She cannot be induced to step in either except under pressure of circumstances. Not so your duck. She likes nothing better than to be out in a snow bank during a thaw, and if she can only work it up into the color and consistency of mud it suits her exactly. She does not mind the cold if she can only keep her feet warm. She is clothed with an impenetrable coat of feathers and an equally thick coat of down. She does not take kindly to confinement in a building and will utter her constant protest, and like the average school boy of ten prefers to suffer from the cold outside to being comfortable in. Therefore, the main point in breeding early ducks and erecting buildings for the same, next to supplying them with the right kind of food, is to keep their feet warm. Cold feet affect the winter laying of the duck the same as a frozen comb affects the hen. It stops the egg production at once. Locate Near a Railroad. Your plant should be located on a line of railroad, in direct communication with one or more of our great city markets, and not too far from the station, as you will necessarily be in frequent and close communication with that. Arrange the Buildings. to secure good room in front, also good drainage, and especially with a view to reducing the labor to a minimum, both inside and out. Always remember that the labor is the most expensive part of the poultry business. Now is the time for forethought and caution--save all the steps, all the work you can. You will never suffer from want of exercise, if your fowls do. I never knew a case of gout in a man in the poultry business in my life. It is well, also, when arranging a poultry plant, to make provision for future contingencies, so that should one in the course of time and experience wish to increase his plant and the size of his buildings longitudinally he will have plenty of room to do it, by simply moving the end of his building out as far as he wishes and filling in between. I have been obliged to do this several times in the course of my experience, and have the past Fall built a double brooding house 250 feet long by 16 feet wide. One important point in erecting poultry buildings is the difficulty in building them, Warm, Cheap, and Rat-proof.