Читать книгу Natural and Artificial Duck Culture - James Rankin - Страница 25

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Third, that it is not necessary to keep your birds till they are six months old in the fall and then put them on the market when it is sure to be glutted, but much better to market them at ten weeks, when they are nearly as heavy, and you are sure to get more than double the price, as well as save three or four months extra feed. There are many other points connected with this thing which the novice must ponder carefully before he begins, as a slight mistake in the beginning often means a great loss in the end. As pioneers in the business we have for many years been carefully experimenting with the different breeds, different treatment and variety of food. We have met with many failures, suffered some loss, but with a gradual improvement through it all, which has been very encouraging to us, and though we do not claim perfection, yet we are now reaping a rich harvest compared to which our former losses are simply insignificant. It is a source of gratification to know that success has at last crowned our efforts.

When we look back forty years—when year after year chronicled failure and our best efforts met with loss—when we were the butt, ridicule, and laughing stock of the whole community; when we were assured again and again that we were fighting against nature and never could succeed, and repeated failures only seemed to confirm that assertion—and compare it with the present, when we can grow our birds by the thousands, regulate the growth, control the mortality, and grow flesh or feathers at will; have shortened the precocity, increased fecundity, and even educated the birds to an aversion for water, which was formerly their home; we have completely reversed the order of things and taught our birds to reproduce at a season of the year when all nature is against them, we can safely feel the victory is won. We hope that our readers will not only benefit by the experience we shall present, but that many of them will be able to take this and carry it on where, according to the natural course of things, we shall be obliged to leave it. We are no longer young, the infirmities and decrepitude of age are slowly creeping upon us and admonish us that our days of research are nearly over, and we find that our life is all too short. But there is a satisfaction in knowing that others will take this thing up where we leave off and carry it on to the end.