The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-01-13
A DUCK FARM.
THREE DENSELv POPULATED
ACRES IN NEW JERSEY.
New York Misunderstanding Killing
and Piekins the Fowls.

ally size OF Importance III the Vicinity
Of New York is that near Little Falls,
n. j., on the Greenwood Lake Divi-
sion of the New York, Lake Erie and
Western Railroad. The farm has
been used for its present purpose just
n year and a half. Its proprietor
is a Bostonian, who acquired and
practised the art of alternately in
creasing and diminishing the ''quack''
tribe at the Hub many years before
he removed his base of operations to
Jersey. In Boston, it seems, duck
and goose flesh is even more in de-
mand than in New York.
The duck farm" as il is known
in the little settlement Of Little
Falls, contains sixteen acres, three of
which are kept densely populated
with waddling, squawking, quacking
birds nearly all the year round. The
largest demands upon the rank and
file of the birds are made during the
season when they are most in vogue.
This covers Il period of five months,
beginning in October and closing in
February. Constant sales prevent
the noisy army from ever increasing
to a number much greater than 5000
at one time, and, with the de-
mand consequent upon the holiday
season just ended, the present tally Of
birds at the farm is about 1000.
Still, even this number is sufficiently
large to make itself distinctly heard
within a radius of u quarter of a mile.
In fact, there is n tradition which
says that the mill hands at Little
Falls awake with the first matutinal
warning from the ducks and geese,
and seek slumber at the same time
the birds do. One thing is certain
all distance among the inhabitants
of Little Falls is computed from the
duck farm"
Here is consumed nearly all the corn
meal produced by the wa~ter-power
mills of that section. Two carloads,
or 150 bags, vanish each week down
the Unsuitable maws Of the farms
feathered denizens.
OF the three acres occupied by the
fowls, two are set apart for the ducks,
which are most in request in New
York. These two acres are kept in a
marsh-like state all the time for the
greater enjoyment of the unconscious
victims. Rough wooden sheds under
which the birds may cuddlc in wet
weather are also placed about the
fields, which, for the sake of nve
fence in catching the fowls, are di-
vided into three sections with high
wire nets. The birds are brought to
Little Falls from the West, princi-
pally from Indiana. They come Over
the Delaware, Lackawanna and West
ern Railroad in large stock ears carry
ing several thousand fowls each.
Only "A small proportion Of them dies
on the road.
The birds are arranged in tiers, by
which method the ducks and geese.
are kept separate. The railroad runs
alongside the farm, and the fowls
emerge from the cars, tier by tier,
down a trough-like gangplank. They
are then driven in squads into the
quarters prepared for them at the
farm through a sort of alleyway which
runs along one side OF the three-acre
division. Here they are kept for
weeks on a nourishing cornmeal diet,
which makes them SO fat that they
can scarcely walk.
This provender also makes their
flesh white and tender and vastly
superior to the yellowish meat Of the
ordinary farmyard fowl. Ducks so
treated are preferred by judges Of
poultry to the Southern variety, and
even to canvasbacks and brants.
Most of the stock is shipped alive
to New York and sold through com
mission merchants. A few hundreds
in every thousand are killed. This is
done in a division of the packing
house on the premises. The operator
forces open the bird beak. Then he
slips down its throat a long, sharp
knife, which he moves about until the
principal blood vessels are severed and
the victim is nearly dead from stran-
gulation. Then he knocks the bird
head against a post, and without
more ado turns the carcass over TO
another operator, who proceeds at
once TO pluck the feathers from it.
These are thrown into a box and com
mand a ready sale.
The plucked birds are piled on a
shelf, whence they are taken and
packed in barrels for shipment
heads, necks and all. Thin layers OF
salt are sprinkled over each lot 10 in
sure their delivery in a marketable
condition New York World.