160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



DUCKS AND GEESE.^ 



JOHN H, ROBINSON, EDITOR OF FARM-POULTRY," BOSTON, MASS. 



To say that ducks and geese should be grown by more people, and 

 more extensively by many people who now grow them, is only to say 

 what is true as to the growing of all kinds of domestic birds. It is 

 only in a few special poultry growing districts in our own and other 

 countries that the land is producing as much poultry as it should. 



There is a widespread impression in this country that those who 

 produce poultry, and especially the farmers who produce the great 

 bulk of our general supply, provide liberally for themselves and 

 their families first; and that what is sold by farmers is all surplus 

 that the producers could not consume. The writer must admit that 

 until very recently he shared this impression as to the general fact, 

 although he knew that many producers did not use poultry and eggs 

 at all freely. But within a year his attention was directed to the 

 report of an agi'icultural survey which gave statistics for some six 

 hundred farms in a good farming community, near a number of 

 cities in another eastern state, which showed quite plainly that the 

 farmers of that section wei'e producing comparatively little poultry 

 and consuming less poultry and eggs than the average city family 

 in very moderate circumstances, — and that is not very much. The 

 average city family does not use these things very freely. It is the 

 well-to-do people and the high-priced restaurants and hotels and 

 the high-toned clubs that buy the best poultry products the year 

 round quite regardless of price. 



Turkeys are not adapted to farms as small as the average farm 

 in this State, but every farmer ought to be able to have for his own 

 table all the fowls, ducks and geese his family want. With other 

 meats at the prices which now prevail poultry grown at home should 

 be cheaper than most of the meats that we buy, though for those 

 who have to buy all kinds of meat it is not to be classed among the 

 cheap meats. The flesh of water fowl is more gamey than that of 

 fowls. It is often said that the meat of domestic duck-s and geese 

 retains too much of the flavor of highly flavored things which they 

 eat. This is the ease only when they are not managed i^roperly. 



> Crop Report for August, 1912. 



