12 



THE GAME BREEDER 



and compare them with near mallards 

 they buy the latter if any. This used to 

 be the same with pure-bred poultry and 

 live stock but not so today ; the only 

 man that can show any profit in poultry, 

 live stock or ducks with feed prices as at 

 present is the breeder that has the pure- 

 bred stock that is always in demand at 

 fair prices. For example, two years ago 

 I could buy a thousand half-breed mal- 

 lards in a day from small breeders in our 

 state. Last week I had an order for 500 

 to 1,000 mallards for a big dinner to be 

 held in Detroit. I did not have the birds 

 so I called up all the breeders I knew 

 and I could only find 125 birds; this not 

 being enough 1 had to turn the order 

 down. So I ask where have the small 

 breeders gone with their near mallards? 

 Answer — out of business, the same as the 

 larger breeders will do unless they im- 

 prove their stock so they can get prices 

 high enough to make them pay out. Bet- 

 ter stock birds is what we want and more 

 of them. The price will take care of it- 



self as soon as the real sportsmen learn 

 what a pure-bred mallard is when com- 

 pared to the overgrown half breed or even 

 some not more than one-quarter mallard. 

 Not only the difference in the swiftness 

 of their flight but the quality of the meat 

 after they are shot and most of all the 

 satisfaction to the shooter and sports- 

 men that they have not spent their time 

 and money to kill a brace of barnyard 

 ducks. After you have a stock of pure- 

 bred birds for breeders and handle them 

 as I do they will not cost more than 75 

 per cent, as much to keep as it will to 

 keep a grade that can not get home if they 

 happen to fly over a fence. I have not 

 given these facts to discourage any breed- 

 er or dealer in half-breed mallards but 

 to encourage improvement in stock birds ; 

 and to cut down the cost of keeping a 

 bird that is not able to fly to some nat- 

 ural feeding place for a part of his feed. 

 This act alone increases the flying value 

 of the bird. 

 Bad Axe, Mich. 



BLACK DUCK AND HOW TO RAISE THEM. 



By R. E. Bullock, 

 Manager of Scarboro Beach Game Farm, Scarboro, Maine. 



We all know that up to the present 

 time black duck have never been raised 

 to a great extent. 



I have had experience in raising black 

 duck ever since a boy, and I find that one 

 has to be on the job for a wild black 

 duck is surely wild. 



First, to pick a place to raise black 

 duck "we will say that we have six 

 pairs for breeders," a small pond not too 

 deep with plenty of brush and under- 

 growth along the shores. 



We will say that the pen is 100 feet 

 long and 50 feet wide; one-inch mesh 

 wire, the length of the pen being along 

 the shore. Let the pen be out of the 

 way of passers-by and in a quiet place ; 

 the less you have to do around them 



the better off they will be. If, for in- 

 stance, you visit a nest too often the 

 old duck will surely leave it and if you 

 try to enclose the old duck after she 

 hatches with her young she will by brood- 

 ing the little ones so close starve them 

 to death. 



To raise black duck successfully they 

 should be left entirely alone, make your 

 pen and turn your birds in to it and 

 leave them alone and they will do the 

 rest. If you want the first eggs laid for 

 setting, pick up once a week and leave 

 two to three eggs in each nest. You will 

 have a hard time to find the nest as a 

 black duck's nest, if the old duck is on 

 or off, is a pretty hard thing for the 

 eye to catch. The best time to look up 



