. Ducks and geese; a valuable collection of articles on breeding, rearing, feeding, housing and marketing these profitable fowls . ON THE RELIABLE POULTRY FARM, QUINCY, ILL of Pekins exhibited by Mr. Newman weighed twenty-six pounds, the drake weighing fourteen pounds and the hen twelve pounds. Mr. Newman is the owner of a sixty-acre farm on Staten Island, fronting on salt water. Twenty acres of this farm are given up to Pekin ducks, and the past season he raised and marketed between 12,000 and 13,000 ducklings. All ducklings raised for market are sold when between eight and ten weeks old. Suc
. Ducks and geese; a valuable collection of articles on breeding, rearing, feeding, housing and marketing these profitable fowls . ON THE RELIABLE POULTRY FARM, QUINCY, ILL of Pekins exhibited by Mr. Newman weighed twenty-six pounds, the drake weighing fourteen pounds and the hen twelve pounds. Mr. Newman is the owner of a sixty-acre farm on Staten Island, fronting on salt water. Twenty acres of this farm are given up to Pekin ducks, and the past season he raised and marketed between 12,000 and 13,000 ducklings. All ducklings raised for market are sold when between eight and ten weeks old. Such ducks as Mr. Newman breeds then weigh, on an average, five pounds each. At a point between eight and ten weeks of age Pekins weigh more than they do a little later, after their first molt, as feather-production de- creases their weight. They are, therefore, marketed just before they begin to drop their first coat of feathers. Mr. Newman begins to hatch out ducklings in January and continues steadily through to the middle of July. Six- teen incubators are used on his farm, ranging in capacity from 200 to 800 eggs. He keeps 520 layers, or breeders, and these, only, are given the freedom of water. Young ducks are never allowed by him to "go swimming," or to get to water in any way except to reach it with their bills to drink. Swimming is often fatal to very young ducks, and prevents their laying on flesh as rapidly as is desired for marketing. Brooding houses heated by the Bramhall, Dean & Co. hot water pipes are used, from twenty-five to forty duck- lings being allowed to each pen, the indoor pens ranging in size from 4x14 feet to 10x14. Connected with these pens are outdoor runways ranging in size from 4x20 to 10x20. Boards one foot wide, stood on edge, are all the fence required to confine young Pekins. On this farm soft food is fed, no whole grain ever being given to either old or young. The food used consists principally of vegetables, including turnips, beets
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