COST OF PRODUCING EGGS, CHICKS, AND FOWLS 223 



cheap feed of equal nutrient value for one that may be 

 temporarily high through failure of crops or other 

 cause, may make a large difference in the cost of pro- 

 duction. 



It is generally believed that the cost of producing 

 eggs or market stock is nearly twice as high at the 

 present time as it was ten years ago. Yet, yesterday, I 

 received a letter from an enthusiastic Indian Runner 

 breeder in the South, telling how cheaply he could raise 

 the Runner Ducks, and how much money could be 

 made from them in his locality, from the market point 

 of view only, because they would live so largely on 

 alfalfa and oats "with a little meat thrown in." He 

 continued, " They do eat more than a chicken, but even 

 if they ate twice as much of the same kind of feed, 

 they would still be just as profitable, for they will grow 

 more than twice as fast as a chicken during the first 

 ten weeks." 



In the year 1902, the Cornell Station put out a bul- 

 letin giving the detailed results of a cooperative test of 

 the cost of egg production in New York State at that 

 time. In this work, a dozen flocks in various parts of 

 the state were used, running in numbers from 25 to 600 

 hens in a flock. By this, I mean those which belonged 

 to one owner. Although these were all within the 

 borders of one state, the cost of feeding, per hundred, 

 varied from $28.62 to above $39 for the seventeen 

 weeks from the beginning of December to the end of 

 March. The average production of the 2100 fowls 

 represented was a trifle more than 23 per 100 daily, and 

 the average food cost of a dozen eggs was sixteen and 

 one fourth cents. The average profit above cost of 



