RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



Natural and Artificial Duck Culture. 



It is only within a few years that the public at large has 

 become awake to the importance of the poultry interests : u 

 the country. Formerly it was supposed to be of insignificant 

 proportions compared to the beef and pork product. But 

 recent statistics show that the poultry interests in magnitude 

 not only exceed either of the above, but are vastly on the 

 increase year by year. Yet, strange to say, the supply, enor- 

 mous as it is, does not keep pace with the demand. As a 

 natural consequence, we are obliged to import millions of 

 dozens of eggs from Europe, and carloads of poultry of all 

 descriptions from Canada. (December 21, 1888, a train of 

 twenty refrigerator cars loaded with dressed poultry, aggre- 

 gating 200 tons, arrived in Boston from Canada,— $50,000 

 worth of dressed poultry at one shipment.) Still the demand 

 goes on. Our large cities, which form the principal market 

 for poultry and eggs, are growing larger every year. The rich 

 men who inhabit them are growing richer and more numerous, 

 and are always ready to pay the poulteier a good round price 

 for a first-class article. Good poultry has not only become 

 an every day necessity to the well-to-do classes, but is a com- 

 mon article of diet at least six months of the year on the 

 workingman's table. It is everywhere recognized by physi- 

 cians as the best and most palatable, as well as the most 

 wholesome and nutritious, of all our flesh diets. 

 Duck Culture an Important Industry 



Duck culture now assumes a most important part in the 

 poultry business, and yet, until within a few years, people did 

 not suppose that ducks were fit to eat. But now the public 

 appetite is fast becoming educated to the fact that a nice, 

 crispy, roasted duckling of ten weeks old is not only a dish 

 fit for an epicure, but is far ahead of either turkey, chicken 

 or goose. As a natural consequence, the demand for good 

 ducks is rapidly increasing. One of the principal poultry 

 dealers in Boston assured me that his sales of ducks had nearly 

 doubled in five years. Twenty-five years ago, when growing 

 less than 1,500 ducks yearly, I was obliged to visit the city 



[ 9 ] 



