The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-13
DUCK RAISING.
A Business That Has Changed Much i'm
Recent Years.

Philadelphia Ledger.
1.-THE little ducks that come to market
nowadays" said a wholesale dealer in this
city, land even the little ducks that stay
at home, are as different from the ducks we
used to sell four or five years ago as dried
figs are as different from the fruit fresh
from the vines. 1t seems an almost unnat-
ural thing to think of a duck without
duck pond, but the latest and best ducks
we sell now never saw duck pond.
Duck farming is still comparatively re-
cent thing, but it is developing along new
lines all the time. Experience has taught
that ducks allowed only sufficient water to
quench the thirst, and not a dirty. muddy
pool to wallow and swim in, are more
toothsome for the table and bring higher
prices in the market. Where there is
pond there are fish of some sort, and ducks
will eat the fish. That gives their meat
fishy flavor, of which housewives complain.
There is as much, If not more, money in
raising ducks than in raising chickens. But
as it takes more capital to start a duck
farm than it does to build hencoop, there
are fewer persons in the business. And
ducks. unless they have pond and are al
lowed to roam at their own sweet will, are
chickens. There is not much variation in
the food of duck fattening for the mar
ket. 1t is fed regularly three times day,
and it gets mash for every meal. Nothing
else agrees with a healthy duck like mash.
About once a week little cracked corn is
thrown in by way of variety, but the ducks
do not seem to care whether it is there or
not.
Breeders have an odd way of getting
around the natural craving of ducks for
animal food. 1t takes a long time to cure
the birds of this, and they are very irri-
table during the process. Breeders make a
stew of animal flesh and ground bones,
mixed, and strain off the water. This is
mixed with the water given the ducks to
drink, and also to moisten their bran. The
compound gives to their mash a meaty
flavor that gratifies their appetite and
adds to it a substance that makes them
strong.
I'm fattening ducks breeders try to make
them eat as much as they can; and it is
astonishing how much healthy duck can
eat. Some ducks will easily dispose of four
pounds of food a day without having indi-
gestion-enough solid material to sustain a
Woodworking 'longshoreman. If duck re-
fuses to eat more than enough to satisfy it's
appetite the breeder thinks it is sick.
ION farm the ducks are not allowed to
mix at will. They are kept in pens i'm flocks
OF nifty or seventy, according 10 their condi-
ton for marketing. The greatest care must
be taken with their bedding. Fresh hay
and straw every other night, and at certain
seasons of the year every night, is impera-
tive for healthy ducks. They do not sleep
in houses like chickens and turkeys do
Ducks prefer to huddle together and sleep
in the open. But their feet must be kept
warm. A duck with cold feet is usually a
dead duck.
1.-The proportionate returns from Matching
ducks eggs compared with hens eggs is
ridiculously small About one-half the
eggs sent to hatch are sheer waste. In fact
1t does not pay the breeders in this part OF
the country to raise from eggs they can buy
hereabout 1t is cheaper for them to buy
and raise young ducks shipped from the
West This industry has become so large
that cars are built specially for the duck
trade and men sent along who know how to
feed and take care of Them.