anything much stronger than this! He lives in Virginia. He 

 says: 



"I have 55 ducks and 15 drakes all together at night, 

 and on range in day. Have not separated those not needed as 

 had no good place to put them, and many other things to look af- 

 ter. I got some 25 eggs (a day) about the 16th of Jan. My out- 

 put then steadily decreased to zero, started again and went up to 

 19. To-day I got 13. Please tell me how many you would 

 let roost together, or would you separate into small bunches? I 

 recall absolutely no article covering all this." Later, I had a let- 

 ter saying there was trouble with the feed which made this drop in 

 eggs. 45 per cent by the middle of January is not so 

 bad, in a farm flock on range, and gives a pretty fair start toward 

 200 for the year. 



This man had twice as many males as he should. But, on 

 another farm in another state, I saw between 125 and 150 run- 

 ning together, because it was difficult to separate and give all 

 equally good conditions. I think it safe to say that only the fact 

 of good water privilege and range saved the young of this flock 

 from being spoiled, and preserved any kind of a record for eggs. 

 We must admit that farm conditions must be fairly met, without 

 too much fussiness. But, we may as well apprehend first as last 

 that old and young in very large lots all together cannot thrive 

 and give the highest records. I do not like to put any young 

 birds with old until at least a year old. And ducks often injure 

 each other by crowding, because they go into panics so easily, 

 when frightened. 



Mr. Robinson has said in his book of general reference: 

 "A flock of grown ducks will not eat more than an equal number 

 of average chickens, NOR DOES IT REQUIRE MORE FOOD' 

 TO GROW A DUCK THAN IT DOES TO GROW A CHICK- 

 EN OF THE SAME WEIGHT." He also says : "In most 

 places, poultrymen growing both chickens and ducks will usually 



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