Under date of March 6, 1910, "The Egg Reporter" quoted 

 33J/^c and 33c, "the lowest price so far this season" on hens' 

 eggs, fresh gathered firsts. At the same time, ducks' eggs were 

 referred to as "beginning to move; the best coming from Balti- 

 more, and these bring 42c." If, as the New York dealer assured 

 me, New York market, even now, will average 35c a dozen for 

 ducks' eggs, the year around, the 180-egg duck will bring in 

 $5.35. Who would ask a better investment? 



One attempt was made by a Northern breeder to influence 

 the future of the Indian Runner in this country by sending a 

 pen of the Penciled, white-egg English-bred type to the National 

 Competition in Missouri, then just beginning its work. Once 

 more, the Express Companies killed the hopes of one of their pa- 

 trons, as they have done in thousands of instances before. The 

 birds were nearly all smothered en route, and thus was the Pen- 

 ciled Runner hindered from showing her pace in utility work. 

 It had been hoped that a test in this country might settle many 

 questions now open to difference of opinion. 



Which type will lead? This is the question which has been 

 agitating Runner breeders for the last five years, and the problem 

 has more recently been complicated by the introduction here of 

 the very superior Cumberland-Fairy-Fawns. The plain-fawn- 

 and-white contingent felt assured they had forced this question to 

 a settlement, when their views were expressed in the 1910 Amer- 

 ican Standard Revision. But the position of the Penciled breed- 

 ers is : "This matter won't be settled till it is settled right !" 



The prospect that it will be settled right as English Penciled 

 breeders look at it is far more encouraging than it was three years, 

 or two, even one year ago. The whole world now knows that 

 the penciled birds were the birds described in the Digby Stand- 

 ard and the more recent English Standards as "fawn". I believe 

 the great majority of people are now convinced that the penciled 

 birds were shut out from their rightful place in the American 



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