RAISING DUCKS. 229 
ing; the feathers are then loose and ‘are picked easily 
and without injury. This will considerably increase the: 
yield of feathers, and will prevent a useless loss; other- 
wise the loose feathers from twenty ducks will be found 
spread over their whole range. 
It by no means follows because ducks are a water-fow] 
that much water is required to xaise them. Yet this is 
a very common impression, and multitudes of farmers 
and villagers deny themselves the enjoyment and profit 
of a flock of ducks because they have no pond or stream 
near the house. It is true that adult ducks will get a 
good deal of their living out of a water privilege, if they 
have one. It is not true that water to swim in is essen- 
tial to their profitable keeping. They want some range 
and grass and good fresh water to drink every day. 
Ordinarily, ducks can be profitably raised wherever hens 
can be. They make a pleasing variety in the poultry- 
yard, and all who have room for them can enjoy them. 
The first thing in raising ducks is to get them out of 
the shell, and for incubation we decidedly prefer hens 
to ducks. They sit more steadily, and take much better 
care of the young. The wetting of the ducks’ eggs daily 
in the last two weeks of incubation is even more neces- 
sary than for hens’ eggs. This is sometimes done by 
sprinkling water upon them, but we think it better to 
take them from the nest and put them in a basin of 
tepid water about blood-warm. This moistens the whole 
shell without chilling the embryo life within. The 
ducklings out of the shell may be allowed to remain 
upon the nest with the hen for a day. The hen may 
then be put upon a grass-plat, under a coop, where the 
ducklings can go in and out at pleasure. Or if the hen 
is allowed liberty, the ducklings should be confined in a 
small pen from which they cannot escape. A dozen in 
a pen ten feet square is enough for the first two weeks. 
For water they only want a shallow pan—so shallow 
