RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



themselves. You advise beginning small, and meekly suggest 

 the possibility of failure through inexperience. The incredu- 

 lous smile that plays over their features informs you that 

 advice is wasted. "Why, haven't I read up all the poultry 

 journals and got the whole thing down fine?" ; 



Others, still; who, from close confinement at sedenUry 

 work in the city, are anxious to engage in a business which 

 promises equally to restore their health as well as to provide 

 tbrm a livelihood. These invalids come out with their ox- 

 h.-usted energies and dilapidated constitutions, to engage in a 

 business which, to insure success, requires a minuteness of 

 detail and intensity of application second to none. They are 

 unequal to the six or eight hours required of them on a revolv- 

 ing stool in the counting-room in the city, but are equal to the 

 fourteen and sixteen hours indispensable to the poultry busi- 

 ness in the country. Is it strange that a large proportion of 

 these men fail ? 



Others, still, come to us wishing to engage in the busi- 

 ness, at the same time candidly acknowledging their complete 

 ignorance and inexperience. They frankly state their circum- 

 stances. They are poor, with families to support, and are 

 not afraid of work, throwing themselves, as it were, upon one's 

 mercy. They seek a good, healthy and fairly profitable occu- 

 pation in which they can cultivate the physique and morals 

 ®f their children away from the temptations of city life. Now 

 you take kindly to such men; readily forfeit any advantages 

 which may accrue to yourself through, want of candor on your 

 part, gauge their, calibre, and to the best of your ability meas- 

 ure their chances of success, and give them the best advice 

 you can, which advice usually is to begin small, — say with one 

 machine, buildings in proportion, and increase their plant as 

 their experience and judgment dictates. 



Raise Ducks and Chicks 



But the reader will say: "What has all this to do with 

 duck-culture?" Simply this: It is to give the would-be 

 poultry enthusiast some idea of what he has to contend 

 with before he begins. To convince him that this is no 

 child's play — that the care of young ducks and chicks means 

 early hours and late. The closest confinement and applica- 

 tion is required for at least six months of the year, and if 

 he is at all afraid of hard work or of soiling his fingers, he 

 had better stop where he is. The theory that the poultry 

 business furnishes a good occupation for little boys and girls, 

 superannuated old men and invalids, has long since exploded. 

 ,We advise people to secure a fair share of health before they 



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