hatched, 19 were raised, all from 30 eggs. They told me there 

 that they had been getting eggs all winter ; some days only one or 

 two, but the 11 ducks gave them more eggs than 40 hens, from 

 November up to time of my visit. Maybe Runners aren't get- 

 ting a boom there ! 



"A man in Maine wrote me last week that his ducks started 

 in November and kept at it fairly well all the time. Things like 

 this, that come straight, prove that the Runners will make good 

 anyzvhere. I am sending stock this fall to Alta, Canadian N. W. 

 This man heard of some of my stock at Western Harbor, Maine, 

 and the report must have been favorable or he would not risk 

 paying express all that distance and then drive 55 miles to get 

 them. 



"Twenty-two cents per dozen is the lowest I ever got for 

 duck eggs in New York; that happened in July, 1910, and last 

 week. Price has been pretty steady 37 cents and 38 cents since 

 Easter till now (May). Thirty cents is a safe average, but if 

 production is good from Oct. 15 to Dec. this average can be 

 raised. My accounts have showed a little less than two dollars 

 for feed, but am safe in saying that on most farms, with a good 

 strain and proper feed and care, they can be so handled that eggs 

 will cost only one cent each to produce, on a basis of fifteen doz- 

 en a year. Eighteen or twenty dozen reduces even this. At the 

 present time, I am feeding 65 birds for less than 45 cents per 

 day, and buy all feed. You cannot produce as many eggs as I 

 am getting, for the same feed costs, with hens, as you would re- 

 quire so many more hens. This point seems to be overlooked by 

 most writers. It costs as much to keep any of the larger breeds 

 of hens as it does a duck. It seems to me the only fair way is 

 to figure on egg-cost. How many eggs are produced for 1 cent 

 each? Not many." 



Speaking of the latest claim to an extreme record, he says: 

 "I think it's foolish to tell such yarns, even if true, ft's poor bus 



77 



