Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1894 — Duck-Farming. [ARTICLE]

Duck-Farming.

Harper's Weekly. It is worthy of note that thd Chinese very, very long ago hatched out their ducks by artificial heat, and the incubators that seem so wonder* ful to us at the poultry shows an<l country fairs were an old story id the East long before our greatgrand* fathers were born. It is likely that we got the domesticated duck froni China, so long ago that we know nol when, and the writers on natural history content themselves with tell* ing us that it is derived from thd mallard, mixed in some cases with the musk-duck and the gadwall, and perhaps the black duck. The domestication of the duck has had an effect the opposite of that usually produced by civilization on man, for the mallard is strictly monogamous. Waterton the naturalist assures vs, indeed, that the wild-duck is a most faithfulhusband, and remains paired for life, while the domestic drake is most notoriously polygamous.