of excellent quality. Poultry keepers who cater to the duck-egg 

 trade will probably do well to take up Indian Runners for egg 

 production, but growers of duck meat will doubtless continue to 

 breed the Pekin." In my view, the above contains the following 

 points which might render it, too, wisely taken "with the prover- 

 bial grain of salt": item, one error of judgment; item, one mis- 

 statement; item, one prophecy already discredited by the facts; 

 item, one declaration showing that the book had not been care- 

 fully read. 



It seems to me that it is an error of judgment to seek to 

 give the impression that outsiders, be they editors, or what not, 

 can know better about any breed than its breeders. It is a mis- 

 statement to say that this book was written "professedly" to 

 boom the Indian Runner. The prophecy that duck meat growers 

 would hold to the Pekin is proved false in one large plant during 

 1911, as shown in another chapter. The assumption that this 

 book carried the idea that 380 eggs a year was easily possible 

 could not have been made, had the reviewer read the pages given 

 to discussing this and several other abnormally high records. 



One or two adverse opinions from people zvho have bred them 

 are, it will be noticed far milder in their criticism. One corres- 

 pondent of "Gleanings',' the well-known bee magazine, writes: 

 "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 available, I do not think them a great money- 

 maker. I have had them nearly a year, and cannot recommend 

 them to any town person, or one who has not the above neces- 

 sities to enable him to make a good portion of their feed inex- 

 pensive." 



Referring to the prejudice against duck eggs, the same writer 

 says : "No matter how groundless it is, it is there, and the pub- 

 lic 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. 



45 



