Ducks for the Military, 1944

"Quackalackadingdong", photograph by

Erlend Schei, June 22, 2010, republished

under a Creative Commons license.

During the height of World War II in 1944, Merrill Sampson of Lakeville devoted the production of his Main Street duck farm towards producing both ducks and chickens to ease growing food shortages.  Though considered a luxury food and typically not standard military fare, duck produced on Sampson's farm was sold to for use by both the army and the navy in that year.  The operation of the Sampson farm was documented for posterity just seven weeks after the invasion of Europe by a correspondent for the Brockton Enterprise:

With the memory of the mad scramble of Middleboro folks for food the past few months, the activities of N. Merrill Sampson, South Main street, just over the Lakeville line, to help out the food situation are worthy of note.

Sampson is a duck raiser. It was his custom to grow ducks in the spring, fatten them up, put them in cold storage, and then make plans for another year. This year he is hatching throughout the year, as fast as the duck eggs are available. He plans to raise 23,000 birds this year. The demand for them is so great that so far none has been placed in cold storage. The army is taking vast quantities of them, and the navy is getting many more.

The duck farm has been operated for a great many years, and from the start Mr. Sampson has been connected with it. Recently he took it over from Frank H. Conklin, who operated it for some years.

Mr. Sampson also hatched 150,000 chickens during this spring. One incubator handles 21,000 eggs at a setting. He has many smaller one also, but in spite of the tremendous chicken production he still devotes his attention principally to ducks.

Source:Brockton Enterprise, "Ducks Big Food Item", July 26, 1944