Part 16

ANSWER.--We have had drakes to tip the scales at 13 pounds each, though this is somewhat rare. The past season, one of our drakes weighed 9-1/2 pounds, dressed, at 10 weeks old.

QUESTION 43.--What is the weight of Pekin duck eggs?

ANSWER.--In the height of the season, ours weigh about 3 pounds to the dozen.

QUESTION 44.--Is wet, marshy land suitable for ducks?

ANSWER.--Should prefer dry land contiguous to a stream or pond.

QUESTION 45.--How many duck eggs should be placed under one hen?

ANSWER.--From nine to eleven, depending upon the size of the hen.

QUESTION 46.--How long does it require to incubate duck eggs?

ANSWER.--Pekin eggs twenty-seven days. Muscovy eggs thirty-two days, same as geese.

QUESTION 47.--Do Pekin ducks sit well on eggs?

ANSWER.--No. They are unreliable. Hens are better. A good incubator still better.

QUESTION 48.--If you were a young man, with the same experience you have now, would you enter the poultry business?

ANSWER.--I certainly would, for two reasons. First, because it is a congenial occupation to me; second, it is by far the most profitable of any branch of farm industry.

QUESTION 49.--Who is the best commission dealer in Boston market to whom I could consign my product?

ANSWER.--We consider Adams and Chapman, North Market St., safe and reliable, and a first-class firm in every respect.

QUESTION 50.--Who is the best retail dealer?

ANSWER.--We consider Nathan Robbins Co., Quincy Market, as A-1. They have handled a large part of our product for many years, and we would heartily recommend them.

Our Imperial Pekin Ducks.

We run one of the largest duck farms in America; and the birds in our breeding pens are the very choicest, carefully selected, from the thousands we raise, and are all bred from our premium yards. We feel justly proud of our birds; for not only have they won all the premiums at New England State Fairs, but throughout the West, South and Canada. Our birds cannot be duplicated in North America. We confidently challenge competition; and, strange to say, the birds in our yards are now far superior to our best imported birds. They thrive better on our feed and in our climate than in that in which they originated. The Boston and New York marketmen have repeatedly assured us that our ducks are the best that come into the market, and as a natural consequence we have not been able to fill our orders for market ducks. Our birds have dressed, on an average, the past season, twelve pounds per pair, at nine and ten weeks old. We have now 2,500 of these mammoth birds in our breeding pens, and we are prepared to fill all orders for both birds and eggs at reasonable prices.

Our young birds commence laying at five months old, lay through the fall months, moult slightly during the first of December, and about the middle of December begin again. The average number of eggs laid by our ducks we find, after careful computation, to be about 140 each year--more than our best hens. Our birds and eggs have given universal satisfaction wherever they have gone; and we have numerous letters from our patrons, expressing themselves as more than satisfied with their bargains.

Our prices range as follows:

Per pair, according to size and quality, from $4.00 to $6.00 Per trio, according to size and quality, from 6.00 to 9.00 Exhibition birds, each $5.00, or 10.00 per pair Eggs from our choice yards, per setting of 15 2.00 Eggs from our " per two settings 3.50 Eggs from our " per fifty 5.00 Eggs from our " per hundred 8.00 Eggs from our " per thousand 70.00

The above prices may seem large to some, but when it is known that many of the birds we now offer for sale were worth June 1st, $1.50 each in the market, and that we have kept them for the last six months at a cost of not less than fifty cents each, it is easy to see that the profits are not large. Our maximum price for market birds the present season was thirty cents per pound; the minimum, eighteen cents.

Our ducks are all hatched and raised artificially, and are put upon the market at a cost not exceeding six cents per pound.

TESTIMONIALS.

PEKIN DUCKS.

NILES, Ohio, Oct. 28, 1905.

MR. JAMES RANKIN, South Easton, Mass.: