Page:Ducks- and how to make them pay (IA cu31924003102971).pdf/64

50 kept clean and dry in their sleeping houses. I have made no mention of green food for the ducklings. Many breeders do not use any of this at all, or at any rate very little. I prefer using it when I can get it, as it is a very fine thing for the health of the young ducklings. Lettuce, cabbage leaves, cut up fine, grass, tares, or clover, run through a chaff-cutting machine, where there are a lot of young ducklings reared, are all capital things for them. When they have a good supply of green food, they do not require so much other food. When I am fattening young ducklings, I like to give them a little fattening powder, which is specially prepared for fattening ducks and fowls, about five times during the last fourteen days of their existence. Since the introduction of the book on ducks, there have been many thousands of people rear ducklings for their own domestic purposes who have never thought of such a thing before, having an idea young ducklings cannot be reared without a stream or pond to swim in. For instance, those who have a large family and can consume a great deal of this kind of food, when they are eating roast duck, be it ever such a luxury, they are keeping the butcher's bill down. Such people ought to have broods coming along, one after the other, from March to August, so that they are kept well supplied all through the season. Supposing they are fortunate, and the eggs hatch out well, there may be a few young ducklings to spare; then a present of a nice young fat duck is very acceptable; otherwise there are neighbours who are only too pleased to buy them. It is far better to dispose of them this way, where there are a