LEAKING DUCKS FOR THE TABLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5396, 13 July 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

LEAKING DUCKS FOR THE TABLE.

In convenient situations no more useful and .acceptable birds can be raised for table use than ducks, nor cau any be procured that will yield larger profitable returns, provided they are properly managed. Generally speaking, however, ducks are very injudiciously attended to when they yield very unsatisfactory returns. With regard to the variety that should be kept, two circumstances have to be considered. If large size, early maturity, and white appearance for the market are required, the Aylesbury will be found pre-eminent. If, on the other hand, small'size and a strongly pronounced suspicion of wild duck is required—then commend me to a smaller variety, as the small black, called with equal inaccuracy East Indian, Buenos Ayres, and Labrador ; or, still better, the tame-bred, wild, or a cross between the two ; .but for family use Aylesbuies must be relied on.

The great error in the usual management of ducks is not bringing them to rapid maturity. A duck should be so fed as to be large enough to kill under ten weeks old. If it is allowed to live longer it begins to moult, and consequently it is not so good in flavor, and the nourishment given to it goes i) form feathers, and not to increase its weight. It is obvious that, if one duck can be made ready for the market in two mouths, it must yield a larger profit than another that is-not fit for use until it is four or six. . -

The Messrs. Fowler have issued a letter on the management of these ducks. With regard to tba importance of, the trade,:they state:— “ Oftentimes in .the spring, in one night, a ton weight'of d icklings, from six to eight weeks old, is taken from Aylesbury and the villages round about, by rail to the metropolis. They are generally not killed till between seven and eight weeks old, when gooclbirds will be about 41bs. weight each. Now as to the treatment of *sach as are. intended for breeding and, exhibition. To produce birds of great frame and weight, the same food is given during the earliest stage; but after about three weeks they are allowed, to go to the water, and their food is varied as soon as possible by giving them maize' nnd barley alternately, when they can eat the same. They should be fed three times a day, and always have a trough of water by them; and it ds an advautge to hare some gravel or sand at the bottom, so that when drinking they always get hold , of some grit, which helps digestion and tends to .keep the bill the proper color,” In this matter my own practice has been somewhat different I prefer feeding ducks by throwing the grain into a pan of water ; if put on the ground it becomes trodden in the filth and dirt, and is neither so wholesome nor so attractive. Nor do I like maize for ducks as well as oats and barley. It renders the birds too fat,, and increases the tendency that they have to accumulate internal abnormal fat, and to go w down behind,” in which condition they are perfectly useless as stock birds, I have : always refused to award prizes tojthese worthless specimens, although by so doing I have incurred the displeasure of those exhibitors’ who think that prizes should be awarded by aid of the scales and weights, and the poultrymen, who may be seen cramming the ducks to repletion before the judges go round. As I have said so much about this breed, T cannot do better than quote Mr. Fowler’s description of their characteristics as they should appear iu the show-pen : “The plumage must be the purest white throughout. The bill should be long and broad, and coming straight from the skull. . It must be a delicate pale flesh color, and is so naturally ; but a ferruginous soil will often affect them in such a prejudicial manner that it becomes quite yellow. Any spots of black* or any discoloration on the bill, should disqualify. Birds for exhibition must bo kept out of. the hot summer sun, and not allowed to run too much on the grass, both of which are likely to spoil the delicate pink and turn it yellow.; The legs are deep orange. First-rate prize birds, when well fatted, will reachlOlbs., but that weight is seldom obtained even by the. best specimens exhibited at Birmingham. l l consider 71bs. attwelve.months almost beyond the average.” ' ° It is scarcely, necessary for me to remark that, however necessary these characteristics (so accurately described by Mr. Fowler) may be in a show-pen, for ordinary domestic purposes Aylesburies are quite as good without them. A poultry judge not look at a yellow-billed duck with complacency, but a cook may do so with admiration, • One evil undoubtedly has arisen from the admiration of the pale flesh-colored bill, arul that is the pactice followed by some exhibitors of scraping the bills before sending the birds to: shows,— W; B. Tegetmeikb, in the Field,