1092 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pam III. 



hteh and savoury flavour as the darker colours. Muscovy, and 

 otlier foreifjn si)ecies of the duck, are kept rather out of cu- 

 riosity than for the table. 



7501. The white Aylesbury are a beautiful and ornamental 

 stock, matching well in colour with the Enibden geese. They 

 are said to be early breeders. 



7502. The canvatt-hacked, bred only on the Potowmac and 

 Sustiuehanna rivers, are of very recent introiluction from 

 America, and are only to be found in a few places near Liver- 

 pool ; they are said to be the best in the world, and if so will 

 soon become better known. 



7503. The Muscovy duck [A. mosch'ita L.) is a native of Brazil, but domesticated in Europe. It is a 

 curious dark-coloured bird, distinguished by its naked face, kept more out of curiosity than use ; to be re- 

 tained in any place, they must be reared there from the egg, otherwise they will fly away. 



750*. Breeding. One drake is generally put to five ducks ; the duck will cover from eleven to fifteen 

 eggs, and her term of incubation is thirty days. They begin to lay in February, are very prolific, and are 

 apt, like the Turkey, to lay abroad, and conceal their eggs, by covering them with leaves or straws. The 

 duck generally lays by night, or early in the morning : white and light-coloured ducks produce similar 

 eggs ; and the brown and dark-coloured ducks, those of a greenish blue colour, and of the largest size In 

 setting ducks, it is considered safest to put light-coloured eggs under light ducks, and the contrary; as 

 there are instances of the duck turning out with her bill those eggs which were not of her natural 

 colour. 



7505. During incubation, the duck requires a secret and safe place, rather than any attendance, and 

 will, at nature's call, cover her eggs, and seek her food, and the refreshment of the waters. On hatching, 

 there is not often anecessity for taking away any of the brood, barring accidents ; and having hatched, 

 let the duck retain her young upon the nest her own time. On moving her with her brood, prepare a coop 

 upon the short grass, if the weather be fine, or under a shelter, if otherwise : a wide and flat dish of water, 

 often to be renewed, standing at hand ; barley, or any meal, the first food. In rainy weather particularly, 

 it is useful to clip the tails of the ducklings, and the surrounding down beneath, since they are else apt to 

 draggle and weaken themselves. The duck should be cooped at a distance from any other. The period 

 of her confinement to the coop depends on the weather and the strength of the ducklings. A fortnight 

 seems the longest time necessary ; and they may be sometimes permitted to enjoy the pond at the end of 

 a week, but not for too great a length at once, least of all in cold wet sveather, which will affect, and cause 

 them to scour, and appear rough and draggled. In such case they must be kept within a while, and have 

 an allowance of bean or pea meal mixed with their ordinary food. The meal of buck-wheat and the 

 former is then proi)er. The straw beneath the duck should be often renewed, that the brood may 

 have a dry and comfortable bed ; and the mother herself be well fed with solid corn, without an ample 

 allowance of which ducks are not to be reared or kept in perfection, although they gather so much 

 abroad. 



7506. Duck eggs are often hatched by hens, when ducks are more in request than chickens ; also as 

 ducks, in unfavourable situations, are the more easy to rear, as more hardy ; and the plan has no objec- 

 tion in a confined place, and with a small stock, without the advantage of a pond ; but the hen is much 

 distressed, as is sufficiently visible, and, in fact, injured, by the anxiety she suffers in witnessing the sup. 

 posed perils of her children venturing upon the water. 



7507. Ducks are fattened, either in confinement, with plenty of food and water, or full as well restricted 

 to a pond, with access to as much solid food as they will eat ; which last method is preferable. They 

 fatten speedily, in this mode, mixing their hard meat with such a variety abroad as is natural to them, 

 more particularly, if already in good case ; and there is no check or impediment to thrift from pining, but 

 every mouthful tells and weighs its due weight. A dish of mixed food is preferable to white corn, and 

 may remain on the bank, or rather in a shett, for the ducks. Barley, in any form, should never be used 

 to fatten ducks or geese, since it renders their flesh loose, woolly, and insipid, and deprives it of that high 

 savory flavour of brown meat, which is its valuable distinction ; in a word, rendering it chickeny, not un- 

 like in flavour the flesh of ordinary and yellow-legged fowls. Oats, whole or bruised, are the standard 

 fattening material for ducks and geese, to which may be added pea-meal, as it may be required. The 

 house-wash is profitable to mix up their food under confinement ; but it is obvious, whilst they have the 

 benefit of what the pond affords, they can be in no want of loose food. Acorns in season are much 

 affected by ducks which have a range ; and they will thrive so much on that provision, that the quantity 

 of fat will be inconvenient, both in cooking and upon the table. Ducks so fed are certainly inferior in 

 delicacy, but the flesh eats high, and is far from disagreeable. Fed on butcher's offal, the flesh resembles 

 wild fowl in flavour, with, however, considerable inferiority. Offal-fed duck's flesh does not emit the 

 abominable stench which issues from offal-fed pork. When live ducks are plucked, only a small quantity 

 of down and feathers should be taken from each wing. 



7508. Decoys for wild ducks. Wild ducks, and other aquatic birds, are frequently taken by the device 

 termed a decoy, which, in the low parts of Essex, and some other marshy districts, may be considered as 

 connected with husbandry, A decoy is a canal or ditch, provincially pipe of water {fig. 940.), with a grassy 



sloping margin (1) at its junction with a river or larger piece of water (8), to invite aquatic fowls to sit on 

 and dress their plumage ; but in other i)arts, covered with rushes and aquatic plants for concealment 

 Along the canal of the decoy are placed reed fences (2, 9.), to conceal the decoy-man and his dogs from the 

 sight of the ducks. There is an opening in this fence (3), where the decoy-man first shows himself to tn 

 birds to force them to take the water; and having taken it, the dog drives them up the canal, the roan 



