80 
Farm Foultry. 
where sufficient amount of attention can be given to the birds 
during the first few weeks of their lives, there is no foim of 
poultry that pays better, as they always, about Christmas time 
or often before, realise very high prices in the markets, and can 
usually be sold privately, when the profit does not go into the 
hands of the middleman. 
Ducks. 
The usual mode in which ducks are kept in a farmyard is 
the reverse of advantageous. The plan followed should be that 
adopted in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury and in the sur- 
rounding villages, where many tons of ducklings are reared 
annually and sent to the London markets, realising a most re- 
munerative price. It'is said that nearly 40,000Z. per annum is 
paid to the neighbourhood for early ducklings. The breed 
chosen there is the white Aylesbury. The ducks are allowed on 
the water during the daytime, but kept under cover at night. 
To feed them well, the best plan is to put the fjod, which is 
generally oats, into a pan of water. If highly fed, they will lay 
as early as December, and the eggs are pai'ticularly valuable for 
producing early ducklings. They are hatched under hens on 
nests made in the usual manner on the ground with soft, short 
straw, which is much better than hay. The nest should not be 
allowed to become dry. If it does, the eggs may be sprinkled 
with lukewarm water daily. No interference with the newly 
hatched brood should take place until the following day. At 
Avlesbury the ducklings which are reared for the market are 
not allowed to go into water. After a few days three or four 
broods are given to one hen, and they are kept in small com- 
partments in the rooms of the cottages of the rearers, or in 
sheds, each lot being separated by boards. The compartments 
are littered down with short straw, and kept particularly cl^an. 
Unlike fowls, the young ducks require a very considerable 
proportion of animal food. Their first food should be hard-boiled 
eggs, mixed with boiled rice, and bullock's liver cut up into 
small pieces. This is given to them several times a day. After 
about a fortnight they are furnished with meal which is mixed 
with scalded chandler's greaves, and they also have a due supply of 
oats placed in water. Fed in this manner they rapidly attain a 
very considerable size, and at the age of ten or twelve weeks are ■ 
fat enough for market. These early ducklings command a very 
high price. In the first of the London season nine or ten shillings 
a couple, or even more, is fn^quently given for thc^n. At the age of 
about twelve weeks tlioy begin to moult, and tlien the nourishment 
tliat they receive goes to < lie formalion of now feathers, and tliey do 
