jind the latter more profitable as long as their home market is not 

 overstocked." 



This was written of ducks in general, before the Indian Run- 

 ner Duck had attracted any attention to speak of in this country. 

 If true of other ducks, much more is it true of the Indian Run- 

 ner. I will ask readers to note again the phrase "of the same 

 weight." It is because ducks get size so very quickly that they 

 eat so much while growing. And the reason so many fail to find 

 ducks profitable is that their own bad management cheats them 

 out of the profit the ducks made for them in ten weeks, by keep- 

 ing them on to eat for weeks or months longer, after their period 

 of most rapid growth is over! Please note this, as it is the vital 

 point for those who would sell duck meat. 



A young duck does gobble large quantities of food; but 

 it grows in proportion, so fast that we may say, on occasion, that 

 we "can see it grow." That is, day after to-morrow, it will looi< 

 almost twice as large as it does to-day. A grower of Runners 

 writes : "I never in all my experience with poultry saw anything 

 grow like an Indian Runner Duckling. My ducklings are the 

 curiosity of the neighborhood. At the age of five weeks. I have- 

 n't a duckling that weighs less than a pound and a half. I have 

 investigated rather exhaustively, and I can well afford to take the 

 •chance on making a market." 



This letter was written the middle of June. A letter of la- 

 ter date said that certain ducklings of this worker were seven 

 weeks old, and a lot of Barred Rock chicks three days younger. 

 On weighing and comparing, he found every duck weighing above 

 two pounds, some a half pound above. The largest chick in the 

 lot of about equal age weighed about three-quarters of a pound. 

 His comment was: "I wish I had 700 ducklings at the present 

 -time ; they would be good money, even as market fowls." 



In order to be able to speak from personal knowledge, I 

 ;myself weighed Runner ducklings, Columbian Wyandottes and 



61 



