19-22.] 



The Duck as an Egg-Producer. 



815 



tites never flag when such fare is being turned up, and so long 

 as the plonghman is at work so long will they follow at his heels, 

 and examine every particle of the soil much more thoroughly 

 and exhaustively than will the attendant oruUs and rooks. 



One need not dwell further upon the stimulating effect which 

 this insect fare has upon the prolificacy of laying ducks, nor is 

 it necessary to point out the convincing lesson in agricultural 

 economics which is conveved bv the above statements. Prac- 

 tical, wide-awake farmers can draw their own conclusions. 



There are one or two other matters, however, which may be 

 mentioned, and one of these is the question of injury to growing 

 ci'ops which may be done by flocks of ducks. In regard to this 

 one can confidently say that no class of poultry is more easily 

 kept within bounds than ducks, and it is the common experience 

 of all who have kept them that they prefer pasture or waste land 

 to arable. Since they do not scratch, ducks can range fields 

 of young roots, potatoes and other crops without doing other 

 than good, and the flocks can be run on seed grass and clover 

 without any fear of the young plants being injured as may 

 sometimes happen with other poultry. 



They will, liowever, eat and damage any young plants of the 

 cabbage tribe, and will burrow for newly-sown corn, and may 

 consequently be poisoned by copper sulphate used as a seed 

 dressing. 



Finally, the Indian Piunner, and indeed most of the laying 

 breeds, keep perfectly healthy and produce fertile eggs without 

 swimming water. All they need is water to drink, morning and 

 evening, and the realisation of this cliaracteristic should remove 

 what has for generations bred an ajitipathy towards ducks on 

 the farm, viz., the complaint that they foul the drinking water 

 of other live-stock. 



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