Now, there is a cause for all this. Where is it? In the men. They do not comply with the conditions of success, and failure is the result. We will endeavor to give some of the reasons why: Nearly three-fourths of these people come from the city. Now, city people have unfortunately imbibed the impression that the necessary amount of brains and executive ability required to successfully run a mercantile, manufacturing or broker's business in the city is largely in excess of that required to run a successful poultry or agricultural ranch in the country.
Raising Poultry in the Country.
Men who have impoverished themselves by repeated failures in the city come out to retrieve their fortunes by raising poultry in the country. They visit your place and see thousands of young ducklings of all sizes and ages, each one vieing with the other as to which will consume the most food. They are completely carried away with the sight. They question you closely in regard to the profit derived from the business, and then openly avow their intention of doing the same thing themselves. You advise beginning small, and meekly suggest the possibility of failure through inexperience. The incredulous smile that plays over their features informs you that advice is wasted. "Why, haven't I read up all the poultry journals and got the whole thing down fine?"
Others, still, who, from close confinement at sedentary work in the city, are anxious to engage in a business which promises equally to restore their health as well as to provide them a livelihood. These invalids come out with their exhausted energies and dilapidated constitutions to engage in a business which, to insure success, requires a minuteness of detail and intensity of application second to none. They are unequal to the six or eight hours required of them on a revolving stool in the counting-room in the city, but are equal to the fourteen and sixteen hours indispensable to the poultry business in the country. Is it strange that a large proportion of these men fail?
Others, still, come to us wishing to engage in the business, at the same time candidly acknowledging their complete ignorance and inexperience. They frankly state their circumstances. They are poor, with families to support, and are not afraid of work, throwing themselves, as it were, upon one's mercy. They seek a good, healthy and fairly profitable occupation in which they can cultivate the physique and morals of their children away from the temptations of city life. Now you take kindly to such men; readily forfeit any advantages which may accrue to yourself through want of candor on your part, gauge their calibre, and to the best of your ability measure their chances of success, and give them the best advice you can, which advice usually is to begin small,—say with one machine, buildings in proportion, and increase their plant as their experience and judgment dictates.
Raise Ducks and Chicks.
But the reader will say: "What has all this to do with duck-culture?" Simply this: It is to give the would-be poultry enthusiast some idea of what he has to contend with before he begins. To convince him that this is no child's play—that the care of young ducks and chicks means early hours and late. The closest confinement and application is required for at least six months of the year, and if he is at all afraid of hard work or of soiling his fingers, he had better stop where he is. The theory that the poultry business furnishes a good occupation for little boys and girls, superannuated old men and invalids, has long since exploded. We advise people to secure a fair share of health before they begin and then they will be sure to keep it. As an inducement to all, I would say that there is nothing in the way of farm industry or any other legitimate occupation which will at all compare with the profits obtained from poultry when artificially conducted. There are, however, a few notable exceptions in favor of watered railroad stock, bogus mining shares, patent medicines, and the business done by our bank cashiers when guaranteed a safe transit through to Canada. I would advise all contemplating the poultry business to combine the growing of ducks and chicks together, for the reason that more profit can be realized from both than from either alone, because they do not necessarily interfere with each other, and the same buildings and machinery can be utilized for both. The brooding-house should be filled with chicks in November and December, which they will have outgrown by February, when the building will be required for ducklings. The ducklings, strange to say, though two months younger, will be ready for market as soon as the chicks (provided the latter are held for roasters, as they should be) and they will both be in the market in time to command the highest prices. This is what the poulterer should always cater for, and machinery alone will enable him to do it. He who expects to incubate with old hens during the winter will surely get left. But more of this hereafter.
Select A Good Site.
The first thing for one to do (if he is not already located), is to select a good site. It should have a gradual slope to the east or south, enough for natural drainage. No matter how poor the land, it will be rich enough before your fowls get through with it. I need not say that in those regions where snow lies upon the ground four or five months of the year, the conditions are not as favorable for the poultry grower as near the coast line, where snow, though a frequent visitor, remains but a few weeks or days at a time. In the one case it means close confinement to the fowls a great part of the winter, with want of exercise and consequent want of action in the digestive organs. The food is not assimilated, the fowls become debilitated, and though they may give a fair share of eggs, these eggs can seldom be depended upon to hatch. It is true, the active poulterer may overcome this in a measure by clearing away the snow for ten or fifteen feet in front of his buildings after each storm, and by a free use of barn chaff and chopped straw induce his fowls to go out on sunny days, but all this increases his work and makes the conditions against him. I simply mention these facts, assuming that where a man has his choice of locations, these hints may have their proper weight in the matter.