The white pekins are the popular birds, because they are larger, have white meat, and are splendid layers.  They lay from 100 to 165 eggs in a season and are the easiest to raise.  They can do entirely without water; and Rankin tells of selling a flock to a wealthy man, who afterwards wrote asking him to take them back, because he had bought them for an artificial lake in front of his house, so that his wife and children could watch them disporting in the water.  He complained that they would not go into the water unless he drove them in and would remain only so long as he stood over them.

Ducks are easier to raise than any other fowl and are freer from disease.  They are ready for market when eight weeks old.

The industry is assuming large proportions, and ranches are now raising ducks by the tens of thousands and are finding better markets each year.

In starting any poultry business, it is better to begin with twenty-five fowls and master details with those, then double the number as fast as they have been made to return profits.

The Atlantic Squab Company, of Hammonton, N. J., says “it is a simple matter for the beginner to figure out on paper net profits of four or five dollars per year from each pair of breeders, but we doubt if it can be made.  It is, however, ‘pigeon nature’ to lay ten or eleven times a year, but hardly natural to presume that each and every egg will ultimately mean a Jumbo squab in the commission man’s hands.

“A loft [that is, a pair] of high-class Homers, properly mated, should average six pair of squabs per year.  For one year our squabs averaged us a fraction over 60 cent per pair; say $3.60 has been the returns from each pair of breeders.  It has cost us 90 cent per pair to feed for twelve months; remember, we buy in large quantities; it would cost the small breeder $1 a year per pair to feed.  It would be well to allow 60 cent a pair for labor and supplies, such as grit, charcoal, tobacco stems, etc., although the bird manure, which we find ready sale for at 55 cent. per bushel, has covered these incidental expenses for us.  The inexperienced beginner, with good management and close attention to details, should clear $2 a year from each pair of birds, provided he starts with well-mated pure Homer stock.”  Pigeons are particular about their mates, and will rather go single than take a disagreeable partner.

Raising Belgian hares at one time promised to be a most profitable industry.  The Belgian hare is a distant relation of the ordinary rabbit.  Its flesh is white, close-grained, and tender, resembling the legs of the frog, and has a very savory flavor.  It is considered by many superior to poultry, and the rapidity with which they breed gave promise of fortunes.  The doe brings forth a litter of about eleven every sixty days, and with prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.50, as they were about the year 1900, with the cost of raising from thirty to forty cents, the reason for this promise is evident.  In Southern California thousands turned their attention to it, and some firms entered the business with equipment to the value of fifty thousand dollars.