The Old Time Farm Magazine: Rye Bread Recipe, Kelp as Fertilizer and a Manure Pit

article image
ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Ever thought of using kelp as a fertilizer?  If not, you may want to go ahead and read these old-farm magazines.

Reprinted from THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, © 1915, The Curtis Publishing Company

Wild Ducks on the Farm

Why not grow wild birds on the farm, both for pleasure and for profit? Prof. J. C. Halpin, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, has demonstrated that the wild mallard is readily domesticated and may easily be raised by farmers who have small ponds or streams. Professor Halpin started about five years ago with a single pair. Although he sold many last year, he now has a flock of more than 200. The bird propagates so rapidly — from thirty to forty eggs a season — and shows the inherent ability to shift for itself at so early an age that the plan has evidences of being a good commercial proposition.

Naturally the first question asked is how these birds may be kept in captivity. The original stock was bagged by hunters. When turned over to Professor Halpin he clipped one wing of each bird to the first joint. The following spring the thirty-odd eggs laid were divided between the incubator and the mother. The little ones became so domesticated from handling after hatching that they were even greater pets than the domesticated ducks on the farm. Their rapid increase in numbers has not changed this condition.

It is a sight worth seeing to behold these 200 mallards start on their exercise flights about four o’clock in the morning and just before sundown, sometimes in groups, then in an unbroken straight line. At times during the day they may take a spin, but when the weather is hot they prefer to lie in some shady place and quack family gossip. Sometimes they will go miles away or alight in pastures long distances from the yards that have been fenced off for them. A word to the farm dog with whom they have been raised and he is after them. As if they understood the message they arise and circle to the yards.

  • Published on Jan 1, 1978
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368