view raw text
WILD DUCK RAISING A BUSINESS A comparatively new industry for that section of the country, the domestication of wild ducks, it is reported, is ,being. started on a largo scale in portions of the Finger Lake .region at. central New-York to supply the wild game for food now cut off by .the .federal law- against killing wild duck any-wherein the. United States fdr commercial purposes. ThQ flupks are prevented from flight by clipping one wing. Hens are" usedf6r hatching the eggs at first and the ducklings are branded by a puncture through the web of the foot; signifying, after the bird is grown and killed, that it Jiad been domesticated. Raising of wildfowl is being carried on along Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. -The new migratory bird act, strengthened by the- treaty with Canada, which went into effect with the opening of the duck hunting season, September 10, has caused the-unique "venture. It is now estimated that ducks will rapidly increase in number, offering better sport to the nimrod, and will be raised in quantities in a few years which will add materially to the supply of food fowls., According to sportsmen the Finger Lake region is one of the principal stopping .places for migratory birds on tlt-ir way from Alaska to the south for the winter, and large quantities in the past have been killed in open season and many sold. The commercialized killing of the game lias chiefly been practiced near Chesapenko Bay and farther south. Finger Lake sportsmen and farmers are the first to begin to supply Hie metropolitan table demand. which will beleft unfilled by the gunners of the south, who are uov unable to kill for the inarke.V