Vol. LIV. No. 2358 
NEW YORK, APRIL 6, 1895. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
A DAY AMONG THE DUCKS. 
“ON TO PEKIN!” IS NOW THE CRY. 
( Concluded.) 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Something About the Outfit. 
The duck business was started at the Atlantic Farm, 
in a small way. of course, by the father of A. J. Hal- 
lock, the present proprietor, in 1859. At first it was 
in the nature of an experiment, and hens were used 
to do the hatching. But with the present propor¬ 
tions of the business, an army of hens would be re¬ 
quired for this work, for the incubators in use have 
a capacity of close to 9,000 duck eggs at one time. 
About 1,100 breeders were in the yards, 165 to 170 of 
which were drakes. They are all Pekins, except a 
few Aylesburys which Mr. Hallock is keeping for 
testing, both pure and crossed with the Pekins. The 
only advantage so far discovered in favor of the 
Aylesburys, is that the crosses have proved a little 
more fertile. The Pekins were the largest I ever 
saw, a few of them weighing 12 pounds or over. At 
the New York Poultry show, where Mr. Hallock took 
several premiums, they were frequently mistaken for 
geese. It is a question with the owner whether this 
increased weight is really an advantage, for it is 
gained at the expense of some¬ 
what less fertile eggs. The 
breeders are selected from the 
most vigorous growing young 
stock of the thousands that 
are annually raised. 
I reached the farm at dark. 
After supper, we went to the 
incubator room. Here are 30 
Prairie State incubators, and 
nearly all are running to their 
full capacity. The room is 
partially underground, con¬ 
structed of double brick walls 
with a 4-inch dead-air space, 
and is 24 x 50 feet inside meas¬ 
ure. The floor is cemented. 
A wing furnishes a room for 
storing, packing and testing 
eggs. Two or three oil heat¬ 
ers are used to keep the tem¬ 
perature of the room up to 
the proper point during cold 
spells, but those are to be supplanted by steam pipes. 
The Eggs; the Feeding; the Handling. 
“ When did you get your first fertile eggs, this sea¬ 
son ? ” 1 asked Mr. H. 
“ In December, we got a few ; the weather has been 
so cold and we have had so much snow that the ducks 
haven't laid so well. We can't keep them in the 
houses all the time, and when they go out in the snow 
and ice, they get their feet cold, and don’t do so well. 
On the north section, the ducks run to a spring brook, 
that never freezes, and here we get earlier eggs that 
show a larger percentage of fertility.” 
* “ How do you feed ? ” 
“ Drain in the morning—wheat, corn and oats, 
mostly—and soft feed consisting of cut clover, corn 
meal, No. 2 flour, a little bran—not too much bran, as 
it is too laxative, especially for young ducks—and 
beef scrap wet up for the other feed. We feed grain in 
the morning, Sundays, and two other days of the week. 
We have difficulty in getting enough clover hay.” 
“ Do you feed fish to your breeders ? ” 
“We haven’t yet this year. We couldn't get enough 
to supply them, and it won't do to begin feeding fish 
before we get a full supply. They eat beef scrap well 
now, but after getting a taste of fish, no more beef 
scrap for them. The latter is what has made the 
reputation of the Long Island tagged ducks in the 
New York market. It is the best thing we can get for 
forcing growth in the youngstock, and gives an excel¬ 
lent flavor. My father and E. O. and S. B. Wilcox began 
feeding this several years ago, and the reputation and 
prices of Long Island ducks both began to rise.” 
Fig. 69 shows the breeding yards, and a track with 
a car for transporting the feed from which it is easily 
shoveled into each yard. This is much easier than 
carrying it out in pails. 
“ When do you test the eggs ? ” 
“ After they have been in the incubators four or five 
days. These I am now testing have been in five days. 
They would have been tested yesterday if it had not 
been Sunday. You see about 75 per cent of them are 
fertile, which is doing pretty well for this season.” 
“ What do you do with the infertile ones ?” 
“They are shipped to New York and bring about 27 
cents a dozen now.” 
“ t)o the ducks lay in the houses, or in the yards ? ” 
“Almost entirely in the houses. These are not 
floored except by the sandy soil, which is thickly lit¬ 
tered with salt hay. The ducks are shut in every 
night, and lay very early in the morning before they 
are let out. Some of them make nests and lay in 
these, and some of them cover the eggs. We have 
trouble in getting sufficient salt hay for litter.” 
THE DUCKS’ DINNER ON WHEELS. Fig. 69. 
“ How much help do you keep to attend the ducks ? ” 
“ I have three men now, and shall need more later. 
My mother took charge of feeding the young ducks 
last year, and was very successful. She will probably 
do the same this year.” 
Where Ducks Thrive With Hens. 
The next morning we started out to visit some of 
the other duck farms. We stopped at the new part of 
Mr. Ilallock's place, the north section as he calls it, 
separated from his home place by the farm of E. O. 
Wilcox. This is on the west side of a spring brook 
which never freezes, and is sheltered by the scrubby 
growth, so that it is much warmer than the other 
place. Mr. Hallock has a half mile frontage on this 
creek. He has but one house built here, a long, low 
one, half banked up on the upper side with the dry, 
sandy soil. The building is boarded with matched 
lumber—no tarred paper. Several windows on the 
lower side give sufficient light. It sheltered 300 ducks, 
in two flocks of 100 and 200 each, and a flock of 100 
hens with four roosters. As the ducks were let out, 
they made a bee line for the water, a solid stream of 
white ducks several feet broad flowing out of the open 
door. After they were out. we walked through the 
building. It had been bedded with salt hay, but was 
damp, and the escaping ammonia was overpowering. 
The ground was covered with eggs. 
“ We leave the doors all open through the day, but 
in spite of all we can do, we can’t keep this dry. This 
flock of hens are not fed anything extra ; they live on 
what they pick up after the ducks, so they are so 
much clear gain. The four roosters never fight, but 
when they are let out, each leads his party of hens off 
into the woods. The eggs from here—hen and duck— 
are very fertile.” 
Mr. Hallock is a progressive, enterprising man, and 
is constantly making improvements in his buildings 
and methods. His ducks bring the highest prices in 
the New York markets, and the demand is a steady 
one, the same parties having bought them for many 
years. He is constantly increasing his facilities, but 
is doing it in a careful way, making the ducks pay 
their way as they go along. This is a safe rule to 
follow in any business. 
A Squad of Duck Men. 
Mr. Ilallock’s nearest neighbor is E. O. Wilcox, who 
with his father started on this small place about a 
dozen years ago, with $600 or $800 capital. Progress 
was naturally slow at first, but a good foundation was 
laid, and substantial success was achieved. The busi¬ 
ness has been made to pay its way, and also pay for 
all improvements made—a safe way surely. Since my 
other visit, Mr. W. has added 
many new buildings, includ¬ 
ing a new incubator house 
containing upwards of 20 
Prairie State incubators. He 
has also just completed a new 
brooder house, 224 feet long, 
heated by the hot water sys¬ 
tem. The central part con¬ 
tains the store-room for feed, 
with the heater in the center. 
Allowing 50 ducks to a pen 
(some put in 100 ), this build¬ 
ing accommodates 3,400 duck¬ 
lings at once. “ This building, 
with all the others which you 
see here, is built from the 
profits on the ducks,” said 
Mr. W. 
He keeps about 700 or 800 
ducks, and a somewhat larger 
number of fowls, many of 
them purebred. His ducks are 
all Pekins. His methods of feeding are much like 
Mr. Ilallock’s. He lost a number of ducks last 
winter, and the cause of death was a great mystery 
for a time. Finally an examination of the giz¬ 
zards revealed the presence of numerous short bits 
of wire, and these were finally traced to the beef 
scrap he was feeding. These had been swallowed 
with the food, and found their way to the gizzards, 
which had been punctured by them, resulting in 
death. Mr. VV. believes that the greatest success in 
artificial hatching comes from the closest adherence 
to natural methods. His first attempts were almost 
complete failures, although he followed closely the 
directions of the incubator manufacturers. Finally, 
after becoming nearly disgusted with the business, 
he used his own common sense, and successfully 
worked out the problem. 
Just in the outskirts of the village of Speonk, is 
the small farm of VV. M. Tuthill. His methods differ 
from those of the others to some extent. His farm is 
entii-ely inland, and his ducks have no water except 
for drinking. He considers this an advantage in 
some ways, and a disadvantage in others, the great¬ 
est being that they do not keep themselves so clean. 
He has just completed a new incubator house, but 
uses hens largely for hatching, and considers them 
superior. His ducks are Pekins, of which he has 
about 400, and about an equal number of fowls. The 
