RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



troughs should be carefully cleaned before feeding, as the 

 ducks will readily eat all foreign matter, together with the 

 food. In short, the whole business must be systematized all 

 the way through, and the attendant should understand that it 

 is never safe to neglect a single detail. 



I had always made a point of doing this duty myself. A 

 few years ago, not feeling well and having other business re- 

 quiring my attention, I engaged a man whom I considered 

 competent to do this business for me. I took him over the 

 yards, showed and told him just how the thing must be done; 

 watched him to see that he did the work faithfully and com- 

 plied with all its details. Things went on apparently well for 

 a week or two, when, going home one day, I noticed a num- 

 ber of dead ducklings lying around, and looking under the 

 brooder I found quite a number more. I at once interviewed 

 the man and cautioned him. He insisted that he had followed 

 the instructions to the letter. But the mortality did not abate, 

 on the contrary it increased to an alarming extent; and I had 

 lost more ducklings in one month than I had lost for ten years 

 previous. 



I watched him and found that the feeding-troughs were 

 not cleaned at all, and when the birds scattered the sawdust 

 in them the food was thrown on that, the ducklings consum- 

 ing both. The food was thrown partly in the trough and part- 

 ly on the ground; apparently a matter of perfect indifference 

 to him. The water-tanks were not rinsed out. Instead of 

 stepping over the eighteen-inch partition wires he stepped on 

 them, breaking down the standards and flattening down the 

 wire, so that the birds were all mixed together promiscuously, 

 ducklings two weeks old with those six weeks. The little 

 ones were trodden down by the older ones and almost denud- 

 ed of their feathers, and there was no thrift to be seen any- 

 where. To say that I was indignant does not express it. I 

 had often seen such a condition of things elsewhere, but not 

 before on my own ranch; I was absolutely ashamed to show 

 visitors around the yards as long as this state of things ex- 

 isted. 



That man was promptly discharged, and I undertook the 

 feeding myself. The birds were sorted out and returned 

 to their own yards the wire replaced, the feeding-troughs 

 cleaned, the pens carefully disinfected. In four days double 

 the amount of food was consumed and things were decided- 

 ly improved. But those birds never acquired that uniformity 

 of size and appearance which had always characterized my 



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