i7o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 13 
other season. Thus, in three seasons, six crops (not 
counting the lettuce)—namely, two strawberry, two 
raspberry, one onion, and one radish—have been 
taken from this land. There now remains a fine 
stand of raspberries, ready to produce maximum 
crops for several years to come. A further addition 
to this combination might have been made by plant¬ 
ing peach or pear trees in every second or third row 
of raspberries, as we have noticed that the raspberry 
does well with us in a partial shade. However, we 
feel well satisfied with the results as described above. 
Oswego County, N. Y. f. a. tice. 
SIX TONS OF DUCK PER ACRE. 
WITH WHITE CHICKENS THROWN IN. 
Part II. 
Testing the Eggs . Inferti/es So/d. 
The eggs are tested on the fifth day, and the in¬ 
fertile ones are sold to cheap markets and to peddlers 
who supply bakers and restaurants, at the usual price 
received for ducks’ eggs, or about five cents more per 
dozen than hens’ eggs. His egg tester consists of a 
lamp inside of a box, in the front of which is a hole 
several inches in diameter covered with rubber cloth, 
in which is an egg-shaped opening somewhat smaller 
than the eggs to be tested. Inside the box, back of 
the lamp, is fastened an ordinary lantern reflector, to 
concentrate the rays of the lamp on the egg. The 
tester is well braced and firmly placed, so that the 
operator can lean against it without stirring it. He 
does not put pans of water m the machines to make 
the air moist, 
until the duck¬ 
lings pip the 
shells, then but 
one pan is 
placed in each 
machine. A s 
soon as the 
ducklings dry 
off and can 
stand, they are 
taken out of the 
egg trays and 
put in the bot¬ 
tom of the ma¬ 
chine, where 
they are left 
from 24 to 36 
hours without 
food or water. 
Then they are 
put out in the 
brooder house 
under the hot 
water pipe 
brooders and 
are fed and 
watered imme¬ 
diately. They 
are given a 
mixture con¬ 
sisting of bran, 
two-thirds and 
corn meal one- 
third, and this 
is not cooked or 
scalded, but is mixed with cold water or skim-milk. 
He finds that the ducklings do just as well on uncooked 
food, and that it is unnecessary work to cook it. Ac¬ 
cording to his experience green stuff is not necessary 
in raising green ducks that are to be killed for market 
while young. His young ducks were not fed green 
stuff the past season. Bran answers his purpose just 
as well. When asked whether green crops that fur¬ 
nished both carbonaceous and nitrogenous matter 
would not have lessened his grain bill, he remarked 
that gram had been so cheap the past season that he 
did not think that it would, besides the flesh of the 
young ducks would have been softer. His ducks, the 
marketmen say, are firmer and stand up better than 
others that are fed differently. 
The above mixture is fed for the first four days, 
after which they are given a mixture consisting of 
equal parts of corn meal and bran, and seven or eight 
per cent of beef scraps. After this, the per cent of 
beef scraps is gradually increased. At three weeks 
of age, their food contains 15 per cent of beef scraps. 
This mixture is fed up to the time they are killed. 
He does not leave off the bran, as some do to make 
them get extra fat, before they are killed, because he 
finds that they do not do as well with him. Leaving 
off the bran stops their eating. It might work with 
green food, but does not work without it. Feeding 
green food makes the ducks yellow, and they sell for 
less. White-skinned ducks and geese are demanded. 
The green ducks are usually killed when eight weeks 
old, when they weigh about nine pounds per pair. 
Sometimes they are as heavy as 10 pounds per pair 
at that age. At 10 weeks, they average abiut 11 
pounds per pair, and range from 9 to 14 pounds 
per pair. They are usually selected and killed when 
“ fit,” although the number killed depends upon the 
market price and the demand. Mr. Pollard keeps 
one picker who does nothing during the season but 
kill and pick ducks and fowls. This man will kill 
and prepare for market 57 young ducks in eight hours. 
The ducks to be killed are confined in two coops in a 
room adjoining the picking place, to which access is 
had through hinged doors opening into the picking 
room. The ducks are thus shut up out of sight, and 
are much quieter than if confined in sight of the kilt¬ 
ing operations. As these doors opening into the pens 
are about shoulder high, the picker can reach in and 
select one without stooping and with very little 
disturbance of the rest. The ducks are stuck or bled 
by opening the bill and making a cross cut in the 
back of the throat on the inside, so that no wound 
shows on the outside. This severs the large arteries 
and pierces the brain and causes relaxation of the 
skin and muscles. Immediately after, they are struck 
on the head with a club, then held over a galvanized 
iron pail to catch most of the blood, and immediately 
picked. The picker sits in a chair drawn up along¬ 
side a box which is about as high as his knees, into 
which the feathers are placed. He lays the duck across 
his lap and holds its head between his knee and the 
box to prevent its fluttering, and that the blood that 
escapes may go on the floor instead of on to the feath¬ 
ers. As he removes the feathers, the picker frequently 
dips his hand or fingers into a dish of water which is 
always witbin reach. This causes the feathers to 
stick to his hand, and enables him to remove them 
more rapidly and with much less exertion. In remov¬ 
ing the pin feathers, they are caught between the 
blade of a knife held in the hand and the thumb. In 
this work, the pin feathers are thoroughly wet that 
they may stick to the thumb and be more easily 
grasped and plucked. The neck, head and wings are 
not plucked ; the feathers are left on and a string is 
tied around the body of the bird to bind the wings 
close to the body. They are never drawn except for 
private customers. Immediately after they are 
dressed, they are placed in a barrel or tank of ice 
water to remove the animal heat, and to shrink the 
flesh or make them more plump or compact. Here 
they are kept until they are shipped to market. When 
sent to New York City, they are packed in ice, but 
this is not necessary in sending them to Boston and 
near-by points. Mr. Pollard sends green ducks to mar¬ 
ket from May 1 to about November 15, when the last 
are slaughtered. He supplies the markets in Provi¬ 
dence, Pawtucket and vicinity, and sells many ducks 
direct to the consumers, but the bulk of his product 
goes to the dealers in the large cities. Green ducks 
bring the highest price about May 1 ; from then until 
July, the price gradually falls. From July to Sep¬ 
tember, the price remains unchanged, but after Sep¬ 
tember 1 again rises and, in October, ducks that it has 
cost less to raise than the early ones, again bring 
good prices. In November, western ducks are sent 
to market in great numbers, and the price then goes 
very low. 
Prices Received. 
Last April, Mr Pollard received as much as 60 cents 
per pound at retail, and 50 cents at wholesale for his 
earliest ducks. They then weighed about 3% pounds 
each. Two years ago, the whole of his first 
hatch, marketed before dealers had received ducks 
from elsewhere, brought him 50 cents per pound. 
Some of them were sold at this price when eight 
weeks old and weighing 9% pounds per pair. Last 
season, his ducks were sold at wholesale as follows : 
April 25, 50 cents ; May 1, 33 cents ; May 9, 30 cents ; 
May 15, 26 ; June 1, 21 cents ; June 16, 19 and 20 cents ; 
July .2, 18 cents ; July 18, 16 cents ; from August 1 to 
October 1, 14 to 16 cents. He expects that the price 
will go up to 18 cents by October 20, and then drop 
when the western ducks come in. As Mr. Pollard re¬ 
marked, “ 50 cents per pound for young ducks is pretty 
good and counts up pretty fast so long as it lasts.” 
He has taken pains to secure the best ducks that can 
be found and of late years has exhibited at the fall 
fairs and the winter poultry shows ; as a result, the 
sale of breeding ducks has become an important part 
of his business. 
He has been endeavoring to improve his ducks by 
increasing the depth and flesh development of the 
fore part of the bodies, and his breeding birds are, 
as a lot, very deep bodied. This type of duck, he 
claims, will be the plumpest, heaviest and most at¬ 
tractive when dressed. With this deep-bodied strain, 
he won in close competition at the Boston Poultry 
Show most of the first prizes. (All but one, and it 
was afterward found that the bird that took it wa & 
disqualified, so 
he really was 
entitled to all 
firsts.) 
The New Farm. 
Finding h e 
needed more 
room for his 
fowls, as well 
as more water 
for his ducks 
than his subur¬ 
ban place af¬ 
forded, Mr. Pol¬ 
lard secured, 
about a year 
ago, a 60-acre 
farm a few 
miles out in the 
country that is 
almost an ideal 
place for duck 
raising on an 
extensive scale. 
This place is 
made up of 
hills and hol¬ 
lows, ridges 
and marshes, 
and has a 
stream running 
through its 
whole length 
which fur¬ 
nishes all the 
water needed for duck ponds. The soil is a gravelly 
loam over a gravel subsoil. Natural marshes between 
gravelly hills and steep slopes leading down to the 
water give every natural advantage desired in laying 
out yards for breeding ducks. The marshes and ponds 
are as near like the natural home of the duck as can 
be had. It would seem that several generations of 
ducks bred with such liberty and surroundings must 
regain all the hardiness and vigor of their natural 
state, and that a high per cent of fertile eggs would 
be insured. 
The duck house on this place, put up last year, is 
120 feet long, 12 feet wide, 8 feet high in front and 
4% feet high at the back. It is built as cheaply as 
possible, of one thickness of ordinary boards and cov¬ 
ered with Neponset paper. The inside is divided up 
into pens, two of which are 12x20 feet and five 12x16 
feet; 27 ducks and 5 drakes are kept in each small 
pen. The partitions are only three feet high, being 
made of 12-inch boards nailed across at both the top 
and bottom with the space between covered with 
netting one foot wide. The top board is quite desir¬ 
able, as it prevents the netting from being bent down, 
and the ducks are less liable to run against the parti¬ 
tion or try to jump over. In the front of each pen is 
a window about three feet square, high enough from 
the ground so that it will not be broken by the ducks, 
while in the rear at a convenient height, is an oblong 
trap-door through which the manure is shoveled out 
as well as the planer shavings thrown in right from a 
wagon. Speaking of the Neponset which covered 
this building, Mr. Pollard said that he liked it, and 
