It is only within a few years that the public at large have become awake to the importance of the poultry interests in the country. Formerly it was supposed to be of insignificant proportions compared to the beef and pork product. But recent statistics show that the poultry interests in magnitude not only exceed either of the above, but are vastly on the increase year by year. Yet, strange to say, the supply, enormous as it is, does not keep pace with the demand. As a natural consequence, we are obliged to import millions of dozens of eggs from Europe, and carloads of poultry of all descriptions from Canada. (December 21, 1888, a train of twenty refrigerator cars loaded with dressed poultry, aggregating 200 tons, arrived in Boston from Canada,—$50,000 worth of dressed poultry at one shipment.) Still the demand goes on. Our large cities, which form the principal market for poultry and eggs, are growing larger every year. The rich men who inhabit them are growing richer and more numerous, and are always ready to pay the poulterer a good round price for a first-class article. Good poultry has not only become an every day necessity to the well-to-do classes, but is a common article of diet at least six months of the year on the workingman's table. It is everywhere recognized by physicians as the best and most palatable, as well as the most wholesome and nutritious, of all our flesh diets.
Duck Culture an Important Industry.
Duck culture now assumes a most important part in the poultry business, and yet, until within a few years, people did not suppose that ducks were fit to eat. But now the public appetite is fast becoming educated to the fact that a nice, crispy, roasted duckling of ten weeks old is not only a dish fit for an epicure, but is far ahead of either turkey, chicken or goose. As a natural consequence, the demand for good ducks is rapidly increasing. One of the principal poultry dealers in Boston assured me that his sales of ducks had nearly doubled each season for the past five years. Twenty years ago, when growing less than 1500 ducks yearly, I was obliged to visit the city markets personally and tease the dealers to purchase my birds in order to secure anything like satisfactory prices. Now, with a ranch capacity of nearly 20,000 ducks yearly, I cannot fill my orders.
Pond or Lake Not Necessary.
The reason is very plain. Formerly people supposed that ducks could not be successfully grown without access to either pond, stream or coast line. As a natural consequence, a large share of the birds sold in the markets were grown on or near the coasts, fed largely on fish, partially fattened, and were anything but a tempting morsel. For years there have been large establishments on the Long Island shores devoted to duck-culture. Large seines and nets were used regularly to secure the fish on which the young birds were fed and fattened. These birds grew to a large size and attained a fine plumage, but, as might be surmised, their flesh was coarse and fishy. Occasionally a person was found who relished these birds, but the majority of people preferred to eat their fish and flesh separately. Now this is all changed.
Duck-culture of today is quite a different thing from the days of yore. Then, the young birds were confided to the tender mercies of the old hen. Now, the business is all done artificially. The artificially-grown, scrap-fed duckling of the interior is a far different bird from his fishy-fed brother of the coast. He has been educated to a complete indifference to water except to satisfy his thirst. Taught to take on flesh and fat instead of feathers, his body is widened out and rounded off, and, when properly denuded of his feathers, is a thing of beauty.
Ducks In Great Demand for Food.
This sudden popularity of the duck in our markets, the great demand for them on the tables of our epicures, together with the immense profits realized from growing them, has naturally created quite an interest among poultry men; so much so that I am constantly flooded with letters filled with inquiries as to which is the best variety to raise, which are the best layers, if they can be hatched in incubators, what kind of buildings are necessary, the amount of profit realized,—in short, wishing me to give them the whole thing in detail, which, were one willing, it would be completely out of one's power to do. As there seems to be no work published in the country to meet this case and answer these queries, in pure self-defense, and through earnest persuasion of many friends, I shall, to the best of my ability, through this little treatise, endeavor to answer them, together with many other points which will naturally suggest themselves.
I shall confine myself almost entirely to an exposition of the artificial method, giving my own experience in the business for the last thirty years in detail. In doing this, the most approved buildings will be (both for brooding and breeding) described in full, together with cuts of the egg in different stages of incubation, and the living and dead germ compared, and how to distinguish each, plainly told. Just here let me say that a great deal of skepticism prevails among people in general and farmers in particular. They do not believe in the success of artificial poultry growing, or, indeed, of growing it in large numbers in any other way. As a proof of their assertions they will tell you that more than three-fourths of the people who attempt the business on a large scale make a complete failure of it. And it is the plain truth. There are few communities in this country, large as it is, but that, at some time in the past, has had a bogus incubator within its limits, or a good one that has been badly managed. The unfortunate experience of these men has spread for miles in all directions. There is but one verdict. The man is never condemned. The system is so denounced that a strong prejudice exists against all incubators, which it is difficult to combat. Every town, too, has had its representative poultry man who has erected extensive building's with a view to growing poultry on a large scale in the natural way. He, too, has met with disaster. Failure has attended his efforts, and the community is still more embittered against the whole thing, and the emphatic "It can't be done," meets you on every side.