24 LL550N5 IN POULTRY KEEPING — SECOND SERIES. 



LE5SON III. 



riarket Duck Culture. 



Introductory. 



IN" tbis lesson weconsiiler duck culture iilmost exclusively as it [lertains to a single breeti oi 

 duuks, the White Pekin, which .-o fur !■urllils^es all others in popularity, that market iluck 

 culture in this country is White Pekin duck culture. In our fowls we have in each class 

 a Duml)er of varieties, and also have teveral cla^ses which are either adapted to the same 

 •us^s, or could without much difficulty be made so; but in ducks we have nothing else that 

 would take the place of the Pekin. 



Another peculiarity of modern market duck culture is that it is devoted exclusively to the 

 (iroductiou of " green " ducks, that is, of ducklings to be marketed at ten to twelve weeks of 

 -age. At that age the ducklings have frames almost as large as when full grown, and will dress 

 ■(our to six pounds each, five pounds being about the average weight. Much of this weight is 

 fat, and the proportion o( edible meat on a duckling at this age is much smaller than on one of 

 the same weight at four or five months of age, but the profit in duck culture Is all in the green 

 tlucks, and the duck specialists devote theniselve's to it exclusively. The older ducks which 

 •come to market are mostly from the west and south, grown in small lots on farms, generally 

 under conditions which do not lit them for the green duck trade. 



Pekin ducks are much easier to handle in large numbers and in limited quarters than chick- 

 ens. They grow so much faster that the brooding problem is greatly simplified, and if con- 

 ditions are at all favorable, and care anywhere near right, they are very free from disease. 

 Tlie common ducks do not grow anything like as fast as the Pekins. Some of the other pure 

 bred varieties may equal the Pekins tn growth, and at intervals someone interested in another 

 variety endeavors to start a boom for it, but so far the results have not been flattering. What 

 temporary enthusiasm may be developed does not extend far, and soon dies out. Since the 

 introduction of the Pekin duck no large grower has taken up any other variety, and, I believe, 

 ■no hirge success has ever been made with any other duck. 



The breeding of Pekin ducks for show and sale for stock purposes receives little attention at 

 present. In the early days of their popularity, when there was a very lively boom in duck 

 ' culture, poultrymen who went into ducks carried on the duck business on much the same lines 

 as their other poultry business. Some few continue to do so. But the more successful growers 

 of iliicks for market generally abandoned the other branches of the business, finding it more 

 •satisfactory and more profitable to devote all their time to market ducks. Those who continue 

 til advertise and sell exhil)ition and breeding stock and eggs for hutching are mostly poultry- 

 men who handle other fowls also. 



Kor those w'ho succeed in it, duck growing is probalily the most profitable line of poultry 

 culture, hut the field is more limited than the trade in eggs or in broilers, roasters, or fowls. 

 For this there are several reasons. Duck growing on a large scale is a very new industry. It 

 was not until the Pekin duck appeared that tame ducks began in this country to be considered 



