water to drink. It will not do to neglect any of these points, if 

 one desires or expects good hatches of good ducks. 



There is, too, yet another point that needs consideration. I 

 think breeders all through our land have been far too careless, in 

 the past, as to the length of time eggs were kept before shipment. 

 It is hardly fair to blame them harshly, because it has been widely 

 published by the leaders that eggs would keep, with good care, 

 from three weeks to a month, and still hatch reasonably welL 

 Experiments at the Cornell Station show that this is a fallacy;, 

 that (hen) eggs hatch without loss from depreciation to any 

 great extent, up to two weeks. After that time, they lose rapidly 

 in value for hatching purposes. 



I have known an early shipment of 300 hens' eggs, from one 

 of the most prominent breeders, to give less than twenty chicks. 

 There are two reasons which promptly present themselves, be- 

 yond the possibiHty of infertility: these are, possible chilHng of 

 many, and possible holding beyond the age when they were fit to. 

 ship. When eggs are scarce, the temptation to hold them longer 

 than one would do later in the season, is strong, and it is but- 

 tressed by the known fact that they will keep longer in cold 

 weather than during summer heat. The carriers, too, often put 

 a shipper in the wrong: sometimes by careless handling, against 

 which we are helpless, because we cannot prove it unless there is 

 breakage ; sometimes by undue delays on the road. Several 

 times last season, I knew of shipments being twice and three times 

 as long on the road as they should have been. One shipment 

 which, had it been a passenger, would have gone through in 36 

 hours, was exactly a week on the road. A shipper has a right to 

 calculate on prompt carriage, but the carriers, by a delay like 

 this, may hold his eggs beyond the period of value for hatching 

 purposes. Breeders need to keep these points always in mind, 

 and I think it is wise to err on the safe side, if any, in shipping 

 any kind of duck eggs. 



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