who had not yet tried the market. Another of my letters from 

 the same state says: "We have 18 pure Indian Runner Ducks 

 to start with. They lay a nice large white egg. We get 50c per 

 dozen the whole year; but yet we know nothing about ducks!" 



Another writes : "I am a general farmer and not a poultry- 

 man, but I have a flock of 55 ducks (Runners) and a large and 

 growing southern trade. I can increase ad libitum. Have han- 

 dled Runners four or five years under range, and know what 

 they should be worth to the farmer as well as any one in the 

 United States. Also, I know the good and the harm the fancier 

 does the farmer in poultry, particularly in Runners, and so 

 thoroughly appreciate your good work in this book (first edition 

 of Runner Duck Book.) If I were not an advertiser, I would 

 write more as simple justice to the duck and to advise the south 

 of what it means to it." Later, this breeder wrote me that he 

 had been obliged to return a large proportion of the orders for 

 eggs through inability to supply the stiff demand. 



One beginner, who had products to sell for the first, in 

 the spring of 1911, and from a good-sized flock, sold some of 

 his eggs very early in the New York Commission district at 

 prices above those of hens' eggs. Later, he sold eggs for hatch- 

 ing, and a good many day-old ducklings, getting fifty cents apiece 

 for the best of these. 



Mr. Hunter recently took occasion to say: "The Indian 

 Runner is a very small duck, comparable to the Leghorn hen in 

 size, and considerable use has been made of the comparison in 

 the effort to capture public favor." This is exactly the kind of 

 a blunder which might be expected from people who are not 

 breeders of Indian Runners, and who show how little they know 

 about them by just such unnecessary and mistaken flings. As 

 a matter of fact, the Runner is not as small in proportion to the 

 "mammoth" Pekin as the average Leghorn is in proportion to- 

 the huge Brahma. In the second place, no use whatever has been, 

 made of the comparison in size, by Runner breeders. 



110 



