THE GAME BREEDER 



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which most of the exercising flights of 

 the birds will take place. The feasibility 

 of keeping the ducks practically wild but 

 at the same time of training them to re- 

 turn to an accustomed feeding and roost- 

 ing place, thus making them available 

 when wanted for shooting, is discussed 

 in general treatises on duck farming. 



What the writer particularly desires to 

 discuss here are methods of conserving 

 the natural, gatney flavor of farm-pro- 

 duced birds. Sufficient exercise, under 

 the system above noted, is an important 

 factor in this effort. The most neces- 

 sary step, however, is to limit the grain 

 ration, a step desirable in itself for rea- 

 sons both of conservation and economy. 

 Wild ducks get a comparatively small 

 proportion of food equivalent to grain. 

 Fed an abundance of grain, the farmed 

 birds inevitably gain flesh, become lazier 

 and, in general, lose their distinctive wild 

 -characteristics. Let the grain, therefore, 

 be small in amount ; in the summer time, 

 where other conditions are favorable, it 

 may be entirely dispensed with. 



Roughage an Essential. 



The birds most need large supplies of; 

 roughage, particularly of naturally suit- 

 able kinds. This may be furnished by 

 making available to them areas of marsh 

 where they may work about gleaning tid- 

 bits from both the animal and plant 

 worlds. Bulrushes should form the bulk 

 of such a marsh, the kinds producing 

 large quantities of seeds being most de- 

 sirable. Upland range should be pro- 

 vided, and if this is already occupied by 

 a mixture of grasses, clovers, and wild, 

 weedy and shrubby vegetation, it will 

 need no alterations. If made anew, sow- 

 ing mixtures of pasture grasses and 

 clovers is desirable, also the setting out 

 of low, berry-producing shrubs such as 

 bayberries, buffalo-berries, roses, and 

 the like. 



Wild ducks derive a very important 

 part of their subsistence from water 

 plants, and it is necessary to have these 

 in as great abundance as possible. Where 

 there are comparatively large bodies of 

 water six feet or less in depth, aquatic 

 vegetation once well established will 

 stand up under the feeding of rather 



large numbers of ducks. For the game 

 farm not so fortunately equipped the 

 following suggestion is made. Excavate 

 a long narrow pond, or series of small 

 oblong ponds, to a depth of three to four 

 feet. If the valley of a little run is avail- 

 able it may be more easily transformed 

 into such a series of ponds and has the 

 advantage of a constant water supply. 

 Where running water is not available the 

 ponds should be five to six feet deep to 

 prevent the water becoming too warm 

 for the best plant growth. The ponds 

 should be very moderate in size, so that 

 covering them with chicken-wire screens 

 will be practicable. Thirty by 15 feet 

 would be a practicable size to be covered 

 by three 10 by 15 foot screens. In a 

 long, canal-like pond vertical screens may 

 be used to separate the pond into units, 

 but walls probably would be more satis- 

 factory in the long run. 



Food Plants Screened. 



With a number of such unit ponds 

 available, the ducks can be turned into 

 one or more at a time, and the others 

 screened while growing a new crop of 

 food plants. The best plants for this 

 purpose are watercress (does best in 

 shallow, cool, flowing water), water- 

 weed, coontail and musk grasses. Shoots 

 of waterweed and coontail, under favor- 

 able conditions, grow six inches a day. 

 It is not safe to try such plants where 

 any other growth is desired, since they 

 are such rank growers that they are apt 

 to take complete possession. Water- 

 weed, for instance, introduced into Great 

 Britain soon became a pest, filling orna- 

 mental waters, mill races and canals. 

 However, the qualities which make these 

 plants undesirable elsewhere are the very 

 things which make them valuable for use 

 on duck farms. Full descriptions of 

 plants for duck farms and of methods of 

 propagating them are given in Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture Bulletins 205 and 

 465, which may be obtained on applica- 

 tion. 



To recapitulate : Wild-duck farmers, 

 in order to provide sport or to have an 

 exclusive market for their birds, must 

 keep their stock true to the wild type. 

 This can be done by giving the birds 



