RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



versed and this ; is natural. In breeding down, the smallest 

 are naturally selected, as, breeders and in breeding u& the 

 largest and most vigorous are selected. 



Mallard Duck 



Our best ornithologists have long conceded the point that 

 all of our large breeds of ducks are descended from the wild 

 Mallard, from the fact that specimens have often been found 

 among them, white in color, even particolored, with all the 

 Mallard characteristics and that the hybrids are all fertile 

 The Mallard is a denizen of the northern regions of the entire 

 ■Globe from Labrador on our continent to Siberia in Europe 

 and Asia. It is a beautiful bird and as a progenitor of our 

 3arge breeds of ducks is a universal success. 



I was very much pleased with the Pekin ducks. They 

 not only layed some weeks earlier than any other breed I 

 Tiad ever kept, but were precocious, maturing earlier than 

 «ither of the other breeds, excepting the Cayugas, there being 

 hut little difference between the latter and the Pekins, but 

 the Pekins laying some weeks sooner, it gave us control of 

 the early spring markets, which are by far the most profitable 

 •of the year. 



Disinfecting 



My neighbors had become much interested in the busi- 

 ness and often visited me, and were not backward in giving 

 their opinions. They predicted failure for me, giving as rea- 

 sons that the market would soon be glutted with so much 

 of that kind of stuff, for poultry never could be as good 

 grown in that unnatural way, and that if I kept on growing 

 those ducks in the same yard, year after year, the land would 

 eventually get poisoned, and then disease would clean me out. 



But I had thought this thing all over before laying out 

 my yards. I knew that reversing land and cropping it would 

 ■disinfect it, so a crop of ducks is always followed by a crop 

 of something else ; and thus I succeeded each season in get- 

 ting two crops of ducks and two crops of either rye, barley, 

 or oats, so that the land was not poisoned, and was still 

 •growing its complement of large, fat ducks every year, and 

 as I had set it to plum trees, it was beginning to yield fine, 

 luscious plums. Neither was the market glutted, as the de- 

 mand was far in excess of the supply. The way of growing 

 ■did not seem to be any objection, as the marketmen were 

 willing to pay me, at least, two to four cents per pound more 

 than they could possibly get for those grown in the natural 

 way. 



Perhaps a word here would not be amiss regarding the 

 merits of artificially and naturally-grown poultry for fancy 



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