WEST SIDE OF LANE.
Rye comes first in the season (I always cultivate it for the purpose, and when coarse, it must be cut so that it can be readily eaten); then grass; and next corn fodder, which is best of all. It is astonishing how much of the latter these birds will consume—hundreds of pounds each day. It should be cut very fine, not more than one-third of an inch in length. Unlike the hen, the birds prefer the stalk to the leaf. Give them all they will eat, once each day. [But we have forgotten that empty machine. After the ducklings are taken out it will be found running at 85 to 90 degrees. I gauge it up to 102 and fill it with fresh eggs at once, not forgetting to fill one tray in the little tender.] There is one bad habit to which ducklings of four or five weeks old are addicted, and that is feather eating. First the down will begin to disappear from their backs; next, as the birds grow older, the quills which grow out from the end of the wings will disappear, and they are all exposed for tempting morsels.
These quills bleed profusely when disturbed, which, of course, seriously retards the growth and progress of the birds. This vice should be checked at once, for vice it is,—superinduced by idleness and close confinement. When the first indications of these troubles appear, the attendant should watch the birds closely for a few moments, when the aggressors can soon be detected. They should be removed at once and confined by themselves, or placed in yards with older birds already feathered out, which affords them no temptation to practice their newly acquired art.
