RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



In regard to incubating the eggs, where we used forty 

 lamps to our incubators, now, one little heater is as J easily 

 cared for as one lamp, not only reducing the labor of incu- 

 bating to a minimum but diminishing aH danger from fire. 



In those days, during the summer months, the supply 

 of ducklings would exceed the demand; the market, was glutted 

 and the prices sometimes fell to eleven i4nd. twelve cents, per 

 pound for ducklings. Now, the market is eagerly watched 

 by- cold storage men and at the least sign of depression, the 

 surplus stock is absorbed at once so' that green ducks readily 

 command twenty cents per pound at all sfeas'ons of the year. 



Of course, this state of things is highly gratifying to the 

 grower, assuring him immense profits and a permanent busi- 

 ness. 'When interviewing the principal Boston marketmen a 

 short time ago, they all assured me that {heir sales of green 

 ducklings had more than doubled during, the past five years; 

 There are now more than one -hundred and fifty thousand 

 ducklings grown each season, within a few miles of Boston 

 and yet the demand is still in excess of the supply. The 

 demand for these birds is also increasing in our large hotels, 

 in private families and is rapidly supplanting the call for 

 capons and roasters ; in fact, there is no business on the farm 

 or in any line of agriculture that is so promising or will make 

 such profitable returns for the capital invested as the growing 

 of ducks for the market. It is bound to supercede the chicken 

 business. 



I am often asked which is the most profitable — the grow- 

 ing of ducks or chickens. Of course, I have but one answer — 

 ducks. Why? — for two reasons — you can always grow as 

 many pounds on a duckling in ten weeks as you can on a 

 chicken in twenty weeks and as you have animal life to sus- 

 tain but half as long in growing the duck as in the chick, the 

 pound of duck costs you at least two cents less than that of 

 the chick. Again, you can grow but one crop of chicks in one 

 season, as it requires the whole season to grow roasting chicks 

 or capons but you can easily grow two crops of ducklings on 

 the same plant, thus doubling your profits. 



Now, all this may seem very alluring to the amateur or 

 the young beginner, but there is another side to this question — 

 it is not all fun. He will find it far different from spending 

 six hours on a revolving stool in the city and having eighteen 

 hours to himself for rest, sleep, and recreation, for he must 

 spend at least six months of the year from twelve to fifteen- 

 hours each day in hard labor with a good deal of thinking 

 in between and if he is at all lazy or averse to using his 



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