80 DUCK DOLLARS 
form of duck-meat flavor. It is expensive flavoring. It is also a failure 
as flavoring, because a celery-fed domestic duck does not taste anything 
like the wild canvasback duck fed on wild celery, and cannot be substi- 
tuted for the canvasbacks. A big, grain-fed duckling is better eating 
than a canvasback, and will bring as high a price when people get better 
acquainted with it. Canvasbacks are sold at high prices because they 
are comparatively scarce, and because for years fancy eaters have been 
in the habit of paying high prices for them. The demand has been culti- 
vated by restaurants and hotels along with the terrapin and champagne 
demand. 
Q.—It seems to me strange, if there is so much money in ducks as 
you say, that instead of marketing 45,000 or 50,000 a year as you have 
done, you have not marketed 100,000 or even 200,000 a year, and got rich 
much quicker. If your figures are correct, and the work, as it seems to 
me, is only a question of hired help, why have you not pushed the busi- 
ness harder? I am of good business ability, and I see no reason why I 
cannot accomplish in five years what might otherwise take twenty. Please 
advise me. A.—Go slowly. If you have been “figuring,” tear up the 
paper and listen to reason. Is not experience worth acquiring? If 
ducks could be turned out like bricks from a machine, it would be 
necessary only to speed up the machinery and work day and night. But 
they are living things and have to be nourished and cared for. A 
man is busy and has quite a good job on hand when he is shipping 1,000 
ducklings a week to market, making a net profit of $500 a week on 
them. If one ships 100,000 ducklings a year to market, he must erect 
more buildings, employ more help and be busier. To make a success, a 
man must keep things under his control. Don’t bite off more than 
you can chew. What is the use of trying to do three years’ work and 
make three years’ profits in one year? People who deny themselves 
every pleasure but money-making find that when they are ready to stop 
work and enjoy their fortune they have made a mistake. We have 
known poultry beginners, fanciful dreamers, to start with a plant costing 
as high as $5,000 with 1,500 head of birds, and the stories of their failures 
were blazoned all over their districts. Start small, and then an 
occasional mistake is not going to put one out of the business. An error 
can be corrected, and the lesson having been learned the error will not 
be repeated. There is positively no “out” about the duck business 
which will bring ruin. One man may not make so much money as 
another; that is to be expected. It is a question of starting with the right 
stock, following the right teachings and acquiring skill, experience and 
capacity, according to the individual. 
Q.—In my state (Texas) there do not seem to be any ducks like 
yours, and people with whom I talk do not think there would be any sale 
for them. A.—Texas folks like chickens, or beefsteaks. You don’t live 
on cereals altogether, down your way, any more than we do. You have 
a clear field and, take our word for it, Texans will buy good ducklings, 
pay your price, and come back to you for more. 
Q.—If these ducklings are such exceptional eating, as you state, why 
can’t I get up an attractive little booklet and circular and mail them 
around and get a list of steady buyers that way? .1.—You can, and you 
