need it earlier. They should have water in a narrow, shallow 

 dish so that they cannot get wet in it, and this means refilling it 

 often. The first feed is stale bread soaked in sweet milk. If I 

 couldn't get this, I think, from my present knowledge, I might 

 feed Spratt's Duck feed, just at first. After a very few days, I 

 add to the soaked bread a little bran and middlings, a little 

 ground corn and oats with the hulls sifted out, and some clean 

 sand or fine grit. Just as soon as they will eat it, I work in suc- 

 culent feed in the way of chopped cabbage, lettuce, rape or similar 

 greens. If the green juicy stuff is not available, scalded cut 

 clover is excellent. But something of this character is imperative 

 for ducks, unless they have abundant good pasturage. I feed 

 five times daily for the first few weeks, and mix in a little sand 

 once daily. At least one feed is of green stuff for yarded birds. 

 After a few days, I add a Httle good beef scrap; the less milk 

 the more scrap. Don't use scrap that smells hke fertilizer. And 

 be sure all feed is sound and sweet. If the milk sours, I would 

 make it into curds and mix with the other ingredients, and use a 

 little more bran in proportion. 



The ducklings are very sensitive to cold and wet for the first 

 few days of their lives. They must have protection from storms 

 till they are feathered. I have found them so nearly drowned by 

 a sudden, hard shower that reviving them seemed hopeless. But 

 quick drying and warming them by the kitchen range put re- 

 newed life into the chilled bodies, and they seemed none the worse 

 for the wetting. Their recuperative powers seem to be great. 

 They will reach the point where they do not need the hen sooner 

 than will chicks. But they should always have some shelter to 

 which they can retreat. An open shed seems to suit them ad- 

 mirably. 



It was the theory of one member of the family that the 

 ducks would not do well on commercial cut clover or clover meal. 

 During the summer of 1913, in order to test this, we used clover 



