24 DUCK DOLLARS 
Most beginners without instruction think that ducks must have 
swimming water to thrive and, lacking a pond or brook, will dig a rain- 
hole without inlet or outlet. This quickly gets muddy and slimy and 
becomes an abomination,—a menace to both ducks and owner. 
We have heard of duck raisers on the coast of Delaware, who have 
had trouble in the following way: The tides would force the stagnant 
marsh water back into the duck ranges, and when the 
Beware of ducks got into this brackish water it was bad for them. 
Tide Water Some actually would be poisoned and die. Look out for 
this stagnant, foul-smelling marsh water if you breed ducks on the sea- 
coast. 
The rice-fields of the South are ideal for ducks. They will pick up 
plenty of free nourishment there. Ducks are good, also, 
Diteks are to go over harvest fields to pick up the left-behind 
esd grain. This is a suggestion for large farmers who breed 
Gleaners Aviles 
The cost of from six to ten cents a pound to bring a duckling to 
killing age, according to the location of the plant and 
according to the prices of grain, includes labor as well 
as food. Figuring food alone, five cents a pound would 
Cost of 
Producing 
cover the cost. 
Of course a duckling does not eat so much when it is small and 
newly hatched as it does when it has reached the killing age. If you 
keep a duck from killing age on for breeding, it will cost you about 
twenty-five cents a month in feed and labor to carry the duck. This is 
why good breeding stock sells for much higher prices than the killed 
ducklings. 
The labor charge is cut down in proportion to the increase in the 
number of ducks kept. The care of 30,000 ducks may be divided among 
six men. 
Bearing in mind what we have said about cost, it may be estimated 
accurately that a duckling of market age, weighing five pounds to six 
pounds, will cost to produce from thirty to sixty cents. 
The wholesale selling price is at least twelve cents a pound, depend- 
ing on the location of the market and the season. Eleven cents is the 
lowest we have ever known it here, and thirty cents the 
Wholesale hishest. F 
eae ighest. or many years twenty cents has been the 
minimum. This means that each duck will be sold 
for from sixty cents to $1.50. A duck which has cost the high price to 
produce will sell for the high market price; for this is the way the 
market runs. 
In speaking of these profits, we do not estimate the sale of breeding 
stock. If you keep what you raise until they are of breeding age, and 
then sell them to your neighbors, or to anybody, by advertising or exhi- 
bition, you will make more. Nor do we take account of 
the sale of duck eggs. Duck eggs are salable on account 
of their large size and good cooking qualities, and many 
are in the markets; but the big duck raiser has a better use for most 
of his eggs than the table—he has his incubator in mind—he wants 
them for seed. 
Selling 
Duck Eggs 
