Readers must remember that Boston market is, in many respects 

 exactly the opposite of many other large city markets. And, a-. 

 the average of hens' eggs in market may bring only around half 

 "the top price for hennery eggs," mentioned above, the story i-. 

 rather favorable for the Runner eggs instead of unfavorable, 

 as one might at first glance think. 



Poultry history, as well as other history, is in the course of 

 such rapid making that we forget first occurrences and condi- 

 tions, even though we ourselves were once in the midst of them. 



Suppose, for instance, that the poultry public could once 

 more place itself back twenty years or something like this dis- 

 tance, in time, and watch the Pekin duck make its fight for favor 

 as a market duck. I saw this matter referred to editorially in 

 The American Hen Magazine. This is what was said: "Odd as 

 it may seem, it was the duck growers who first won the victory 

 on a large scale. We say 'odd,' because the duck men had to 

 create their market. There was no demand for green ducks, 

 meaning ten and twelve weeks' old Pekins, weighing four to five 

 pounds each, until James Rankin, Easton, Mass., known as the 

 ■'father of the Pekin Duck industry in America,' built up trade in 

 this line by sending pairs of tender, green ducks of his produc- 

 tion to friends and acquaintances in and around Boston." 



The Indian Runner has no such hard task as this, for sh" 

 finds a market asking for duck meat, and a market asking for 

 large, white, "full-bodied" eggs. She can supply all these. The 

 one thing she has to do is to convince the people that her claims 

 to egg quality are just claims: that she can, — to use a modern 

 phrase, "deliver the goods." 



A most excellent suggestion was made publicly by the late 

 Chauncey E. Anderson, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Anderson urged 

 that duck breeders send in regular consignments of Runner eggs 

 to city markets, "and use every effort in your power to have them 

 regularly quoted in the market columns of the daily papers. You 

 will reap the benefit in the sale of stock and eggs for hatching." 



113 



