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.
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