NATURAL LAWS. 



37 



age and sells for thirty cents. You will say a duck eats 

 more. Of course they do, eat twice as much, even at that 

 "there is sixty cents profit in a duck, and it costs only thirty 

 cents to feed a ten weeks duckling- and a ten week chick 

 costs fifteen cents each, so you see there is a heap of differ- 

 ence. Duck business pays well if the proper incubators and 

 brooders are used, and a good manager, who understands 

 his business, is at the head of the concern. 



How to Start in the Duck Business. 



First of all I want to say that the duck business is yery 

 hard work. Much harder than the poultry business on a 

 very large scale. I hatched and raised 26,000 ducklings and 

 chickens in 1898 with twelve helpers at the Chatham Fields 

 Duck Ranch, the largest ranch in the west. We fed half a 

 ton of ground food per day, mixing mash food and wheeling 

 it in the yards all over a ten acre field where the ducklings 

 are raised for market. We ran thirty-one incubators, a 

 hatch coming off every day for eight months. I personally 

 ran the incubators and was manager of the plant. I had to 

 oversee the whole business, and it kept me on the jump day 

 and night. So you see it is no small undertaking and only 

 strong, hardy men can stand it on a large scale. If only a 

 few hundred are raised any lady who likes the business can 

 manage it, and for that matter, only those who like the 

 poultry business can make it a success. 



How to Manage Ducks. 



Above all buy fifty to 100 ducks early hatched, and one 

 drake to five ducks. Fifty may run in one pen. Suppose 

 you buy your ducks in the fall. As soon as cold weather 

 comes on, start feeding them all they want to eat twice a 

 day bran and ground feed half and half. Keep grit and 

 oyster shells in boxes and a pail of water to each pen, every 

 time you feed. At night see that they have a good bedding 



