164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [rub. Doc. 



not important. A good mash which represents the average is made 

 of corn meal 3 parts, wheat bran 3 parts, low grade flour 2 parts, 

 beef scraps 1 part, root vegetables (cut) 1 part, cut alfalfa, clover 

 or green rye 1 part. This is fed twice a day, night and morning. 

 Some growers give a little cracked corn at noon to ducks that are 

 laying heavily. 



Duck eggs take four weeks to hatch. A mash the same as used 

 for the breeding stock may be given the young ducklings from the 

 start. It is customary to mix a little fine grit or coarse sand with 

 the feed for a few days, and occasionally afterwards if the birds 

 show sjonptoms of indigestion. This seems to be the more necessary 

 when the ducklings are confined to brooder houses or are quite 

 crowded in small bare yards than when they have a run on grass. 

 Some of the best young ducks the writer has ever seen never had 

 grit in the mash, but had plenty of green food at all times. 



When young ducks are closely confined the usual practice is to 

 feed five times a day for the first three or four weeks, then four 

 times a day for a like period, and after that three times daily. When 

 they have grass range three meals will be sufficient from the first. 

 For fattening, which usually begins about the eighth week, the ration 

 given above is changed to a fattening ration by omitting the wheat 

 bran and increasing the beef scrap. 



For green ducks the ducklings are killed at about ten weeks of 

 age. In the early part of the season, when the price is up and 

 likely to drop quickly at any time, ducks that are well grown may 

 be killed at nine weeks. Latei', when the price does not change 

 much, the grower is likely to keep, until they have made all the 

 weight they will at this stage, all ducks not needed to fill regular 

 orders. The weights of ducks at this age run from four to seven 

 pounds dressed. 



In New England ducks and geese are dry picked. Elsewhere in 

 the country they are mostly scalded or steamed to loosen the feathers 

 before picking. The consumption of green ducks is still limited 

 mostly to the large cities of the east, but is steadily increasing in 

 them and spreading to other places. As the prices are to some ex- 

 tent influenced by the prices of other meats, there is occasionally a 

 period and sometimes almost an entire season when the duck growers' 

 profits are small, but on the whole the business pays well. Enormous 

 quantities of green ducks go into cold storage in the latter part 

 of each season, when prices are at the lowest, to be taken out as 

 wanted through the period when no fresh green ducks are coming in. 

 The ducks in storage are usually owned by dealers who buy the 

 product of large growers. 



The flocks of geese from which most of our market geese come are 

 principally of mixed races. Some growers keep pure Toulouse, 

 Emden or African stock, but in going about goose-growing districts 



