Some Minor Rural Industries. 
295 
limited area of ground is surprising, and in some cases the 
small garden attached to a cottage is all the space that is avail- 
able. In one shed, visited in April, there were thirteen pens, 
constructed as already described, each containing about 100 
birds, so that when they were let out for feeding a little army of 
1 ,300 ducklings came into view. In another place nearly 300 hens 
were sitting simultaneously, the hatching boxes being arranged 
in horizontal tiers, one above the other. On quite a small place 
belonging to a cottager, the number of fat ducklings sent off in 
the season of 1893 reached a total of nearly 1,900. Another 
rearer, on a somewhat larger scale, plucks about 6,000 birds in 
the year. At a still larger establishment, in connexion with a 
farm of 160 acres, the number of fat ducklings sent to market 
in 1893 was 10,000. 
The controlling feature of the whole industry is, in effect, 
furnished by the consumer. The game season in this country 
may be regarded as extending from August to January, and the 
object of the duck-fatteners is to supply the market with birds 
during the alternating six months from February to July. To 
put fat ducklings of eight or nine weeks old upon the market 
early in February involves setting the hen upon the eggs in 
November, at a time when eggs are scarce and clucking hens 
are difficult to obtain. Hence the fat ducklings that come first 
into the market, just at the close of the game season, command 
a high price, but the quotations steadily diminish till they reach 
a minimum in July, when the supply of ducklings is abundant. 
The following may be taken as representing the price of duck- 
lings per couple in the Metropolitan market at the times stated : 
February, 16s.; March, 14s.; April, 12s.; May, 8s.; June, 
6s. to 7s. ; July, os. to 6s. It is seen, then, that the ducklings 
decline in value from 7s. or 8s. apiece at the beginning of the 
season to about 2s. 6d. or 3s. at its close. The average weight 
of the birds at the Metropolitan Market is 7| lb., dressing 
to 5 lb. per pair. 
As the season for marketing the ducklings ends in August, it 
follows that the fatteners have three or four idle months before 
the commencement of the next hatching season. During this 
resting pei’iod the sheds are thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed, 
and the ground on which the ducklings are reared is sweetened 
and rendered fit for the next season’s operations. The interval 
between one season and another is therefore very useful, for it 
not only gives the fatteners a rest, but it permits of so thorough 
an overhauling of the premises as cannot be otherwise than con- 
ducive to the health of the birds. 
An important feature of the business is that those engaged 
