<P> Aylesbury ducks, meanwhile, were becoming inbred, meaning fertile eggs were scarcer and the ducks were more susceptible to disease . Exhibition standards had led to selection for an exaggerated keel by breeders, despite it being unpopular with dealers and consumers . Poultry show judges also admired the long neck and upright posture of Pekin ducks over the boat - like stance of the Aylesbury . Some of the breeders in the Aylesbury area began to cross Pekin ducks with the pure Aylesbury strain . Although the Aylesbury - Pekin cross ducks did not have the delicate flavour of the pure Aylesbury, they were hardier and much cheaper to raise . </P> <P> Until the mid-19th century duck rearing was concentrated on the Duck End, but by the 1860s it had spread to many other towns and villages in the area, particularly Weston Turville and Haddenham . Contamination of Aylesbury's soil by years of duck rearing, and new public health legislation which ended many traditional practices, caused the decline of the duck rearing industry in the Duck End, and by the 1890s the majority of Aylesbury ducks were raised in the villages rather than the town itself . Population shifts and the improved national rail network reduced the need to rear ducks near London, and large duck farms opened in Lancashire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire . Although the number of ducks raised nationwide continued to grow, between 1890 and 1900 the number of ducks raised in the Aylesbury area remained static, and from 1900 it began to drop . </P> <P> By the time Beatrix Potter's 1908 The Tale of Jemima Puddle - Duck--about an Aylesbury duck although set in Cumbria--caused renewed interest in the breed, the Aylesbury duck was in steep decline . The duckers of Buckinghamshire had generally failed to introduce technological improvements such as the incubator, and inbreeding had dangerously weakened the breed . Meanwhile, the cost of duck food had risen fourfold over the 19th century, and from 1873 onwards competition from Pekin and Pekin cross ducks was undercutting Aylesbury ducks at the marketplace . </P> <P> The First World War devastated the remaining duckers of Buckinghamshire . The price of duck food rose steeply while the demand for luxury foodstuffs fell, and wartime restructuring ended the beneficial financial arrangements with the railway companies . By the end of the war small - scale duck rearing in the Aylesbury Vale had vanished, with duck raising dominated by a few large duck farms . Shortages of duck food in the Second World War caused further disruption to the industry, and almost all duck farming in the Aylesbury Vale ended . A 1950 "Aylesbury Duckling Day" campaign to boost the reputation of the Aylesbury duck had little effect; by the end of the 1950s the last significant farms had closed, other than a single flock in Chesham owned by Mr L. T. Waller, and by 1966 there were no duck breeders or rearers of any size remaining in Aylesbury . As of 2015 the Waller family's farm in Chesham remains in business, the last surviving flock of pure Aylesbury meat ducks in the country . </P>

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