This orchard contains about four and a half acres, and the
coops are scattered over it a few rods apart. On the side of the orchard
that leads to the "pond lot," the bottom board of the fence is a foot
wide and comes close to the ground in order to keep the ducklings from
taking to the water too early in life.
When the ducklings are four weeks old the hens are taken away, but the
ducklings are kept in the orchard until they are six weeks old, or until
they are well feathered on the breast and under part of their bodies,
when they are turned into the pond lot, where they "take to the water
like ducks."
The pond lot contains nearly thirteen acres, five of which are covered
with water. Originally, this lot was a piece of low, rocky, bushy
pasture land, between two low ranges of hills. A stream of clear,
sparkling water, a famous trout brook, ran through the center. The woman
who proposed to raise ducks saw at once the advantage of such a
situation, and had a dam constructed near the upper end of the lot, and
later another was made lower down, so that the lot contained two large
ponds. Where the fences which separate my friend's land from that of her
neighbor cross the stream, water-gates are put in, which keep the ducks
from swimming out with the water; and the bottom boards of the fence
around the rest of the lot keep them from getting out that way.
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