Ducks are less frequently raised than chickens and often realize
good returns.
The popular fallacy that ducks require a stream or pond is gradually
passing away. There was a time when nearly all ducks were raised in
this way, feeding on fish as the principal diet, but experience has
proved that ducks raised without a stream or pond tend to put on
flesh instead of feathers, and they have not the oily, fishy flavor
of those raised on the water. Nearly all of the successful duck
raisers now use this method.
This is bringing the duck more into prominence as an article of
food; as James Rankin says in "Duck Culture," "People do not care to
eat fish and flesh combined. They would rather eat them separate."
The white pekins are the popular birds, because they are larger,
have white meat, and are splendid layers. They lay from 100 to 165
eggs in a season and are the easiest to raise. They can do entirely
without water; and Rankin tells of selling a flock to a wealthy man,
who afterwards wrote asking him to take them back, because he had
bought them for an artificial lake in front of his house, so that
his wife and children could watch them disporting in the water.
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