New Farm Experiences With Runners 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Since the farm experiences with the Runner will settle, in 

 the end, the fate of the Runner Duck, I have been especially on 

 the watch for the work of the Runners on the farms of the coun- 

 try. Most of the letters I get come from strangers, in one or two 

 cases those given are from farm workers whose experience I 

 have been watching with interest. I have spoken in another 

 place of the farmer who raised them for four years simply as 

 layers, and who later added the fancy egg line to his business, 

 and who still swears by the Runner as an especially good farm 

 money-maker. He urges the keeping of not less than 75 layers, 

 after the experimenter has learned the handling. 



I was interested in the experience of a writer for one of the 

 most luxurious country life periodicals in America. He told me 

 that the publishers wanted to run the literature especially along 

 the fancy line; while he could not quite agree. He said emphat- 

 ically that for the average worker, there was more money in rais- 

 ing either hens or ducks as utility layers than as fancy stock to 

 be sold through advertising. He has raised both hens and ducks 

 for years, and this is his word from experience. He argues that 

 low priced fancy eggs sold through advertising cannot pay ex- 

 penses; hence a man needs either to be a "high-brow fancier" or 

 else to stick to the table egg proposition. Many a farmer who 

 has taken a fly on eggs-for-hatching as a money-making busi- 

 ness for a side line, can echo this most emphatically. 



I copy a letter received in late summer, 1913, for the sake 

 of showing just what the beginner runs into, unless he is a good 



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