46 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE.. 



Jan. 1 



summer, he told me there was a duck-ranch 

 newly started, not very far away, and he had 

 been told they had been running it on a very 

 large scale, and he suggested that we drive 

 over and see it. I told him I was always in- 

 terested in ducks, because one of my first ))oy- 

 hood ventures was setting some duck eggs, 

 that we found at our covmtry store, under a 

 hen. After they were hatched out I made a 

 miniature pond for them, and the antics of 

 those ducklings in the water was one of the 

 joys of my childhood. Finally a big cat dis- 

 covered they were "good to eat," and my 

 duck speculation suddenly played out. 



Well, friend Park and I found the place 

 where a lot of new buildings had just been 

 put vip, and a great lot of duck pens were 

 made on the side-hills sloping down to a pond 

 of water. Each enclosure had a building for 

 shelter and also included a portion of the 

 pond, so they could all get into the water 

 when they felt so inclined. As we drove up 

 and asked permission to look over the plant 

 I said to the manager, "Why. my friend, 

 how many ducks have you here all together?" 



"Well," stranger, to be exact, there are, 

 as nearly as I can make out, just now 9987 

 ducks all told, big and little." 



"Whew! Can't you manage somehow, 

 by stretching the figures a little, to call it an 

 even iO, 000?" 



"Well, I suppose I might if I tried hard. 

 Come to think of it, I have not been down 

 to look at the incubators for a couple of 

 hours; and I should not be surprised at all if 

 thei'e were enough hatched out by this time 

 to make up the 10,000, and may be a little 

 more." 



Well, this immense ranch, although it had 

 been running only a few months, was a 

 grand success — that is, so far as we could 

 discover. It seems here they did not allow 

 the little ducks to go into the water. I do 

 not remember the reason why, and perhaps 

 they did not tell us. The little ducks, like 

 the big ones, have a building for shelter, and 

 this building is divided off so there are, per- 

 haps, only forty or fifty ducks in a pen. 

 Each pen has a poultry-netting inclosure out- 

 doors, so the ducklings can go out whenever 

 they feel inclined. Most of them were out- 

 doors, stretched out in the sun; but when 

 the sun came out too hot, some of them 

 would go over to a shady place provided for 

 them. They were all so healthy and strong 

 I began to be a little suspicious. Said 1, 

 "Why, my friend, with all these hundreds 

 and thousands, you certainly must have some 

 sick or ailing ducklings. Where are they?" 



"Oh! they are off at the hospital. Just as 

 soon as a duck shows any weakness or indis- 

 position it is put off by itself, if there is any 

 possible chance of contagion. If you want 

 to see the hospital it is over this way." 



Well, out of 10,000 (perhaps only half of 

 that number little ones), there were, maybe, 

 forty or fifty sick ones. There were a few 

 almost dead, an^ some of them, evidently, 

 had not decided whether they would live or 

 die; and then there were quite a few that 

 were getting so as to run about. These were 



sorted out and put into a convalescent-pen; 

 and when they showed full health and vigor 

 they were allowed to go with the others. I 

 do not know what the average moi'tality is, 

 but I think it is not very much after they 

 get beyond a certain age. I can not tell you 

 any thing about the profits of such an insti- 

 tution; but I presume that, where intelligent- 

 ly managed, and when the market price is 

 fair, it pays very well; but I do not think 

 any man living can run such an institution 

 successfully until he has commenced on a 

 small scale and worked up; and unless he is 

 right on hand, and on the alert, with the 

 aid of all that modern science can give him, 

 he is very apt to have a sudden collapse in 

 his finances. Whenever great multitudes of 

 domestic animals are brought together on a 

 small area, contagious diseases are almost 

 sure to break out. But it is encouraging to 

 know that modern science and skill are mak- 

 ing headway. 



We can grow ducks by the thousands; we 

 can manage the hog cholera, and even tuber- 

 culosis in cattle; and I think it is accomplish- 

 ed along the line in which these people have 

 succeeded with their duck-farm. Last, and 

 not least, skill and. science seem to be dem- 

 onstrating that we can take a great crowd 

 of men into a malarious locality like that of 

 Panama, and so manage that the average 

 mortality will not be greater than in what 

 are called healthy localities in the North. 

 May God l)e praised for what has been ac- 

 complished by earnest study and careful ex- 

 periments. 



RATS — WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 



I have just asked our Ohio Experiment 

 Station to advise us in regard to getting rid 

 of rats; and I think it high time that the De- 

 partment at Washington should send out a 

 bulletin advising farmers as to how they can 

 best manage the rat problem. If any of our 

 readers have had experience in banishing 

 rats by the use of ferrets, we should be glad 

 to hear from them. Some years ago we 

 used a ferret, but the rats came right back 

 soon after the ferrets had been taken off; 

 and it is something of a care and responsi- 

 bility to keep ferrets on the premises. 



MORE ABOUT THE RAT BUSINESS. 



The following comes from our good friend 

 R. H. Lodge, Silver Lake, O. 



Take a large iron kettle to the place where the rats 

 run, and fill it half full of rye and chaff. Then a board 

 is placed with one end on the kettle and the other on 

 the floor. In two or three days all the rats on the 

 premises come there to eat. Then the rye and chaff 

 are removed and water put in, and some chaff scat- 

 tered on it. The rats jump in as usual, are drowned, 

 and are taken out every morning and buried. Over 

 200 have been caught thus within three weeks. 



Read 



the ad. in the Dec. 15th issue about bee- 

 goods and specialties from A. MEES, 

 Herenthals, Belgium. Write for catalog 

 or for wholesale prices. 



