The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-05-27

the day. The wild duck obtains its food
from brooks, ponds and water fronts, and
consists chiefly of grasses, roots, flags, small
fish and various kinds of water insects.
| This class of food should be supplied the
domestieated duck in confinement in prefer
ence to hard grain diet. The duck has no
crop; the small duct or passage leads from
its threat direct to its gizzard.
During cold weather they should be fed
three times a day. The morning and even
ing meals should be q mash of wheat bran
and cornmeal, mixed with boiled turnips,
potatoes or cabbage, and small quantity Of
ground meat. At noon cracked corn,
wheat and oats should be fed. Cabbage
leaves and turuip tops thrown in the pens
between meals will be relished by the
ducks. Provide small patch of green rye
when convenient. Do not leave any food in
ihe troughs to sour. Feed only as much as
the birds will eat up clean.
An excellent food consists of mash Of
cooked turnips or potatoes, with one-third
cornmeal or wheat screenings added, to be-
fed three times day until the ducklings
are three weeks old. Fresh fish, grass and
heritage is an agreeable diet for ducklings.
Skinned or sour milk may be mixed with
the mash, but should never be given as
drink. Ducklings should be kept in warm,
dry coops. The coops should be closed
early at night and opened late in the MORN
ing. Until they are n month old, the duck.
lings should be allowed to remain only a
short time ut intervals in the water. for too
long bathing produces cramps when young.
Cold dews and showers will stunt them az
this age, and, like young turkeys, they
seldom recover from the effects of the chill.
Turn Them Loose.
Ducks and geese are profitable for the
farmer. The cost of feeding them from now
until Winter sets in is very small. They
should be turned loose in the grass fields,
and they will find enough young weeds and
insects to make them fat and thriving.
When such weeds as parsley, pig-weed and
rag-weed are young and tender the ducks
and geese consider them luxuries, and they
will fatten rapidly off them. Both of these
birds are excellent scavengers, and they
should be encouraged in their good work on
the farm.
Pin Feathers.
Unless new blood is occasionally intro
duced the vigor of the flock will suffer. The
way to do this is to buy thoroughbred cocks
10 replace the old ones
A Pekin duck will lay 100 to $50 eggs in
year, and 1t IS not hard to make pair OF
young Pekins weigh 10 pounds when 10
weeks old. They are profitable.
Chicken coops should not be allowed to
get foul and offensive. If the coops have
bottoms they should be cleaned out twice a
week at first, and once a week after the
chickens are two weeks old.
few quarts of millet seed may be useful
to induce the hens to exercise when confined
to the house in the Winter. Scattered
among the leaves and litter on the floor the
hens will hunt all day for them and co
a great deal of scratching for little food,
not enough to fatten them much.
One of the advantages of using the brooder
for chickens Is, or should be, its freedom
from vermin; therefore, it should not bo
stored away for the Winter in the henhouse.
Put it where it will keep clean until it is
wanted again, and see that the water-tank
is thoroughly dry before it is put away, so
that it will not rust ont.
Eggs are shipped to New York from Bel
GUM. They are packed in fiat boxes filed
in with cut straw. Tine boxes hold from 60
to 80 dozen each. The loss by breakage IS
about the same as those shipped from the
West in barrels. Freight averages from one
and half cents to two cents per dozen,
while they range with those for Western
stock.