Page:Ducks- and how to make them pay (IA cu31924003102971).pdf/61

Rh some kind of meat or refuse in it every day to mix in with their meal. In one barn I saw, twelve feet by fifteen feet, there were one hundred and forty ducklings, almost full grown, which had never been out more than from five to ten minutes at a time since they had been hatched. Every duckling was perfectly healthy and growing fast. I usually visit the duck counties once a year. I have done so for many years, driving round to different villages, where I find from fifty to five hundred, even at small cottages. They are only considered very small breeders if they have not as many as five hundred or one thousand just in the height of the season. I visited one district in one day, which had from forty to fifty thousand young ducklings in it. All of these find their way into the London markets.

The sheds, or barns, where they are kept, are divided off with either movable partitions or thatched hurdles, so that there are from 25 to 50 in one lot. It would not do to put them all together; if so, they might tread upon each other, unless they were all about one size. The Aylesbury people are very careful after they are fed and watered to let them lie quiet. They do not go to disturb them between meals, and they keep them rather dark, as they think they grow faster. I use peat moss for the young ducklings instead of straw, as straw is very dear near London. I find they do equally as well on the peat moss as on the straw, but they must not be fed or watered upon it; it must be kept perfectly dry. It saves a great deal of labour, because the sheds do not require clearing out every day when the peat is used. Every time they feed it should