through the other organs of digestion. The duckling eats eagerly 

 and often. This is, no doubt, the chief reason why it does not 

 do to use too much hard, dry grain, or to omit water at any time. 

 We have found much satisfaction in feeding stale bread soaked 

 in milk, in connection with bran, for the first few weeks. Cracked 

 corn is used for one meal a day, and clover, cut sweet-corn stalks, 

 grass, rape, weeds, cabbage, beet pulp and other things that may 

 be handy, help out the growers who may not have grass range. 



The matter of shade is one which must never be overlooked. 

 I have seen, on farms where there was abundance of delightful 

 shade, both duck and chicken coops located out in the open, under 

 a broiling July or August sun. At the same time, the shallow 

 water dishes were entirely dry, it might be for hours. Such 

 ducks and chickens are pre-destined to die of mysterious ( ?) 

 causes, and none can ward this off till shade and water become a 

 part of the constant conditions under which they grow. Ducks 

 are very sensitive to the heat of summer suns, and I have seen 

 even the less sensitive chickens thrown into convulsions or lim- 

 berneck during the awful heat of midsummer conditions without 

 shade. The best of things can, however, be overdone. The one safe 

 way is to make both shade and sunshine free to the younglings, 

 and let them choose for themselves which they will take at any 

 one time. It is not necessary, as one breeder did, when told to 

 provide shade, to coop the ducks so that they could not get from 

 under the dense shade of an overhead grape arbor. Even sum- 

 mer days vary much, and summer nights become as cold as au- 

 tumn, at times. I have worn mittens on the fourth of July, and 

 even then suffered with the cold, in New York state. An ex- 

 ception, of course, but one never knows when an exception may 

 arise. Forethought is one's best defence, and must be a contin- 

 ual part of the poultryman's panoply. 



It is altogether better to feed and water outside the shelters, 

 except under very unusual conditions. All who keep ducks un- 



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