446 



Mr. Axtell and I both have better health than 

 formerly. 

 Rose%llle, 111., March 8. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Please notice, friends, that she and her 

 good husband are still interested in mission 

 work. They are still taking Gleanings, of 

 course; and, finally, they are both now en- 

 joying better health than usual, although 

 they, like myself, must be getting well along 



Cleanings in Bee Culture 



in years. From what she says in regard to 

 boiled wheat I infer they have been getting 

 in touch with Terry's woriv. 



In regard to cancers, if I am correct a 

 great many things have been pronounced 

 cancers by qitack doctors that were not real 

 cancers at all. In this way they get credit 

 for performing cures that does not belong to 

 them. 



PCDMtLTtS^ HCP^ffBT 



A. I. Root. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS; BOTH SIDES OF THE 

 QUESTION, ETC. 



Mi: Hoot:— I have been reading your remarks 

 abovit the Indian Runner duck, and from my expe- 

 rience with them I would advise a rather more con- 

 servative course then yovi seem to think necessary. 

 For a person who has unlimited green feed and 

 range, perhaps they are all right; but where all feed 

 has to be bought, and no clover or alfalfa field avail- 

 able. I do not think them a great money-maker. 1 

 have had them for nearly a year, and can not rec- 

 ommend them to any town person, or one who has 

 not the above necessities to enable him to make a 

 good portion of their feed inexpensive. And it is 

 an undoubted fact that there is a prejudice against 

 duck eggs. No matter now groundless it is, it is 

 there, and the public will have to be educated up 

 to the value of the white egg of the Indian Runner 

 before there is an unlimited market for them. I'er- 

 sonally I think they are as good as hen eggs; but 

 the average person, in this part of the world any 

 way, does not think so, and I have met this preju- 

 dice when disposing of those I had for sale. 



Again, there seems to be a great deal in the strain 

 a person starts with. I had some hatched from 

 eggs from Iowa that were beauties, and laid early 

 and well a nice white egg; and I had some hatched 

 from eggs from Ohio that were the veriest .scrubs, 

 not fit to be compared to the Iowa birds; in fact, 

 they looked like the same breed only remotely. 1 

 had to buy all the grain fed them, and some of the 

 green food; and while 1 did not lose any thing on 

 them I could not figure out any profit, even though 

 1 sold the last of them for breeding purposes at 

 S2.00 each. I went into duck-breeding to find out 

 what I could do; and having found out, I disposed 

 of the good ones and ate the others. My conclu- 

 sions are as above stated, that, on a ranch with 

 unlimited green food, they can be made profitable, 

 but not otherwise. 



1 very much prefer keeping hens. They are much 

 cleaner, and more satisfactory in every way. 1 

 have hens that equal Indian Runner ducks in lay- 

 ing, if they do not surpass them. 



You have not told us your final conclusions as to 

 Buttercuiw. Have they equaled the seller's account 

 of them? What do you think of them yourself? 

 Personally 1 believe it is more the man than the 

 breed, (liven the proper feed and care, almost any 

 of the American or Mediterranean breeds will prove 

 very profitable. It is simply a question of color to 

 suit individual tastes. Personally 1 prefer buff, as 

 showing dirt the least in our long hot dry summer, 

 and I find they lay as well as any reasonalile person 

 could desire. I have a Buff Wyanilolte imllel, 

 hatched from eggs shipped me from Massachusetts, 

 and she laid when she was slightly over live months 

 old, and has laid constantly all this spring, and 

 shows no signs of stopping; but she is fed for lay- 

 ing, and just naturally "lays." 



I have found the Buff Wyandottes a very satisfac- 

 tory fowl, both as chicks and grown-ups. As chicks 

 they are very strong, .sturdy, grow fast, feather out 

 nicely, and, after ten weeks, are ready for market 

 as broilers, and shortly after as fryers. The.v are a 

 handsome fowl, not wild, easily handled, and, in 

 short, a fine all-around fowl. 



I had thirty eggs sliipped me this season from 

 California, and, after trying in vain to get any sit- 

 ting hens, was forced to put them in a small incu- 

 bator that had not been used in four year.s. There 

 were 24 fertile out of the 30, and the machine 

 brought out 21 chicks, of which we raised 18, and 



nicer chicks or more evenly sized I never saw, and 

 never had chicks more easily raised. These were 

 Buff Wyandottes. 

 So. Berkeley, Cal., .lune 21. W. H. Pearson. 



Thank you, friend P., for your timely 

 caution. Very likely it is trtie that ducks 

 must have a considerable amount of feed of 

 some kind to give us one big egg every day. ' 

 You will remember my three ducks had the 

 moss I spoke of in the creek or canal, and 

 plenty of green stuff on the shores up and 

 down for a quarter of a mile or more. Un- 

 der such circtnnstances they would almost 

 "board themselves;" and your experience 

 also indicates that there is quite a differ- 

 ence in ducks that are calletl Indian Run- 

 ner. In regard to cleanly habits or untidy 

 looks, if the ducl'is are })ermitted to have 

 free access to running water every day I am 

 sure they will keep themselves tidy; and 

 where one wants to exhit)it them to visitors, 

 as I do in my Florida home, running water, 

 and, best of all, a little water/a/l, is just the 

 thing. Buttercups, see p. 21, adv. section. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS, ETC. 



You want to know if Indian Runner ducks will sit 

 on their eggs. I h.ave four of them — two ducks and 

 two drakes — and they will sit, not only the ducks 

 but the drakes as well. I built a chicken-house 

 about a foot from the ground, and the ducks go un- 

 der this to lay. one of the ducks is now sitting on 

 the eggs, and one drake too. May be she has so 

 many eggs she had to call in some help. One of the 

 ducks did start to hatch eggs before that, but I took 

 them away. 



I do not think tliat ducks will replace hens to 

 an.v extent on our chicken-farm.s. It takes almost 

 twice as much to keep a duck as it does a hen. ( »t 

 course the eggs are larger, but not much more so 

 than the eggs of Minorcas. Besides this, people 

 will buy hen eggs before they think of buying those 

 from ducks; and the chances are you may have to 

 take less for duck eggs in spite of their size. 



Coljmbus, Mont., .June 17. Cakl \'ollmer. 



Many thanks, friend \\ We surely want 

 both sides of the question; but while you 

 suggest that it takes almost twice as much 

 to feed a laying duck as a laying hen, please 

 consider that the duck will eat all sorts of 

 cheap trash that a hen would not touch. 

 Not only that, the duck will root around 

 in the bottom of our ponds and streams ft)r 

 mosses and aquatic plants that a chicken 

 would never eat, even if it could get it. 1 

 would not recommend ducks for close con- 

 finement in i)laces where other fowls can be 

 reared successfully; but there are tracts of 

 waste land along the ponds and streams all 

 over our country — yes, all over the world — 

 where ducks might be grown by the mil- 



