eat more than a chicken, but they can be raised on bran and 

 chopped alfalfa or oats, with a little meat thrown in, and this is 

 the cheapest kind of feed. Even if they ate twice as much as a 

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

 more than twice as fast as a chicken during the first ten weeks." 



It will be noticed that those zvho say the ducks eat more are 

 speaking of the growing ducks. The last clause, "they will grow 

 more than twice as fast as a chicken during the first ten weeks," 

 explains this. Fowls must eat for growth; rapid growth must 

 mean good appetites. The letter continues : "You don't have to 

 talk to convert a poultryman to the Indian Runner, if he can see 

 them occasionally and watch them grow." 



The next correspondent has also a word to say about feed 

 and feeding. He advertised that his ducks laid all winter, and I 

 wrote to ask about it. He replied : "Will say that my ducks do 

 lay all winter, but of course I feed them good, as nothing will 

 lay without feed. I feed a soft feed of bran and corn meal and 

 clover and oyster shells. Yes, they lay a much larger tgg than 

 chickens and the eggs sell for more a dozen. One flock of 60 

 have a record of 212 in ten months." 



On the question of feed, another says, incidentally, "my mill- 

 man made a mess of feed order, and my ducks, that were laying 

 some twenty eggs the fifteenth of Jan. (a 36 per cent yield) went 

 down to zero, and I have just hunted out the cause and found it 

 and started them again." 



To-day's mail (Nov. ]2, 1911) brought in an Institute Work- 

 er's report from a flock which I visited during the summer, and 

 which was then making, I thought, a very creditable record, in- 

 deed. These were strictly "half-Waltons," and the owner was a 

 beginner with Runners, who had bought eggs and had raised a 

 small flock in 1910, just as any farmer would. The letter says : 

 "The old ducks are still laying; at just nine months from begin- 

 ning, they had averaged 185 eggs per bird. To date, the record 



