RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



muscles or likes his bed in the momiflg he had better choose 

 a different occupation.' 



I have in mind several instances where under the most 

 promising and favorable conditions, men have made complete 

 failures of the business through sheer laziness. A young man 

 called on me a few days ago, saying that he wanted a little 

 information. He had been growing from twelve to fifteen 

 thousand ducklings for the market yearly. He said that his 

 eggs were not hatching very well and that his ducklings were 

 languid in their movements and light colored and that the 

 mortality reached fifteen per cent. He was running two 

 large Mammoth Incubators. Now, there was something 

 wrong, as five per cent is about a normal mortality ; the trouble 

 must be in the eggs. I asked him how he fed. He said, "the 

 same as he had fed during the winter and the ducks seemed 

 to do well on it. I said, "do you know that what would be 

 ample for your ducks when in a quiescent state during the 

 winter would not be sufficient for them to produce an egg 

 each day weighing one-fourth pound, an egg so highly vital- 

 ized and fertile that it would hatch out a vigorous young bird, 

 bound to live under all circumstances. You must turn in a 

 food that will savour largely of the ingredients of which the 

 egg is composed. In short, you must concentrate your food. 

 Cut out the beet pulp and one-third of the wheat-bran; in- 

 crease the corn-meal and Red-dog flour a little and the beef 

 scrap and all animal food, at least one-half." 



I had the same experience with a young man two years 

 ago who blamed his incubator. He had just bought a large 

 Mammoth. I told him that his eggs were at fault and that 

 he must change his feed. It was astonishing how well his 

 machine hatched after that. Experience of this kind shows us 

 how often success or failure in this business hangs upon things 

 of so trivial a nature as to escape our notice.. A sufficient 

 proof that we must exercise our brains a little as well as our 

 muscle, in the duck business. 



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