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FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

at the different exhibitions the following winter should, as 
fast as they become broody, be allowed to sit and to hatch 
and rear a brood of chickens. If this is not desirable, they 
should be allowed to sit for six weeks on wooden or porcelain 
nest-eggs. If this latter plan is adopted, the: hen should be 
taken off the nest once daily during the last three weeks, 
and fed with corn or buckwheat, to prevent her becoming 
too much reduced in flesh, as hatching and rearing their 
young is one of the strongest instincts of this breed. I 
think each hen should be allowed to hatch and rear one 
brood as soon after the first of June as she will take to the 
nest. This will give to her reproductive organs the much 
needed rest after a protracted season of continuous laying, 
as chicks that are hatched after June rarely make show birds, 
and require care through the following winter to bring them 
to full size. I think it best to let nature have her way. I 
have always found hens treated in the foregoing manner to 
get through the moulting season much sooner, and appa- 
rently much more vigorous and healthy, generally being in 
full feather and fit to be shown in December. 
Although moulting is not a disease, it is a critical period, 
in which I think the fowls need extra care given them, 
especially those that are slow in shedding, and do not com- 
mence till late in the fall. Under no circumstance should a 
cock be allowed with the hens when either is moulting. They 
' should be provided with an absolutely dry house or shed, in 
which they can seek shelter from cold or rain. They should 
be given plenty of stimulating food; meat of some kind 
ought to be fed to them once daily. A little hemp seed fed 
occasionally is very beneficial. A piece of rusty iron ora 
few nails should be kept in their drinking fountain; or, 
what is better, take a half pound sulphate of iron (copperas), 
and dissolve it in two quarts of water, add one half ounce 
sulphuric acid, put the mixture in a jug or bottle, and keep 
for use. Dose: To every pint of water that the drinking 
vessel holds put one teaspoonful of the mixture into it. This 
is the celebrated Douglas mixture for strengthening and in- 
vigorating fowls during the moulting season. The original 
recipe says two gallons of water, but I think two quarts is 
sufficient, the other making it too weak to be of much bene- 
fit. By pursuing the above method, I think the fancier 
will experience little difficulty in bringing his fowls safely 
through the moult in time for the early winter shows. 
W. E. FLower. 
April 25, 1874. 

2 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
; PLATA DUCKS. 
Mr. Jos. M. Wane. 
DEA SiR: I notice, in No. 15 of Fanciers’ Journal, an 
inquiry from ‘‘E. W.” regarding the difference between 
Muscovy and Plata Ducks. As I introduced the latter 
variety to public notice, I reply to your correspondent. 
About 1864 or ’65, Mr. J. T. Crooker, residing near me, 
brought a trio of this variety home with him from near 
Glen Cove, L. I. His account of them is as follows: The 
party from whom he procured them was a custom-house 
officer, who found several of these ducks on board of a ship 
that had just arrived from the Rio Plata, in Buenos Ayres, 
S. A. I purchased a trio of them of Mr. Crooker in the 
spring of 1866, and raised quite a flock of them. During 
the fall, Col. M. C. Weld, then associate editor of the Ameri- 
can Agriculturist, visited me. After giving him a history 
of the ducks, I asked him what I should call them. My 

flock being nearly all pure silvery white, he suggested ‘‘ La | 
Plata,” and I shortly after advertised in the Agriculturist 
under the name of ‘ Plata Ducks.” 
The original stock were mostly white, with some mark- 
ings of a light lead color; by selection I got my flock nearly 
all pure white. While possessing many of the character- 
istics of the Muscovy, they were still essentially different. — 
They had the same carunculated excrescences about the head 
and neck, the same peculiar hissing quack, and a musky 
‘smell perceivable in the old birds, but mot in the young. 
As to their points of difference, they never roosted on 
fences, trees, or buildings, which the Muscovys nearly 
always will; they were more fond of the water than the 
latter; they were most excellent eating, being tender, juicy, 
and fine flavored, which I cannot say of the Muscovys; and 
lastly, they were fully fifty per cent. larger. JI have many 
times dressed young drakes for the table, which, at six 
months old, weighed sixteen pounds with head and feathers 
off. The old drake brought here by Mr. Crooker, I bought 
in 1868. We had some trouble in catching him, and as we 
put him in the box he threw himself over on his back, gave 
a few kicks and died; he had probably ruptured a blood- 
vessel in his struggles. We weighed him half an hour 
after, and he turned the scales at a little over twenty-two 
pounds. This was the largest duck of any variety I ever 
saw, and weighed fully eight pounds more than the heaviest 
Muscovy I ever owned or heard of. 
The ducks are quite small compared with the drakes, the 
average weight being not over six pounds, although appa- 
rently much heavier. When young the ducks are almost as 
light on the wing as a pigeon. I have seen them fly half a 
mile down the brook and return without seeming to exert 
themselves at all. After one year old they fly but seldom, 
and then only short distances. The drakes never fly, being . 
too heavy. In this they are totally different from the. 
Muscovys, which fly at all times and all ages. I do not 
know where there are any Platas now that are pure; they 
have been crossed with the Muscovys until they have lost 
their distinctive traits. Yours truly, eye 
A. M. HAtsTEp. 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
SEX OF EGGS—A TEST. 
Mr. WADE. ; 
Sir: I here give you the result of a hatching of thirteen 
eggs purchased of Mr. William J. Pyle. I requested him to 
select the eggs so as not to have more than one cock, and 
when hatched there were eleven pullets and one cock. They 
are now grown so that the sex can be distinguished readily. 
I now think his theory of testing the eggs is no humbug, 
but, on the contrary, really something worth knowing to 
poultry raisers. Yours, &., Joun W. FERRELL. 
West CHESTER, April 22, 1874, 
© 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
EGGS—LOSS OF WEIGHT DURING INCUBATION. 
Mr. WADE. 
I send you another account of my experience with eggs 
relative to the difference of weight before and during incu- 
bation. I selected a fresh-laid egg of medium size, which 
weighed two ounces and five pennyweights. After standing 
on the small end twenty days it had evaporated one penny- 
weight. It was then put under a hen for hatching. At the 
end of seven days it had lost five penny weights and twenty 
