66 DUCK DOLLARS 
Before putting the ducklings into the shipping box the box should 
be lined with brown paper. We do not mean that this paper should be 
tacked in. We have a supply of brown paper such as grocers use, the 
sheet being long enough to go across the box. We put a sheet on the 
bottom of the box which covers one side, then another 
aes sheet, then a third sheet on top of the ducks after they 
Shipping Box have been put in. This-brown paper prevents the ducks 
from coming in contact with the wood, which may be dirty. It keeps 
them clean, and the interior of the box has a sweet, clean look when 
opened. 
Shipping boxes like these should be used by anybody shipping to his 
market when he gets the empties back free. If the empties are not to be 
returned free, barrels can be used, as we used them in shipping to New 
York city. We used sugar and flour barrels. They cost us eighteen 
cents empty. A sugar barrel will hold from forty-five to fifty ducklings. 
We do not head the barrel, but lay the paper in, then the ducklings, and 
on top of the barrel we stretch a piece of burlap, tacking it around the 
top of the barrel. A flour barrel holds from thirty-two to thirty-five 
ducklings. 
Sometimes an expressman, if he is green at handling these duck 
barrels, will turn one over and stand it on its head instead of on its 
bottom. This jams the top layer of ducklings, but does not spoil them. 
In the summer we put ice in the barrel. The ice melts, 
as it should, because poultry keep better with cold 
water sprinkling over and around them than they do 
with only ice on them. The water collects in the barrel, and if the 
expressman turns the barrel over it will run out and annoy him. The 
best way is to use boxes and not barrels if you are located so you can. 
The New York market is a very strong one. People who do busi- 
ness in New York and live out in the country, if they want to raise 
, ducks need not fear for the market. That city will take 
The New 7% ad ; ; irene : 
an unlimited quantity of unything in the poultry line. 
York Market The same is true in a smaller proporti f th 
proportion of any other 
city in America or Canada. Wherever people are gathered together 
there is a lot of eating going on, and anything in the poultry line is 
absorbed naturally as a sponge takes up water. 
We never use ice in shipping ducklings to Boston. The dealers give 
us fair weight. We have never had any trouble with any marketman 
on ducklings. We have a set of scales in the shipping room, and we get 
the net weight of every box as it is made up. We allow for shrinkage 
in the dressed ducklings, and are able to hit it exactly right after experi- 
ence. First we let the carcass drain for five minutes before putting it into 
The the box. We squeeze it with our hands to get as much 
Shrinkage water out as possible. For every too pounds net weight 
in Shipment of ducklings there will be a shrinkage in going to market 
of three or four per cent. That is to say, when a marketman weighs 
them and pays according to his weight, he will return to you a weight 
of ninety-six or ninety-seven pounds to every 100 pounds which you 
weighed. 
Prepay the express charges when shipping ducklings to market. 
Lining the 
Icing in 
Summer 
