SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
267 
rdpon the feed — 1 might say all. Suppose we take one of 
the native, scrub cows, that run in the woods and get no- 
thing during the summer months but coarse, half dried 
grass, bitter twigs and leaves for food, we will find her 
cmilk little in quantity and very poor in quality, and by 
testing it in the cream guage it does not give more than 
one-thirty-second for cream, and that very lightly colored 
which makes very blue and unsavory butter. 
Now, if we take this same cow and fi-ed her green corn 
•or millet, with an allowance of two quarts of meal daily, 
-we will find the quantity of milk much increased, and 
'Upon testing this, the cream will rise from three to five- 
eighths by the guage and be of a deep yellow cast and 
very rich. Again, take this same cow and let her daily 
feed be four quarts of linseed meal, or oil cake, with as 
iinuch hay or fodder as she wants, we will find the quan 
<lity of milk double, and often times four-fold that it was 
when the cow was fed on green corn and meal. While 
'this milk is thin, blue and having a flat taste, by filling 
die cream guage do not give morelhan one-sixteenth for 
toream. 4 
These observations have come under my own eye with- 
in the past year, and I have taken much pains to learn 
diese facts. 
It is well known that some cows give richer milk than 
others on nearly the same feed and under the same treat- 
>ineni. I can atcrioute it only to the superior breed ofani- 
-mals, or the preponderancy that such cows have towards 
fheir better ancestors. D . 
■Sumter^ C , July, 1857. 
We commend this article to the especial perusal 
■of all readers who take an interest in the subject. It is 
from the pen of one of the most profound Naturalists of 
our countiy : 
A SUCCESSFUIi METHOD OF RAISING DUCKS. 
BY EXPERIMENTER. 
Believing it to be the duty of every individual to con- 
'tribute for the benefit of society, any information he may 
possess, ho wever small, and on subjects ever sohumtde; 
and having for several years pist been in the habit of 
seeking recreation during those hours which were not de- 
woted to seveier studies and laliors, in a variety of experi- 
mieiiis on suLjecis of Natural History, I propose giving 
you the result ot smne experiinerits in raising Ducks, which 
-were carried on during a nuinoer of years, and which 
■finally eventuaied in complete success. It is sometimes 
beneficial to examme ihe can.?es of our failures, and it af- 
fords me fdcasure at this momeni in retracing the steps by 
which, afier many disappointments, 1 graaually accom- 
pli'.hed the objtc.ts to which my inquiries and experiments 
were directed. As an account of the process by which I 
arrived m th se successful results may not be uninterest- 
ing ii> those of your readers who devote iliemselves to ru- 
ral puisuits, and who pride ihemseives on having a well 
stoeke.d p Milo y-yaru, I hope it may be no lax upon their 
time ami p.iiif m-.e, it I go snmewhat into detail. 
During many years 1 was struck wirh the general want 
•ofsuc-ps-, which attended the rai.-ing of this species of 
poultry Not one->ixth of tne young were ever raised; 
they ajipeaivd to be subje -t to innumerable diseases. 
Tho^e thaf escip-ci were, stunted in their growth and did 
not arrive at full size till they were many months old 
The gene.ial co;n;^ liini among fai mers and pUnier.s was, 
that this, ihe most valnable of our poultry, was a puny 
bird h li d 10 r ii.sr- and subject to many diseases They 
could r.i.v- i .vls and even turkeys, but there was no cer- 
tainty wiiri legmd to the DucK Desirous of investigating 
the. l•..nl-.eso^ a Ihilore in raising a bird whieh in i's wild 
stale is ver}' hardy, which, although exposed to all the vi- 
cissitudes of the weather, raises large broods of young, I 
procured several Ducks, determined to pursue my experi- 
ments in various ways till I should either be successful or 
be satisfied that in a state of domestication, there existed 
obstacles to their successful rearing which no foresight or 
care could prevent. At first I adopted the usual mode of 
giving them access to as great a body of water as I could 
provide for them in the yard. I, therefore, had an arti- 
ficial pond made near their coops, to which they could 
resort as often as they choose: where they amused them- 
selves at all hours of the day, in dabbling around the 
edges of the pool and in swimming and diving in the 
water; but they did not grow; they were subject to 
cramps and fits, and one after another died, until I began 
to think that water was not their proper element. I varied 
their food; gave them rice flour, corn, grist, boiled pota- 
toes, hominy, bran, and many kinds of vegetable food, but 
with the same results; and of a hundred young that were 
hatched, I scarcely raised a dozen. I then began to mix 
with their food various medicinal herbs, believing that this 
might correct some deleterious properties of their food, 
but it was to no avail. I next procured the different varie- 
ties of ducks for breed, thinking that perhaps one kind 
might lie better suited to the climate and to the confine- 
ment of the poultry- yard than another; but I was soon 
convinced that my want of success was not owing to my 
breed of ducks Several years passed away and left me 
pretty much where I began, and I was almost ready to 
abandon any farther attempts at raising the duck. 
The thought at last occured to me that in the food with 
with which we usually fed this species of poultry, we de- 
parted widely from nature, and that alt hough the old ducks 
in their wild state fed on rice and the seeds of various 
grasses that are found along the edges of the rivers, brooks 
and ponds, yet that at the spring of the year when the 
young wild ducks are hatched there are few seeds ripe, 
and it is questionable whether at that early age they feed 
at all upon grain or seeds. There appears in the digestive 
organs of these young birds something unsuited to 
this kind of food ; it passes through them without afford- 
ing much nourishment. I had ascertained by dissection 
that their gizzards were filled not with vegetable tood, but 
with the fragments of small craw-fish, worms and various 
aquatic insects, as well as the spawn of fishes ; and I de- 
termined in the following year to try the effects of animal 
food. In due time my youmg ducks were hatched, beef 
was given then at first, after having been chopped very 
fine; this they devoured greedily and eat it in preference 
to all kinds of vegetable food. The effect upt n their 
health and growth was immediate and surprising. They 
appeared to grow faster than any other poultry : in a few 
weeks they were out of danger, and in a few months fit 
for the table As beef was expensive, I tried cheaper 
kinds of foods, such as the haslets of animals, crabs, 
fi'hes, etc. The result was equally favorable. I was 
now satisfied that in the article of food the end is attained 
by simply following nature and giving the young ducks 
animal tood But although my experiment was thus far 
favorable, I found that many of my young ducks died after 
having been suffered 10 go in the dews and water; and 
that after many showers of rain they become thoroughly 
wet, and that when showers were succeeded by hoi suns 
they were subject to a disease of some apoplectic charac- 
t r, or a coup de soLeil whicli killed numbers Here 1 was 
much puzzled I had succeeded in one instance by f«fl- 
l.twing nature but I found that I could not carry my theory 
through, and that water aflected the doineslicale.d duck 
very bifferenily from what it bid the same bird in its wild 
state. 'J'tie fact was not unknown to me that the down of 
young wild ducks is almost impervious to water; they 
are exftosed to dews and rains, they dive to the lioitom of 
pools and streams, and live in the water; yet they always 
