparison of reports it appears to have been as good 

 a ration as any of the heavier rations following. One of the largest duck 

 growers on Long Island used for years this ration slightly modified by add- 

 ing small proportions of ground oats, middlings, or anything available. Such 

 additions to a simple standard ration vary the flavor, make it more appetizing, 

 induce the birds to eat more heartily, and (probably) add somewhat to its nutri- 

 tive quality. When such a ration is fed to ducklings intended to be marketed 

 'at about ten weeks, and kept closely confined, the necessary variation for those 

 to be grown for stock purposes is made, without altering the proportions of 

 the ration given, by simply putting the birds on pasture. 



30. James Rankings duck rations. First food for ducklings, corn meal, i 

 part ; bran, 4 parts ; low-grade flour to hold together, 5 per cent of grit or coarse 

 sand ; about the third day, add a little beef scrap and (cut) green rye ; feed five 

 times a day for a few weeks ; after that feed three times daily and gradually 

 substitute meal for bran, until at eight weeks the ration is three fourths meal 

 and the beef scrap increased to 10 per cent or more. Describing his fattening 

 ration separately, Mr. Rankin has given it as corn meal, 3 parts ; low-grade 

 flour, i part ; beef scrap, f part ; green stuff, i part ; fed three times a day, from 

 the eighth to the eleventh week. 



Compared with ration 29 this is a lighter ration at the beginning and a 

 heavier toward the finish of the period of making green ducks. In remarks 

 on ration 29 it was said that it appeared to give as good results as the heavier 

 rations. Results by rations 29 and 30 were practically the same. The infer- 

 ence is that the flour used in ration 30 at first was sufficient to supply much 

 of the deficiency in meal, and that when more meal was added, growth and 



