The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor WorkMiller, Mary Rogers
Philosophy
The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work
Miller, Mary Rogers
Agriculture -- Juvenile literature
When ducklings are twenty-four hours old, they are ready for their
first meal. Mashed potatoes mixed with meal of corn or oats and
middlings are good for them. Milk, too, is excellent as for all fowls.
Begin to stuff them immediately; you will find them quite agreeable.
Green food of all kinds--grass, lettuce, cabbage, vegetable tops--all
chopped small, fills them up and is good for them. Such things as
turnips and potatoes should be cooked. Ground meat should be fed three
times a week. Have the feeding troughs so arranged that they can get
their shovels into it but cannot walk over the food and foul it; same
thing with the water. Feed four times a day. They must not get empty.
Growth will not be rapid unless continuous. Grit should be supplied.
On duck farms one hundred ducklings are kept in brooders five by seven
feet, with yards five by sixteen feet. They are kept absolutely clean
and dry. Those you keep over winter for next year's egg supply should
have access to a pond and grass. Old ducks do not bring high prices for
table use and do not put on weight very fast.
It was perhaps a young Boston housekeeper who asked when her market man
offered her Pekin ducks for her table, "How are they esteemed?"
He replied, "Oh, my wife, she don't never steam ducks. She just stuffs
'em like you would a chicken and bakes 'em."
RAISING SQUABS FOR MARKET
A few years' experience in raising fancy pigeons for pets is the best
kind of training for a young man who wants to raise squabs for market.
This business on a small scale ought not to take all one's time and
can easily be combined with some other business or profession or with
attending college. But your experience, varied though it may be, has
not acquainted you with all that is worth knowing on the subject. The
time has gone by when a man can afford to ignore books and bulletins
even on a subject upon which he may himself be an authority. A library
of pigeon literature will increase your wisdom. A practical man writing
of his experience in your business may save you hundreds of dollars
if you heed his advice. Don't scoff at college bulletins as your
grandfather probably did. He had reason, but the bulletin is not what
it was. Great strides forward have been made. Visit some big squab
raiser's plant and take mental and written notes of significant facts
observed. The colour of his pigeon loft does not affect the price he
gets for his squabs, but the quality of the grain he feeds has a direct
influence on the fullness of his wallet.
Full-blooded homers are declared by many to be the best, all things
considered, for table use. Good, mated birds of this variety can be
bought for about two dollars a pair. They are hardy, bright, active on
their feet, and the squabs have a larger breast than some of the other
sorts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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