Ducks AND DUCK-BREEDING. 309 

FATTENING. 
The final stage of preparing ducklings for market is one or 
very rapid developmeut. By this time they have grown con- 
siderably, and will nearly fill up their house. The food which 
yields the best result is rice properly cooked and mixed with 
about one-fourth its bulk of tallow greaves or meat. At 
this period more fatty material is essential to soften the 
flesh. Barley meal, buckwheat meal, and Indian meal 
are often used instead of the rice, but they do not yield 
pgemicaine tesult. In preparing the rice; of which that 
from Burma is the best, and when in the rough, one 
gallon of the rice should be added to four gallons of water 
puemanour 4 1b. Of the greaves or meat. This is gently 
simmered until the rice has absorbed all the water, when it 
is soft, yet nota mush. In order to aid digestion the birds 
must have a plentiful supply of coarse grit or fine gravel, 
without which much of the food will be lost and the ducklings 
will not fatten, the cost of production being thus greatly 
enhanced. (Green food is also valuable, and any garden stuff 
is good for the purpose. The birds are fed three times a day, 
and the object is to encourage eating, so that quick growth 
may be secured. During warm weather nettles are often 
boiled and mixed with the food, as these weeds keep the 
blood cool. Upon rice given as recommended ducklings are 
produced weighing from 4 to 54 lb. at eight to nine weeks 
old. Rapid growth is essential to success in the duckling 
trade. The birds must be killed before they are nine weeks 
old, for then there is a change of feather, which, when com- 
pleted, reduces their market value, as they are no longer 
regarded as ducklings. The chief demand for ducklings is 
from February to July. 
KbeING AND LPRUccnNe. 
When sufficiently fatted the birds are starved for twenty- 
four hours and killed by dislocation of the neck. Plucking 
