Runners are far more closely bred to Standard than are the solia 

 fawn American sort ; and to a better Standard — one intended es- 

 pecially to preserve the gait, carriage and general type, and made 

 by fanciers who had known this duck many times longer than 

 Americans have known it. This shows the arrant folly of calling 

 it a "non-standard" duck ! 



In my own experience with English Runners, I found that 

 they far outlay hens and pullets during the fall and they do the 

 heavy laying before Easter when their eggs sell for about a month 

 to the New York commission men for twice the price of hen eggs ; 

 for some length of time after Easter these dealers pay more for 

 the Runner eggs than for the hens' eggs and say they find them 

 much better in quality than eggs of common ducks. In our local 

 market, the eggs sell at a little advance over hen eggs. Runners 

 are so valuable for layers they have not been reared to great extent 

 for a table duck ; but as they grow up so quickly, at less cost than 

 Pekins and their flesh is so tender and delicious, there is no reason 

 why they should not be profitable for meat. One of my custo- 

 mers near Boston says she can sell more than she can raise at 

 thirty cents per pound all summer, and finds them much less work 

 in many ways than chickens; indeed, that is the general opinion. 

 In these days of scarcity of help this is an item of importance. 



As great producers of eggs in connection with valuable meat 

 for the table, it will be seen that Runners deserve all their popu- 

 larity. Their laying powers are so well known that I will only 

 briefly tell of a part of their performance in the Australian Egg 

 Laying Competitions : In the eighth annual competition two pens 

 of English Runners averaged above 300 eggs each, the notable 

 thing in this test that no meat was obtainable for the ducks and 

 none was fed them during the entire time. And we know that 

 meat or animal food of some kind is even more necessary for the 

 ducks than for hens. On free range they find much of it for 

 themselves, working away as for dear life, thrusting their bills 



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