The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-27
Big LONG ISLAND DUCK FARMS
AN ILLUSTRATION or THE NEW
IDEA IN FARMING.

Esstpert the Centre Of the Industry-lt
supplies IFS 900 Ducks q Year for
New York Tables-Odd Sights on
Duck Ranch--Appetite OF the Ducks.
The wandering city man who dsem-
banks It the little station at Eastport,
L. l., and instead OF turning to the left and
reaching the Long Island Country Club
turns to the right and strays on among
country roads, dusty and fringed with
poldenrod, will, after bit. see snowdrifts
in the distance.
T. is not time for snowdrifts yet, but
there they are, on the banks of the creek
great heaps Of drifted snow bordering the
hlue water on each shore. The visitor
rubs his eyes and approaches nearer ana
presently the snowdrifts begin to quack.
Their voices resemble an irritated saw
mill. The raucous chorus becomes violent
NJ the approach of the visitors. The DUCKS
can apparently detect a stranger as far as
the eve can reach. and when he apprcae hes
the wire fence which corrals them, they
with one accord arise and rush d own into
the sea. That is. the creek.
II looks like an arm Of the sea to the
unintiated cyclone Of those arms that 60
loafinR up into the meadows in the most
unexpected way down on the southern
shore of the island Of golf. But folks
down PASSPORT way insist that it is creek
Cedar Creek; that the water is only signify
brackish, and that the tide rises only two
inches, being fought back by plucky springs,
which thus cheerfully play the part OF Mrs
Partington's broom
Eastport folk are insstent on this matter
Maybe it would injure the lofty reputation
OF the Long Island duck if it got about
that he was sea-going fowl.
Moreover, the duck men insist that KIND
of grass grows in Cedar Creek--not sea
weed. but creek grass-which is the incest
thing in the world for growing ducks
Tho ducks wake in the night and cry for it,
II seems. The visitors thought so when
bunch OF it was thrown into a corral LOT
demonstration.
The fight in that particular corral for
few minutes was worse than the scramble
when the Administration changes. They
aid over one another's backs and sat on
one apother's heads. and grabbed the stun
out of one another's bills. They were, IN
fact. very rude, and one wondered, in watch
ing them, why "a little duck should be the
symbol of something nice and pretty.
One understood also the significance
Of the cripple pen on every duck ranch.
In the cripple pen ducks are walking ABOUT
on one leg or no leg at all. Some meahder
painfully by on their knees; some lie on
their backs and squawk because they can
not turn over. 1t looked very sad until
the enlightened observer knew that 1t all
came from greed.
, The same unbridled desire to be first
Mt the table is the cause OF the separating
of the duck yard into many pens by means
of yire-fence partitions. A few hundred
irving to get at bunch OF creek grass
.t the same time is not so bad as twenty
Thousand all bent on the same peaceful
GRAND.
The yard, cut into long, narrow sec
tons, like French Canadian's farm wheh
he divides il with his sons. stretches from
the duck house down to the beach, Tor
it looks Just like beach, although 1t 10
creek. The fences run out into the water
a little way, leaving room for the ducks
IN paddle about contentedly and not go
sailing out to sea-
That is the reason they keep themselves
40 nice and white, and lie along the beach
like snowdrifts in summertime Inc
astonished stranger who comes une&-
nectedly upon the duck ranch back from
the shore will imagine that the PASSPORT
farmers are raising fine variety OF crow
There the ducks are black as coal. Ihey
cannot haul water enough to keep them
clean. Yet they say the ducks taste just
"A GOOD as though they had bathed daily
throughout their bright young lives =.
Twenty thousand snow-white ducks all
in q bunch is a sight worth going seventy
miles down on the Long Island coast to
90. Twenty thousand Long Island ducks
all demanding dinner at the same time
Tho Manhattan homeward-bound crush is
nothing to it. Thought flies and reason
reels.
Up in the duck house a man is getting
dinner; not duck dinner, but DUCKS
dinner. He is stout, able-bodied man
and he does nothing all day but get dinner
for his twenty thousand pets.
He is a difficult man to converse with
The visitors among them muster iour
lanrua ges,-French, German, ltallah ana
United States. No glimmer OF intelh-
gence responds to any OF them, 80 the
visitors can only stand and watch him.
He has a mighty trough, occupying
whole side Of the duck house. ms Is
filed with mixture Of cornmeal and bran
with a little -four to give consistency te
the pudding. Mixed all through it Is des'
located creek grass.
Into one end pours steady stream OF
water from hose, pumped out OF an artesiar
we'll by a windmill. And the non-English
speaking gentleman stands from one mea
time to another and mixes and mixes this
stun with shovel to get it damp enough
for 10000 ducks to eat.
Sometimes they put meat scraps INTO IL
bits Of dried meat prepared and sold io'
the purpose by a. big firm and somewha
resembling the scrapple beloved OF Phila
delphia. Sometimes they give them fish
but tender little young ducks must not hav'
much fish. 1t makes them taste to'
fishy for Washington Market. But the.
do saw that a fish diet makes the old duck
lay better.
On a duck ranch which raises 10000 bird
a wear, the annual bill for feed will not b.
less than $4,000. The duck man has
seven acre lot OF likely looking corn.
"A drop in the bucket he says con
temptuously. -only about enough for fv
days"