well again, either themselves or their descendants? I cannot 

 puzzle it out. This breeder has laid it in part to the cold climate,, 

 yet I know of breeders in Canada, much farther north, who- 

 report that their ducks lay satisfactorily in winter. However, 

 all the experience of the thousand and more other breeders 

 counts not one iota with this exception, beside his own single 

 trial; he no longer believes in the Runner, and says so frankly. 



This man's Runners do not lay in the winter, he says. Of 

 course birds which make no returns when feed bills are running; 

 very high, must be disappointing. The breeder knows of birds 

 the other side of the mountains which lay in winter, but attrib- 

 utes it to the warmer temperature, and utterly condemns the 

 Runner as a layer for cold localities. As a matter of fact, the 

 Runner, like the hen, requires comfort in order to egg pro- 

 duction. If this cannot be had, one would better not keep Run- 

 ners for winter layers. However, I have never known them not 

 to begin in February; and, as the high prices for duck eggs 

 always come after this period, I cannot see that lack of December 

 and January laying should count so strongly against the Runner 

 as it does against the hen. I do think, however, that it is nor 

 wise to push the Runner as a strictly land duck, for this may 

 lead to deterioration in vigor. 



A Canadian physician, a director in the Cumberland Club, 

 having bred the Indian Runners for years in that very cold cli- 

 mate, where his birds have to be housed practically half the year, 

 has found them thoroughly satisfactory there. So much so that 

 he is planning to take on a large farm in order to go into the 

 Runners far more extensively than at present. Breeders do not 

 plan to increase largely in a breed not meeting expectations ! This 

 is, therefore, the best of proof that the Runner makes good, even 

 great claims. Modified open front houses give this breeder good 

 results in eggs, throughout the winters. 



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