286 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



try, in fact, will devour so much or feed so 

 grossly. But certain moderate limits are req- 

 uisite for their excursion, for otherwise they 

 will gradually learn to absent themselves alto- 

 gether, and acquire semi-wild habits ; so that, 

 when required to be put up for feeding or im- 

 mediate sale, they are then found wanting. 

 Ducklings too early allowed their liberty on 

 large pieces of water, are exposed to so many 

 enemies, both by land and water, that few reach 

 maturity, and even if some are thus fortunate, 

 they are ever after indisposed to return to their 

 discipline and regular habits of the farm-yard. 

 The best situation, therefore, is in a medium 

 letween such uncontrolled liberty and the close 

 confinement of a yard. They may be kept in 

 health, indeed, within small inclosures, by a 

 a good system of management, though we fear 

 not with profit, which is the point to which all 

 our advice must tend. 



FATTENING. 



According to Gervase Markham, pulse or any 

 l.ind of grain will fatten ducks in a fortnight. 

 \Ve are not of that opinion ; and we think if he 

 had tried it, he would have found that his recipe 

 v/as not always successful. 



Ducks are fattened, either in confinement, 

 v, ith plenty of food and water, or full as well re- 

 stricted to a pond, with access to as much solid 

 i')od as they will eat. They fatten speedily by 

 nixing their hard meat, as an Englishman 

 would say, with such variety abroad as is nat- 

 ural to them, more particularly if in good con- 

 dition, and there is no check or impediment to 

 thrift, from pining, for every mouthful tells and 

 weighs. A dish of mixed food, if preferred to 

 whole grain, may remain on the bank, or, rather 

 in a shed, for the ducks. "I must here men- 

 tion a fact," says Mowbray, "which I have ei- 

 t her actually verified, or suppose that I have ver- 

 iiled. Barley, in any form, should never be used 

 in fattening aquatics,- ducks or geese, since it 

 renders their flesh loose, woolly, and insipid, 

 and deprives it of that high, savory flavor of 

 brown meat which is its valuable distinction ; in 

 a word, rendering it chickeny, not unlike in flavor 

 the flesh of ordinary and yellow-legged fowls." 

 Oats and corn are the standard material for 



ducks and geese, to which may be added boiled 

 potatoes and Indian meal, or ship stuffs, mixed 

 as it may be required. Liver boiled and chop- 

 ped fine is a good condiment, and well relished 

 by ducks. In England they are fattened on 

 ground malt, mixed up with water and milk. 



When ducks are confined to fatten, or other- 

 wise, it is well to give them sand, or brick 

 pounded fine and mixed with their food, and 

 occasionally earth-worms. If their droppings 

 are too loose and watery, mix a little forge-water 

 with their food ; this will also cure the relax in 

 any other sort of fowls. 



A deceased friend of the author, who was 

 very curious in these matters, and besides a 

 lover of the good things of this world, used to 

 feed his ducks, ten or twelve days previous to 

 killing them, with celery chopped fine, to give 

 them a flavor, which he assured us rendered 

 their flesh but little inferior to the famous Can- 

 vas-back ducks. 



That the food on which fowls are fed has a 

 tendency to impart a flavor to their flesh, and 

 even to the eggs, is obvious from a fact related 

 to us, not long since, by a friend. He said some 

 onions, partly decayed, were thrown into a yard 

 where he had some fowls confined, of which 

 they ate considerable. A few days after, he was 

 surprised to find his eggs tasted so strongly of 

 onions that they could not be eaten. It is also 

 well known that when fowls are fed on fish, their 

 flesh has always a fishy taste. 



Ducks are so very greedy that they often de- 

 vour a whole fish or a frog, which hurts them 

 very much, if they do not immediately throw it 

 up. They are particularly fond of meat, which 

 they eat with avidity, even when tainted ; slugs, 

 spiders, toads, insects, all suit their ravenous ap- 

 petite. They therefore are, of all the birds in 

 the poultry-yard, those that do the greatest serv- 

 ice in a garden, by destroying insects which do 

 so much damage, did not their own voracious- 

 ness cause other inconveniences, which more 

 than balance this advantage. 



Cobbett advises feeding them on "grass, corn, 

 cabbages, and lettuces, and especially buck- 

 wheat, cut when half ripe, and flung down in 

 the haulm. This makes fine ducks. Ducks 

 will feed on garbage and all sorts of filthy things. 



