The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-11-16
A WALDO COUNTY INDUSTRY.
The French Bros Duck Farm at Sandy
pOint

point.
among the large amount of interest
ing matter which will be contained in
the Forthcoming report of the bureau
OF industrial and labor statistics. will
De chapter on the poultry industry OF
the State, and included therein will be
the description of duck farm where
thousands of ducks are raised every
I year for the market. The farm is 10.
Gated in the town of Stockton Springs.
III Waldo county, and is owned and
managed by French Bros. & Co.
Strictly speaking, the farm is located
at Standpoint, near the mouth of the
PenobScOt river.
| business which is conducted by the
firm may be had from the fact that &C.
| cording to the report of the State board
of assessors for the year 1908, the
number of ducks raised during the year
was $4,000, at a gross value of IS cents
each, and a total value of $1235O.
There is no other place in Maine where
| ducks are raised in such numbers as on
the farm in question.
The variety of ducks raised is the
White Pekin, and as might be expect
ed incubators are used exclusively in
the process Of propagation, and thus
the little fellows are Matched out by
wholesale. Very few, however, of
those which are Matched during the
season are allowed to come to maturity,
as they are raised entirely for the mar
ket and are killed and shipped to Bos-
ton as soon as they reach the age of
| about ten weeks.
| Another peculiar feature in cOnnec-
| ton with the duck culture at the farm
is that although ducks are as naturally
associated with water as turkey is with
the Thanksgiving dinner, the ducks
raised there have nothing to do with
water in any way except that which is
furnished them for drinking purposes
and this is kept in troughs with Stats
across them, so that the duck has no
chance to get III and have d swim, but
has to be content with pOking his head
between the Stats. The farm on which
the ducks are raised covers seven acres
or therea bouts, and is located mainly
on a hillside, and in sight of PenobScot
| bay, but although plenty of water is
within reach of the ducks, they do not
know what it is to enjoy the swim that
is one of the chief characteristics of
their more fortunate kindred.
Major G. j. House. clerk at the bu-
reau, visited the farm during the past
summer in order to procure the ma
| terial to be published in the report
and will furnish a very interesting
article. Major House states that when
the farm Is viewed from the decks of
| the steamers, when coming up the bay
the spectacle is a remarkable one, and
the ducks are so thick on the hillsides
that one would almost get the idea
| i,nt no ln,,
with occasional patches of green grass
scattered through the fields. But on
arriving at the farm the illusion is dis
PEELED and the snowy apparition re-
| solves itself into thousands of Waddlng
quacking ducks, all white, and each so
| like the other that his own mother
would not know him, even had he been
! hatched under the breast of the mother
duck, instead of through the agency of
an incubator.
| When Major House was at the farm,
the owners told him that the number
of ducks which would be raised this
year would be larger than that of any
previous year since the farm had been
established, and that the grand total
would figure up something like $4,000
or 10000 birds. At the price quoted
| above, it will be seen that the latter
| number would bring to the owners of
the farm the snug sum OF $40, 500.
a problem which has arisen, how
ever, during the past seasan, and which
it is thought may affect the future of
the farm, is the building of the North
ern Maine Seaport Railway, the line of
which runs directly across the farm.
1t is understood that the railroad COM
pany has offered to buy the farm. but
whether the question will be settled in
that way, or by the payment of land
damages, has not yet been ascertained,
* ennebec journal.