SQUA New York State Callege of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N.Y. —_— Library Cornell ; ee Library SF 467.R49 191 wii tandard squab book. (Uli Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000029748 The National Standard Squab Book ay D ] MT = ] | ih mT H]] Hi Kil WMS) WA I y / \ HA | \ ! Me ve ] . I i iu ELMER C. RICE THE SQUAB INDUSTRY IN AMERICA The National Standard Squab Book By Ermer C. RIcE (Mail address, Post Office Box 175, Boston, Mass., U.S. A.) A PRACTICAL MANUAL GIVING COMPLETE AND PRECISE DIREC- TIONS FOR THE INSTALLATION AND MANAGEMENT OF A _ SUC- CESSFUL SQUAB PLANT. FACTS FROM EXPERIENCES OF MANY HOW TO MAKE A PIGEON AND SQUAB BUSINESS PAY, DETAILS OF BUILDING, BUYING, HABITS OF BIRDS, MATING, WATERING, FEEDING, KILLING, COOL- ING, MARKETING, SHIPPING, CURING AILMENTS, AND OTHER INFORMATION Illustrated with New Sketches and Half Tone Plates from Photographs Specially Made for this Work BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS i912 C) Copyright: 1901, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1902, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1993, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1904, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1905, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1906, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1907, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1908, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1909, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1910, by Elmer C. Copyright, 1911, by Eimer C All rights reserved. A WELL-BUILT NEST. Preas of Murray and Emery Company Boston, Mass. Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice CONTENTS Preface E : Chapter I. Squabs Pay Chapter II. An Easy Start Chapter III. The Unit House Chapter IV. Nest Bowls and Nests Chapter V. Water and Feed. Chapter VI. Laying and Hatching Chapter VII. Chapter VIII. Chapter IX. Chapter X. Chapter XI. Chapter XII. Supplement Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Increase of Flock Killing and Cooling The Markets Pigeons’ Ailments Getting Ahead Questions and Answers Plymouth Ruck Cumnaines Carneaux and Homers Not in Same Per A Monthly Squab Magazine More About How to Tell Sex ‘ How to Keep Down an Excess of Cocks Squab Houses of Two and Three Stories Squabs Fed Artificially Nests on the Floor ‘ A Plan to Get Rid of Rats and Mice How to Make Perches Pittsburg Market Low Quotations How to Kill Cats Breeding True to Color Sulphur and Iron Water Pigeons that Fly Away No Coal Ashes Temporary Pen and Breeding Pen Twigs for Nesting Materials Clamoring for Squabs in Washington State Oklahoma and Indian Territory Appendix G 227 iso Wt w wt po] lo ive) ILLUSTRATIONS Page Portrait of the Author [Frontispiece] ............ A Well-Built Ne-t. 8 Thoroughbreds.......... 14 How a Back Yard may be Fixed for Pigeons..... . 18 Cheap but Practical Nest Boxes...............- 22 How City Dwellers without Land muy Breed SUMS x a pewicictene gee ainr a Nemincetsitiaae in, aod comaenere 24 _ cute House (with Passageway) und Flying 5 Nest ‘Boxes Built of Lumber. 28 Best Nest Box Construction 30 Interior of Squab House Showing Perches........ 32 A Pretty Squab House and Flying Pen.......... 36 Multiple Unit House seg 88: Interior of Multiple Unit House..... ....... 40 Multiple Unit House, Ten Units, Built according COS OUI PLAINS sce owen tie nee ec nledaneaee ded ish 42 Nest Bowl, Bath Pan, Drinking Fountain, ete .. 16 Berry Crate to Hold Nesting Mivtenial ceeaeseun: 50 Scenes on the 0,000 Farm of One of Our Customers... 58 Eggs in the Nest, Squabs Just Hatched......... 64 Squabs One Week Old, Squabs Two Weeks Old... 66 Squabs Three Weeks Old, Squabs Four Weeks Old. & The Mating Coopis.os, 26 4 ni neem aw remain rry 0 Pigeons in St. Mark's Square, Venice. wy Ad Killing Squabs with the Hands... 80 Killed Siyjuabs Hung to Cool... 82 Three Dressed Squabs...... 86 Squab House Built of Logs. . .. 88 Pair of Homers Billing........ .. 90 How We Ship Pigeons.......... .. 98 Self Feeder for Grain........... .. 108 Machine for Killing Squabs..... .. 115 SPROVOR sake accturncis aacucomnenniacs .. 116 Nest. Boxes ic ccc e505 secawasctes 118 Pigeons in Corner of Flying Pen. . 138 Mating Coops in Mating Heusc.. 140 Interior of Mating House.......... . 142 Part of South Side of One of Our Houses 146 Dowel System of Feeding and Wate Alleyway. Letter from A.§ Letter from W. R. MeLs Letter from Heineman & Co astesade Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. A Good-Looking Illinois Plant... ...... Showing Construction in Florida....... Homer Hen Sitting on Dggs............. Lighted by Electricity and Heated by Steam. ....200 On a Pole at Top of Flying Pen........ ... . 202 Cheapest Possible Construction........... .. 204 The Stattocn svamoaas ac arex tarsavedit.oe 206 This Customers ai: va 03 23 Sevqemeaie et we Se 206 Beautiful Pair of Splashes............. 0... * 207 Plymouth Rock Blue Bars and Blue Checkers... . On a Running Board in the Sun,.,......06+ + Pacaine 200 Page Tnterior of Massachusetts Customer’s House...... 210 Women Enjoy Squab Raising.................- 211 At the Back of a Barn....... 00.0. c cece e eee eee 212 Shipshape Flying Pen.................2-20000- 213 Nest of Straw and Feathers..............-.....- 214 Different Sizes. cis cicscsiesvece vais 02a aaiainteces oe aa 215 An Inexpensive Start........... 0.0.02 222cee eee 21€ A Row'of Beauties cccscssssscnw os vee tie gaeante on 217 Eating from His Hand.......0.0...c ss seseee eee 218 Read y:to- Halls ocx an. notuirbtoriomalen we teladeren 219 Squabs'25 Days Olds.cccaewste x xs 2 we avsureas 220 Tat the! Sn Wes. 2.4.05. ¢3 2c sejeiatee shag ag o3-te gansare 221 Squabs Three Weeks Old...............0...005 222 Squabs Twelve Days Old.................0.005 223 Squabs a Few Days Old. 2) 3igh Reggae Nest of Tobacco Stems 225 Raised from Plymouth Rock Extras 226 Carneaux 7. 227 Curneau Squab Compared with Homer Squab.... 236 Two and One-half Story Squab House.....-..... 243 Plymouth Rock Extra Homer Male............. 250 Plymouth hone Extra Homer Female........... 252 Flying Peniof a Batic eissie esas 9.5acuicuscstncio we se ae < 256 Th ree Squabs Hatched in One Nest. 257 Any Old Place Fixed Over 59 2. Squab Plant in Pennsylvania Protected by Hillside 262 A New Jersey Plant sc osasvissins dawson o44 see 264 Another View of New Jersey Plant.............. 265 An Attractive Minnesota Squab Plaitnses sazives 266 Hundreds of Squabs Eaten at One Banquet...... 268 Mississippi Squab House. ...............0.00005 269 A Massachusetts Plant.............0.. 0.0.0.0 ee 270 Another View of Massachusetts Plant............ 271 California Squab House...............220.0 0. eee 272 Small Openings under the Windows ............ 273 A Pair of Squabs from Plymouth Rock Extras.... 274 Squab Building in British Columbia............. 276 A City Squab:Houses soci ig sa tev seecieassa vee 278 AP air iof Big Squabisecsicscessa cataneosaseaanecae oe aca 280 An Odd Squab House....................00000. 282 PobaccO Svemss «cs ca cisieracen ne oe wed oF Ha 564 283 Lump of Rock Salt..... . 284 Head of Sorghum Seed . 285 Health:Grit. cs s2 es voeee anes . 286 Red Wheat, Canada Peas, Hei Screws, Kaffir Corn, Sorghum Cane Seed. Whole Corn, Coarse Cracked, Fine Cracked. ...... 289 White Wheat, Poor Red Wheat, Wheat Screenings a Barley, Oats, Sunflower Seeds................2- 291 American Millet, Siberian Millet, Golden Millet... . 292 Rice Unhulled, Rice, Buckwheat................ | 293 Granite Grit, Quartz Grit, Same Crushed ........ 294 moe Grit, Coarse Oyster Shell, Pigeon Oyster Ll svcsare gekssiw' ot. coavaon ncsanenaaene ahah sectaveriashedet getiors Mixed Grain (three samples). . A South Carolina Plant... ... Ordinary Quarters.......... Home Made......, Sai MOEN RE PREFACE. This Manual or Handbook on Squabs is written to teach people, beginners mostly, not merely how to raise squabs, but how to conduct a squab and pigeon business successfully. We have found breeders of squabs who knew how to raise them fairly well and took pleasure in doing so, but were weak on the business end of the industry. The fancier, who raises animals because he likes their looks or their actions, or because he hopes to beat some other fancier at an exhibition, is not the man for whom we have written this book. We have developed Homer pigeons and the Homer pigeon industry solely because they are staples, and the squabs they produce are staples, salable in any market at a remunerative price. The success of squabs as we exploit them depends on their earning capacity. They are a:‘matter of business. Our development of squabs is based on the fact that they are good eating, that people now are in the habit of asking for and eating them, that there is a large traffic in them which may be pushed to an enormous extent without weakening either the market or the price. If, as happens in this case, pigeons are a beautiful pet stock as well as money makers, so much the better, but we never would breed anything not useful, salable merely as pets. It is just as easy to pet a practical animal as an impractical animal, and much more satisfying. This Manual is the latest and most comprehensive work we have done, giving the results of our experience as fully and accurately as we can present the subject. Itis intended as an answer to the hundreds of letters we receive, and we have tried to cover every point which a beginner or an expert needs to know. It is a fault of writers of most guide books like this to leave out points which they think are too trivial, or ‘‘ which everybody ought to know.” It has been our experi- ence in handling this subject and bringing it home to people that the little points are the ones on which they most quickly go astray, and on which they wish the fullest information. After they have a fair start, they are able to think out their operations for themselves. Accordingly we have covered il 12. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK every point in this book in simple language and if the details in some places appear too commonplace, remember that we have erred on the side of plainness. The customers to whom we have sold breeding stock have been of great help to us in arranging and presenting these facts. We asked them to tell us just the points they wished covered, or covered more fully, or just where our writings were weak. They replied in a most kindly way, nearly every letter thanking us heartily, and brimming over with enthus- iasm for the squab industry. It has surprised a great many peopie to learn that Homer pigeons are such a staple and workable article. They have been handled by the old methods for years without their great utility being made plain. When we first learned about squabs, we were struck by the impressive fact that here was something which grew to market size in the incredible time of four weeks and then was marketed readily at a good profit. The spread of that knowledge will make money for you. Show your neighbors the birds you buy of us, tell them the facts, and perhaps give them a squab to eat, then you will find a quick call for all the live breeders you can supply. The procedure which we advise in this National Standard Squab Book is safe and sound, demonstrated to be successful by hundreds of our customers, many of whom started with no knowledge except what we were able to give them by letter or word of mouth. We have abandoned all instruction which does not stand the test of time and locality, and give only facts of proven value, of real, practical experience. ELMER C. RICE. Boston, August, 1902. POSTSCRIPT. This work has met with so much favor during the past year, and has sold so largely in excess of expectations, that we wish to thank our friends everywhere for their cordial support. The Appendix A which appears at the back of this edition was added last February, and it is our intention to keep the work up to date by revisions and additions at least twice yearly, The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the PREFACE 13 proof of these squab teachings is shown in the successes made by our thousands of customers with no other knowledge of squabs than this as a guide. Our correspondence, now having extended over a long period, shows conclusively that beginners find all questions answered in this book, and go forward confidently and surely to success. E. C. R. Boston, August, 1903. 1907 EDITION. The old plates of this book have been fairly worn out by much printing, so great has been the demand for it, especially during the past five years. The sales have been larger than for any other work on birds or animals ever written. For this 1907 edition, the whole book has been reset in new type, and new plates made. The outlook for the squab industry during 1907 andthe years to come is of high promise. More people are eating squabs than ever before and more people are raising them. At no time within our memory has the market been over- stocked with squabs, and prices have kept up all along the line. Only yesterday we were visited by a gentleman and his niece from New York City who stated that they had priced squabs there December 31 and found them seven dollars and fifty cents a dozen. The dealers who offered them at this price had paid the breeders for them from four dollars to six dollars a dozen, according to their postal card quotations sent out in December. We shall be pleased to hear from our friends after they have read this book, and welcome any suggestions for its improve- ment, or for the betterment of the squab industry. The author will gladly answer all such letters and advise fully as to location and construction of buildings, and management of breeding stock. E.C.R. 1912 EDITION. Just a line to assure readers of this work that it is com- plete, up to date. Note particularly the new matter on the back pages. E.C.R. Boston, January, 1912. BLUE-BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRA HOMERS. 14 CHAPTER I. SQUABS PAY. Experience of a Customer who Started in January, 1902, Erected a Plant Worth Three Thousand Dollars and Made Money Almost from the Start—Settlements of Squab Breeders in Iowa, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania— Large Incomes Made from rigeons—Squab Plants Known to be Making Money—The Hard-Working Farmer and the Easy-Working Squab Raiser—No Occupation for a Drone— No Exaggeration. “ Will it pay me to raise squabs?” is the first question which the beginner asks. We take the case of a man who bought a Manual in January, 1902. His boys had kept a few pigeons but had never handled them in a commercial way, nor tried to make any money with them. The reading of the book gave him the first real light on the squab industry. Possibly he was more ready to believe because he knew from his own personal experience that a squab grows to market size in four weeks and is then readily marketable. He started at once to build a squab house according to the directions given. The ground was too hard for him to get a pickaxe into, so he laid the foundation timbers on bricks, rushed the work ahead with the help of good carpenters and sent on his order for breeding stock. In the course of a few weeks he ordered a second lot of breeders, followed by a third and a fourth, and he kept adding new buildings. When spring came and the ground softened, he jacked up his first squab house, took out the bricks at the four corners and put in cedar posts. By the middle of July he had five handsome squab houses and flying pens, all built by skilled labor in the best possible style at a cost of at least three hundred dollars apiece. With his buildings and their fittings and his birds, his plant repre- sented an expenditure of between two thousand and three thousand dollars. This gentleman lives in a locality where he had to put up nice- looking buildings, or the neighbors would have complained. He spent probably three times more money on his buildings 15 1460 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK than the average beginner would spend. He is a superin- tendent of a large manufacturing plant, a man of push and energy, and he has four young boys in his family who have helped with the wife and grandfather to make the venture successful. It was a paying venture almost from the very start. Everything that we wrote about squabs as money makers came true in his case. One of the sons, a lad of nine- teen, came on to see us the first summer and told us the story of their success. He was after more breeding stock. He said he had many calls from people who wished to buy stock of him, and he was unable to supply all of them, but he did not intend to have money offered him very long without being able to pass out the birds. In other words, they were going into squabs for all they were worth. They had not done any advertising, and had not sold live breeders to any extent, but figured their profits solely on the sale of squabs to com- mission houses, and they were getting for them just what we said the commission men would pay. We have a great many visitors, some coming from remote points of the United States. One of our visitors in the summer of 1902 was Mr. A. L. Furlong, from a little town in Iowa. Mr. Furlong said to us: ‘‘ Iowa is quite a squab breeding State. There are plants in Ruthven, Osage, Wallake and Estherville. The owner of a plant in Ruthven I know very well. He showed me his account books; he was shipping from seven hundred to eight hundred dollars worth of squabs last month. He is making a profit of three thousand to five thousand dollars a year. He ships to the Chicago market, as do nearly all the Iowa breeders. He never gets less than two dollars and fifty cents a dozen for his squabs. I am going to start raising squabs myself.”’ Mr. Furlong left an order for one of our Manuals, having given his first one to his friend. He said that his friend was breeding common pigeons and would like to know our methods. We discarded common pigeons some time ago. If our Iowa friends will use Homer pigeons instead of common ones, they will produce a much better squab and make more money. We had a curious confirmation of the above in August, 1902, when Mr. E. H. Grice, who lives in the northern part of Vermont, visited us. Mr. Grice had just returned from a visit to the West, and stopped for a while at Ruthven, Iowa, where SQUABS PAY 17 he saw the plant above noted. The proprietor referred Mr. Grice to us and advised him to start with Homer pigeons, saying that, if he were to stock up again, it would be with Homer instead of the common pigeons. Before leaving, Mr. Grice gave us an order for one hundred pairs of our Homers. The number of orders for breeding stock which we have received from Iowa is out of proportion to any State near it, showing that these squab plants are known throughout Iowa to be making money. The same is true of California. We visited many squab breeders in eastern States in June, 1902, noting the buildings and methods and finding out from them if they were satisfied with the financial returns. All were enthusiastic and said it was easy work, that squabs beat hens easily and were much less care. The methods of some of these breeders were extremely crude, the birds nesting in old boxes of all sizes nailed to the walls of the squab houses, and apparently never being cleaned. The Homers were small, not being able to raise squabs weighing over seven pounds to the dozen. Somebody has said that a squab plant of one thousand pairs of birds will pay better than a farm. The contrast between the hard, grinding toil of the man who works a large farm and the ‘‘ standing around ” of the owner of a squab plant is indeed a striking one. However, we do not speak of this to give you the idea that money is going to flow into your lap just because you buy some squab breeders of us. It is no work for a drone or a ‘‘ get-rich-quick ’’ person whose enthusiasm runs riot for two weeks and then cools off. Our class of trade is men and women of experience and reliable common sense who have a knowledge of the world and understand that things come by work and not for the asking. The people who are able and willing to pay us from fifty to five hundred dollars for a breeding outfit, as hundreds do, are not caught by glittering promises, but have money laid by through exercise of the qualities of ability and shrewdness. The naturally careless, improvident person, who is generally in debt, should not start squab raising. It is a sensible industry for sensible people. The profits to be made with squabs vary with the individual and with the management of the birds, exactly as with poul- try. It is important to have only mated or even pairs in the pens and all birds not producing should be kevt in a separate 18 HOW A BACK YARD MAY BE FIXED FOR PIGEONS, SQUABS PAY 19 pen and removed to breeding quarters only after they have gone to work. The chief difficulty with a beginner is the matter of sex. The male and the female pigeon have no marks to distinguish them, and the beginner must determine their sex by observation. He must study his birds and come to know them. Some beginners will not equip themselves by study and observation to make a success and may breed in a hap-hazard fashion for a year or more without knowing the sex of the birds they raise. Birds which you raise will go to work more quickly, look better and breed better than any birds you can buy, because that is the temperament of the Homer, to be attached to his home, to love it, and to try to reach it if he can. Anybody who has doubts as to his ability to raise squabs should start with a small flock and breed up until he has acquired skill and experience. As part of this Manual, in the supplement and appendices, we print many letters from customers who started with small flocks and won striking successes. It is not necessary to get a fancy price for the squabs to make the business a success. In confirmation of this we have in mind the work of two of our customers, young men named Lunn, who have received only two dollars to three dollars a dozen for their squabs, selling to dealers who retail them for four dollars to six dollars a dozen. These brothers have told their story in one of the poultry papers as follows: “In February, 1905, we got the idea of going into the squab business. We spent some time looking around and in March, 1905, we bought what we thought was the best stock, namely, the Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. We bought twelve pairs. The birds arrived on March 22, 1905, and were as fine a looking lot of birds as we had seen anywhere. We now (December, 1906) have three hundred pairs. One hundred and fifty pairs are well mated and working. The other one hundred and fifty pairs are all young birds. We raised all our young birds up until September, 1906, and since then have been selling squabs weighing from nine and one-quarter to ten and one-half pounds and receive twenty-three and twenty-five cents each. We feed the best of grain, using cracked corn, kaffir corn, red wheat, buckwheat and peas and alittle hemp. We also give a little rice once or twice a week. During the moulting season we added barley to regular 20 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK rauons, which was a great help to the birds all that time. We use the self-feeder as described by Mr. Rice in his Manual and we find with it the grain is always clean. We have made the feeding question one of the most important of all and find that the best results are obtained by keeping plenty of grain and good clean drinking water before the birds at all times. The drinking fountains used are automatic and are scalded once each week. About once a week we give a teaspoonful of gentian to a gallon of water. We keep fresh water in the flying pens for bathing purpose at all times during the summer, and in the winter we allow our birds to bathe twice a week at noontime. One thing that is very essential with pigeons is to be kept clean. Our houses and nests are cleaned every week and we also spray the floors, nests and walk with a liquid disinfectant. We have never been troubled with lice, vermin or any disease of any kind. For nesting material we use tobacco stems, cutting them into pieces of about six inches, which we consider the best material for the purpose, and also a safeguard against lice. We feel satisfied with what our birds are doing and have done in the past, so well satisfied, in fact, that we have now under construction build- ings that will accommodate nearly one thousand pairs of birds. And the cost of keeping or feeding will not exceed one dollar a year per pair, so that squabs selling from two dollars to three dollars per dozen are sure to leave a good profit.” Looking at the financial showing of the Lunn boys, made in twenty-two months, we find that starting with twelve pairs, for which they paid us thirty dollars, they raised three hundred pairs, worth at the same rate seven hundred and fifty dollars. From this must be deducted the grain which they bought in that period. They start the new year with a fine plant capable of earning a big percentage of profit on its valuation. CHAPTER II. AN EASY START. No Special Form of Building Necessary—Points to Remember —Shelter Adapted to the Climate— How to Use a Building which you Now Have—Squab House and Flying Pen— Lining the Squab House with Nests— Use of Egg Crates— How to Put up the Perches—Difference between the Nest Box, Nest Pan and Nest— How to Tell How Many Pigeons can Occupy a Certain Building—A Large Flock of Pigeons 1s Easily Cared for when Split up into Small Flocks— How to Use Your Time to Best Advantage. Do not get the idea that any special form of building is necessary to raise squabs. We will tell you how to put up a structure that will make your work easier for you, and enable you to handle a big flock fast and accurately, but pigeons will work in almost any place, if it is free from rats, darkness and the musty dampness which goes with darkness. Any building, whether a woodshed, a corn crib, a barn, an outhouse of any description, or even a hog pen, can be made a successful home for pigeons with a little work. The points to remember are these, first, that the building be on fairly level, sunny ground; second, that it be raised from the ground so that rats cannot breed under it out of sight and reach; third, that it ought to be fairly tight, so as to keep out rain and excessive cold. Pigeons ought to have sunlight and fresh air, like any other animal, and need protection from the elements. In practice, therefore, most squab houses are found raised on posts a foot or two feet off the ground; they face the south (here in New England) because most of our bitter weather comes from the north and east. If you live in a State, territory or foreign country where conditions are different, adapt your squab houses to those conditions. In some localities, the fierce weather comes from the south and west, in which case your squab house should face the north or east. Here in New England we build a tight house to withstand 21 CHEAP BUT PRACTICAL NEST BOXES. These are empty egg crates piled one atop another from floor to roof of squab house. Each egg crate is two feet long, one foot wide and one foot deep. The partition in the middle makes two nest boxes, each one foot square. Into each of these nest boxes a wood nest bowl is placed. The birds build their nests in these wood nest bowls. 22 AN EASY START 23 the cold winters, but in the South the buildings are more open. Be guided by what you see around you in the place where you live. If the houses used by your friends and neighbors for hens and chickens are tight and warm, make your squab house tight and warm. It would be foolish for you, for example, if you live in Texas, to build a strong, tight, close squab house, for in that latitude, in a henhouse built tight and close, vermin would swarm and harass the chicks, and they would harass the squabs just as fast. Some of our customers write from places like Oregon and Idaho, where there is a wet and a dry season, and are puzzled to know what to do. In such cases we say, arrange your buildings as you see poultry houses arranged. The pigeons will do as well under the same conditions as hens and chickens. Suppose you have a vacant building or shack of any kind in which you wish to raise squabs. We will take for granted that it has either a flat roof or a ridgepole with sloping roof, and that it is built in rectangular form. Never mind what the dimensions are; our advice will apply to either the large or the small structure. First raise it off the ground, or build a new floor off the ground, so that rats cannot breed out of your sight in the darkness and get up into the squab house. If there is an old floor, patch up all the holes in it. Now you need one door, to get yourself in and out of the squab house, and you need at least one window through which the pigeons can fly from the squab house into the flying pen and back from the flying pen into the house. You will shut this window on cold nights, or on cold winter days. You must cover the whole window with wire netting so that the birds cannot break the panes of glass by flying against them. If you have no wire netting over the window, some of the birds, when it is closed, will not figure out for themselves that the glass stops their progress, but will bang against the panes at full speed, sometimes hurting their heads and dazing them and at other times breaking the lass. 3 The flying pen which you will build on the window side of the squab house may be as small or as large as you have room. The idea of it is not to give the birds an opportunity for long flight, but simply to get them out into the open air and sun- light. They enjoy the sun very much, it does them good — (a 24 ND MAY BREED SQUABS. HOW CITY DWELLERS WITHOUT LA AN EASY START 25 and they court its direct rays all the time. Build the flying pen, if you choose, up over the roof, so the birds may sun themselves there. If that side of the roof which faces the flying pen is too steep for the pigeons to get a foothold, nail footholds along the roof, same as carpenters use when they are shingling a roof, and the pigeons will rest on these to sun themselves. For the flying pen you want the ordinary poultry netting, either of one-inch or two-inch mesh. The two-inch mesh is almost invariably used by squab raisers, because it is very much cheaper than the one-inch mesh. The one-inch mesh is used only by squab raisers who are afraid that small birds (the English sparrows here in New England) will steal through the large meshes of the two-inch netting and eat the grain which you have bought for the pigeons. You can buy this wire netting in rolls of any width from one foot up to six feet. If your flying pen is twelve feet high, you should use rolls of the six-foot wire. If it is ten feet high, rolls which are five feet wide are what you want. If your flying pen is to be eight feet high, buy rolls which are four feet wide. In joining one width of wire netting to its neighbor, in constructing your flying pen, do not cut small pieces of tie wire and tie them together, for that takes too much time and is a bungling job, but buy a coil of No. 18 or 20 iron wire and weave this 1rom one selvage to another of your wire netting in and out of tne meshes, and you have the best joint. You can line the three walls of the interior of your squab house with nest boxes if you choose. The fourth wall is the one in which the window or windows are. On this fourth wall you should not have nest boxes, but perches. These perches, or roosts, should be tacked up about fifteen inches apart, so as to give the birds room without interfering with one another. The advantage of the V-shaped roost which we advise is that a bird perched on it cannot soil the bird under- neath. We sell for five cents each pigeon perches as illus- trated on page 32 of this book, which is cheaper than they can be made of lumber. Please note particularly at this point the following terms which we use, and do not become confused. The nest box is something in which rests the nest bowl in which the nest is built. Do not speak or think of nests when you mean nest boxes, ‘Nad ONIATAI GNV (AVMADVSS¥d HLIM) FSNOH Aavnos LINA Bey ee Rea ss Seen ech tsi hee — NOILIIS el 26 AN EASY START 27 The nest boxes, when done, should look like the pigeon-holes of a desk, and should be about one foot high, one foot wide and one foot deep. A variation either way of an inch or two will not matter. One way to get these pigeon-holes is to build them of nice pine lumber, in the form of boxing one-half or five-eighths of an inch thick. Another way is to use hemlock or spruce boards one inch thick. The third way (which we think is the best for the beginner who wishes to start most cheaply and quickly) is to use egg crates, or orange boxes. These egg crates are two feet long, one foot wide and one foot deep, but they are divided in the middle by a partition, giving two spaces, each of a cubic foot, and this is just what the squab raiser wants. They are procurable almost anywhere in the United States and Canada new for ten or fifteen cents each, and if you buy them after the egg shippers are through with them, you can get them for three to five cents apiece. Some grocers will be glad to have you carry them away and will charge you nothing for them. The crates are built of thin, tough wood and usually are neat and solid. Take off the covers and throw the covers away,—you do not need them. Then put one egg crate on its side, open top out, place another egg crate on top of that, and so on until you have covered the three walls of your squab house from the floor to the roof. Do not use any nails, they are not necessary: the crates will keep in position by their weight. It is an advantage, also, to have them loose, for when you clean the nests, you can step up on a chair or box, take down the crates, commencing with the top, and clean each one with your feet on the floor. If you build a substantial set of nest boxes of boxing or hemlock lumber, you will have to stand on a chair and strain your arms in order to clean the top nest boxes, so you see there are points in the low-priced arrangement not possessed by the fancy kind. It is on the same principle by which a humble small boy with bent pin and worms and an old pole catches more fish than the city angler with a twenty- five dollar assortment of hooks, lines and artificial flies. It is the pigeons and the intelligence behind them which do the trick, every time. A fancy pigeon house with fancy trimmings cannot produce any better squabs than the home-made affair, provided the birds are the same in both cases, This shows the front of the nest he age sites face tye. interior of me squab house. “The ey are from ten to wel niche and Ln ae Bee e dee ve a elteht fenoen Hoes aot ae The : ero nis at Sri dies st box ctl plai shoy It_is ail up pie of boa: Tl te keer the Tee font falling 0 ike heya Lani oie 28 AN EASY START 29 You should have a pair of nest boxes for a pair of pigeons. By a pair of pigeons we mean two pigeons, a male and a female. By a pair of nest boxes we mean two nest boxes. We find that the word pair has a different meaning to people in different parts of the country, perhaps on the same principle that a pair of scissors or a pair of suspenders is one object, while a pair of something else, as in this case, means’ two objects. A pair of pigeons attend to a pair of squabs in one nest box, nevertheless for each pair of pigeons you need two nest boxes, for when the squabs are about two weeks old in one nest, the old birds will go to the adjoining nest box, or to a nest box in a distant part of the squab house, and begin housekeeping again, laying eggs and dividing their attention between the two families. Count your nest boxes and you will know how many pigeons your house will accommodate. If your count shows ninety-six nest boxes (in other words, forty-eight pairs of nest boxes), you can accommodate (in theory) forty-eight pairs of pigeons. It is important to remember this: Never fill a house with pigeons to the uttermost limit of its capacity, as shown by count of nest boxes. If you have, for example, forty-eight pairs of nest boxes, do not put into that house more than thirty to forty pairs of pigeons. That will leave plenty of nest boxes for the birds to choose from. We have found by experience that thirty or thirty-five pairs in a ninety-six nest-box house will accomplish more than more pairs in the same space. Do not write us and tell us that you have a house of a certain size and ask us to tell you how many pairs of pigeons it will accommodate. Put in your nest boxes as we have described and then count them, and you will know. Or you may figure it out for yourself on paper, allowing two nest boxes, each one cubic foot in size, for each pair of birds. To put it in another way, you should allow one cubic foot of nest box space for each breeding pigeon. Surely we have made this so plain now that you cannot go astray. Perhaps your start will be made with so small a number of birds that you will not have to cover more than one wall of your squab house with nest boxes. Cover one wall, or two walls, or three walls, whichever the occasion demands. Have a lot of spare boxes, and let the breeding pairs choose where BEST NEST BOX CONSTRUCTION. When the nest boxes are built of lumber (one-half an inch or five-eighths of an inch thick) the above construction should be employed. The bottoms are not nailed, but slide in on cleats. as shown. The result is a sliding shelf. This shelf may be pulled out at cleaning time and a better and quicker job of cleaning done. The nest bowls may be screwed directly to the bottoms of the above nest boxes. If that is done, it will not be necessary to screw the nest bowls to blocks of wood, to give them sepia The nest boxes should be from ten inches to twelve inches square. The backs of the nest boxes in this and every case are solid wood, not of wire netting. The back, top, sides and bottom of each nest box are solid. Only the front is open. 30 AN EASY START 31 they will. An extra number of nest boxes may be useful to you to accommodate the young birds raised to breeding age from the old birds which you buy of us, if you intend to raise your squabs to breeding age. An expenditure of not over five dollars, and a couple of days’ time, will transform the average old building into a habitation for squabs. Put on the finishing touches and add to the expense to suit your fancy. You may cover the out- side of the building with building paper, and shingle or clap- board it. You may putaskylight in the roof for ventilation, Improve it all you wish. Use your own judgment. To get at your pigeons in such a house, you walk in through the door and find yourself directly among them, the nest boxes all pointing at you. Go to the nest which you wish to investigate or from which you wish to take out the squabs and put your hand in the opening. The old birds will fly by your head, perhaps, and may strike you with their wings, but they will not fly into your face and eyes,—they are good dodgers. Don’t be afraid that if you enter the house when the housekeeping is going on you will frighten the birds so they never will come back to the eggs or the squabs. They will seem timid at first, but they will get accustomed to you. In the course of a few weeks, only a few will make a great hustle to get away from you. Many of them will continue to sit contentedly on the eggs and if you put up your hand to them they will not fly off in fear but will slap you with their wings, telling you in their language not to bother them. Carry some hempseed in with you and you will teach the birds to come and eat it out of your hand. You can tame them and teach them to love you as any animal is taught. The pigeon, particularly the Homer, the king of them all, is a knowing bird. We sell perches of our own manufacture which are cheaper than they can be made at home out of lumber. Price, five cents each, ten for fifty cents, twenty for one dollar, one hundred for five dollars. Sample by mail for eight cents. These perches are pictured in position in the squabhouse on the next page (32). They are just screwed into the wall wherever convenient. Put up as many perches as you please about eighteen inches or two feet apart on the inside of your squabhouse, on the walls. The arrangement should be about SOHO ahd ONIMOHS ‘ASQOH @vVoAos AO i Ee UL EEE pasit Coat (LI A ZS Mf); = : MY fii] Wi i y y UOLUMAILNE i NG iy Wii I Yj | ———————t YY Yin ] yh SS SS SSSS 82 AN EASY START 33 as shown in the illustration. You cannot have one long pole inside the squab house for a pigeon perch. If you had such a pole, and your pigeons were perched on it, or some of them were, a bully cock would saunter down the line and push off all the others. In the centre of the squab house you place an empty crate or overturned box. The object of this is to break the force of the wind made by the pigeons’ wings as they fly in and out of the squab house. Otherwise the floor of the squab house would be swept clean by the force of the wind. It also forms a roosting-place for the birds, and, finally, it is a convenient resting-place for the straw, hay, grass cr pine needles out of which the pigeons build their nests. The floor of the squab house should be kept clean. We formerly advised that a layer of sand or sawdust half an inch thick be kept on the floor of the squab house, to absorb the droppings, but we have found a steady and profitable demand for pigeon manure, and this manure is worth scraping up and carefully saving, for its sale will pay from one-quarter to one-third of the grain bill. Use an ice chisel to scrape the droppings from the floor, and pack the manure away in barrels or bags. Clean the floor about once in three weeks, or oftener, depending on the size of your flock. Pigeon manure is in active demand all the time by tanneries. We send the manure from our pigeons by freight to tanneries in Lowell, Lynn, Peabody and Danvers, and are paid for it at the rate of sixty cents a bushel. We have a building eighty feet long built especially for the drying and storing of the manure. During the years we have been in the squab business, we have sold enough pigeon manure to pay for nearly all the pigeon buildings on our farm. Some pigeon raisers with crude methods know nothing of the szalue of the manure and lose this by-product. They either ruin it by putting sand or sawdust on the floor of the squab. house, or else waste it on their gardens. The pure manure is too valuable for home use. To fertilize our flower and vegetable gardens, and hay field, we scrape up from the flying pens, outdoors, the gravel which has become saturated with manure. It is surprising what an increase in vegetation this manure-soaked gravel will cause. Fresh gravel is put down in the flying pens. 34. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK A peculiarity about pigeon manure is that it is not foul- smelling like hen manure, and when it is mixed with water you get a kind of crude soap. In washing the old-style earthenware nest bowls, no soap was necessary. We used warm water in washing them and the manure caked to them formed a cleansing soap in conjunction with the water. If you have a basket in which you have transported pigeons, and whose bottom is caked with the hard droppings, lay the basket face down and sprinkle water liberally on the under- side. The manure will drop off in large pieces from the inside and the basket will become perfectly clean. In raising live-stock of any kind, arrange matters so the animals will look after themselves as much as possible. Aim to cut down the factor of personal drudgery, so as to leave your time clear to observe, plan, and execute intelligently. Beginners who load themselves dow 1 with a daily round of exacting duties soon lose heart, th ar patience gives out and they become disgusted. We have known breeders of rabbits to fail simply because they raised them in hutches. Each hutch had a door and two dishes, one for feed, the other for water. Every day, the door of the hutch had to be opened, the hutch cleaned, the dishes refilled (and often cleaned), and the door closed. It took fifteen or twenty motions to do this for each hutch. Multiply this by twenty to thirty (the number of the hutches), and the burden grew unbearable. It was not surprising that in three or four months the breeder’s patience was worn out. The factor of personal drudgery had become greater than the rabbits. The thoughtful breeder would have turned his rabbits into two or three enclosures on the ground and let them shift for themselves. Then one set of motions in feeding would have answered for all, and there would have been no dirt to clean up. Infinite patience as well as skill is required to make a success of animals given individual attention. The aim of every breeder should be to make one minute of his time serve the greatest possible num- ber of animals. When you think and reason for yourself, you understand how much more practical it is to give sixty animals one minute of your time than one animal one minute. Time is money and if you are too particular, and too fussy, and thoughtless about these details, it is a clear case of the chances being sixty to one against you. AN EASY START 35 At the start, the problem of breeding squabs for market is in your favor, because one hundred pairs of breeding pigeons may be handled as easily and as rapidly as one pair. Try to keep this numerical advantage in your favor all the time. Discard every plan that cuts down the efficiency of your own labor, and adopt every device that will give you control in the same time over a greater number of pigeons. It takes brains and skilled labor to run a poultry plant successfully. Every poultryman knows that he cannot entrust the regulation of temperatures of incubators and brooders to an ignorant hired man, but even a boy or girl, or under-the-average farm hand, knows enough to fill up the bath pans and feeding troughs for squab-breeders, leaving the time of the owner free for correspondence and the more skilful work. The primary object is to breed squabs for market as cheaply, as easily and as fast as possible, without the expenditure of a dollar for fanciful or impractical appurtenances. Do not think it is necessary to heat your squab house. A squab house which has the chill of dampness taken off it by hot water or steam pipes will raise more squabs than a house not heated, but a flock of pigeons in a small house throw off considerable heat from their bodies and will breed in cold weather all right. After you have developed your plant and. have a large business which you wish to keep at the highest state of efficiency, you may heat your squab house. The idea of heat in winter time is to keep the birds more contented and get more squabs out of them, and not at all to keep them alive. Do not be afraid that your pigeons will freeze to death. We have many customers in Canada. In coldest weather, the old birds hover the squabs more carefully. City people can keep pigeons in the garret of a house, or the loft of a barn, without a foot of ground being needed. In such a case the flying pen, or place to which the pigeons go for sun and air, can be built out on a platform. The illus- tration (page %4) shows how to utilize a window of a garret. If you think that rats will trouble you in either a garret or barn loft, cover the floor inside, especially the corners, with fine wire netting through which it will be impossible for the rats to gnaw from below. One of our customers in Illinois, a rich horse breeder having 36 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK a barn some two hundred feet long, turned the whole upper story into a loft for pigeons. The flying pen takes in the whole back of the barn. There are windows and no doors on this side of the barn, the horses using doors on the other side, so this leaves the upper story of the barn, and its whole back-yard, free for the pigeons. A PRETTY SQUAB HOUSE AND FLYING PEN, CHAPTER III, THE UNIT HOUSE. Best Possible Construction for a Squab Plant— The Wina- Break Formation of Roof -— Dimensions of the Unit — Multiplying the Unit to Increase the Capacity of Your Plant — A Passageway behind the Nest Boxes — Number- ing the Nest Boxes, and the Ma. agement of a Card Index to Correspond — Cost of the Unit Construction is from Three Dollars to Five Dollars a Running Foot — Working Drawings — The Nest Bowls. If you have no building already standing which you can fix over for pigeons, you may erect a simple rectangular structure and line it with nest boxes as we have described in the last chapter. We will tell you in this chapter how to put up the finest kind of a pigeon structure. It is at the same time the most expensive. It is the best, the most workmanlike. In saying that it is expensive, we do not mean that money is thrown away on its construction, for that is not so. Itisa fit habitation for a money-making investment. This best method of construction results in what we call the unit house. You can multiply this unit as many times as you please and get as large a house as you wish, or you may add a unit from time to time, just as you add unit bookcases to accommodate the growth of the modern library shelves. You can erect these units separately, or attach one unit to the other so that you have one long building. The nest boxes are built of boxing and set in a vertical row at the back of the house, forming a wall between which and the north side of the house is a three-foot passageway. You can buy this boxing at a saw-mill all cut, ten by eleven inches, the dimensions of the nest, and if you get it in this shape you can put the boxes together with as much ease as a child builds a doll’s house. You will have no doubts as to the squareness and plumbness of the structure when you have itup. Take long lengths of boxing eleven inches wide for the shelving which should form the top and bottom of the nest boxes, then set the ten-inch by eleven-inch pieces the proper distance 37 *quB[d Ziq & WIOJ 0} JJ S1OUL 10 OO ‘00Z ‘OOL UOaNA}suOd sty} puayx| “ASQOH LINO AId LLTAW 38 THE UNIT HOUSE 39 apart. The finished nest will be eleven inches from front to back, ten inches from top to bottom, and about ten inches from one partition to the other (or whatever distance the proper distribution of your nests in pairs permits). We have found five-eighths-inch boxing to be the best suited. Build-the nest boxes up from floor to roof perfectly plain, just as the pigeon-holes of a desk run. The nest boxes should be perfectly plain, made of simple boxing in the manner described. Do not build up a piece of boxing at the front part of the nest to prevent the nest bowl from being pushed out. Early in our experience we built nests in this way, but soon changed them over to the simpler form, on account of the difficulty of keeping them clean. The droppings bank up at the front of such a nest box. Pigeons, especially a new flock in a new home, breed best in a house which is somewhat dark, and not too glaring with light. If your window is situated so as to let in a flood of light, you will get better and quicker results by shading it so that the interior will be dim. Some breeders advocate that the nest boxes have fronts of wood (removable) so that the nest box will be darkened. The same result will be accom- plished if the window. of the house is shaded so as to temper the light and preventi1t from streaming into the nest boxes. The dimensions ofthis“unit squab house’ are as follows: Length, sixteen feet; width, twelve feet; length of flying pen from end of house to end of yard, twenty feet;. distance from floor of squab house to ridgepole, twelve feet; two windows in south wall of squab house, each two feet two inches wide and three feet ten inches high. One window in north wall of squab house, two feet two inches wide and three feet ten inches high. There is a passageway on the north side of the squab house three feet wide, separating the north wall from the vertical row of nest boxes. The door of the squab house opens into this passageway so that you can enter the house without being seen by the birds, and without disturbing them. If you wish, you can set up rows of nest boxes on the east and west walls of the squab house and accommodate more pairs. You cannot have a passageway behind these nest boxes on the east and west walls, but will approach them from the front by entering the interior of the squab house through a wire door which leads from the passageway. INTERIOR OF MULTIPLE UNIT HOUSE. This is one of our houses. The drinking fountains stand in the passageway and their fronts project through the wire netting under the first row of nest boxes. The nest boxes are empty egg crates. The feed troughs are inside of each pen. In other houses, we set the feed troughs alongside the drinkers in the alleyway and cut away the netting so the birds can feed from them. We like the last arrange- ment best because the troughs can be filled more quickly from the passageway, and the time of opening and closing doors and going into pens is saved. THE UNIT HOUSE 41 Build the first unit so that you can extend it either to the east or west (as your land lies) to increase your accommoda- tions. Your squab house will always remain sixteen feet from north to south, but it may be either twelve feet from east to west, for one unit, or twenty-four feet for two units, or thirty-six feet for three units, and so on. Of course you can build one long house sixteen feet wide and in length any multiple of twelve, and keep all the birds you wish in it, but we do not advise such an arrangement. You can keep track of your pairs better if you split a big flock up into unit flocks. Fanciers breeding flying Homers from our birds, or squab- raisers who wish to keep track of every pair of birds, can provide a card index (the cards being perfectly blank and three by five inches in size), number the cards to corre- spond with the nest boxes, and on these cards keep a record of what the birds in the nest boxes do. These cards, which are blank except for the numbers they bear, can be kept in a tray such as the manufacturers of card indexes advertise in the back pages of the magazines and you can pick out any card you wish, or turn to it, at once. It is much better than keeping a record in a book, for you cannot tear out the leaves of a book, as you can throw away a card, nor can you shift one page from one location to another, as you can a card in a tray. The floor of the squab house rests on cedar posts and is two feet from the ground. The floor is built of two thick- nesses of board, with building paper between. The walls of the squab house are built of boards which’are covered with building paper and shingled. The roof is shingled. You can use clapboards on the sides, or common boards. The cost of such a squab house, complete with flying pen and all inside fittings, built in the best possible manner, will be from three dollars to five dollars a running foot. That is to say, a unit plant twelve feet long will cost from thirty-six to sixty dollars. A plant consisting of three units, thirty-six feet long, will cost from one hundred and eight to one hun- dred and fifty dollars. We publish and sell for ten cents working drawings showing just how to build a unit in every detail, On the same sheet are working drawings for building a simple squab house (without passageway) to cost from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. Also on the same sheet we give data showing how one of our friends built a ‘jeotovid se [aM se ouIOspuey ‘a[duls nq Ysno10y} st WOHONIA}sSUOO Oy ‘SNVId UNO OL DNIGUOOOV LTIING ‘SLIND NAL “ASNOH LINO WIdIL TOW THE UNIT HOUSE 43 squab house and pen capable of accommodating two hundred and twenty pairs of breeders at a cost of one hundred and thirty dollars. In ordering, simply say you wish plans and specifications for squab houses. Some who wish the best construction write us to ask if a cement floor is not better than a wood floor. It is when properly laid, but not when laid thinly and poorly. A thin floor with a poor foundation looks good when freshly laid, but the first winter causes the dirt foundation to shrink and swell, then come cracks in the cement. Rats and mice burrow in the dirt up to the cement and find their way through the cracks to the squabs. In a short time, they are a nuisance. We have seen a squab house built with cement floor which cracked as described and every time the owner and his dog took a walk down the alleyway, they found rats to kill. Finally the whole lot of cement had to be pounded to pieces, shoveled up and carted off. The way to stop rats and mice is to erect the building on posts as we have described. Rats and mice live in the dirt and they cannot get up into the squab house. If a cement floor is properly laid of sufficient thickness on a good foundation according to our concrete block squab house building plans (see next page), it is proof against frost, will not crack, and will wear forever. In our early plans for the unit squab house, we provided for a building with a ‘‘ jog ’”’ in the roof, making a long, low slope for the south side of the roof, and on this slope the birds would sun themselves and make love. This ‘ jog” construction is more expensive than is needed, and now we have a better way. We have an ordinary pitch roof, sloping equally from the ridgepole to both north and south. We run the flying pen out on the south side, not from the ridgepole, but from the eaves, and then out in the fying pen we erect perches as shown in the picture. The fact that the birds rest easily on these perches (as the photograph in Appen- dix A shows) is proof that they are contented and pleased by such an arrangement. We have found, too, that they can hear the squeaks of their young for food better than if they are up on the roof, and better attention to the squabs is the result. It was formerly thought unsafe to erect perch- ing poles in the flying pen directly in front of the windows, the fear being that birds darting suddenly out of the windows 44. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK would strike the perching poles and become injured. Such a fear goes on the assumption that a pigeon cannot take care of itself in flight. They are quick of eye and quick of wing, and are intelligent to a high degree, and we never knew a bird to be injured by flying against horizontal perches in the flying pen. They never strike them but always fly between them or alight on them. Please note particularly that if you erect one Jong building which will be a multiple of units, you separate these units, both inside and outside of the squab house, not by board partitions, but by wire partitions. For instance, if you have a building one hundred feet long, ten units, you will separate the units by nine wire partitions, these partitions being erected both inside and outside the house. Note. On page 41 we tell of building plans which we sell for ten cents. Those plans show how to build the unit squab house of wood as shown on page 26 of this book, or, if the construction is extended, the multiple unit squab house of wood as pictured on page 42. Lately, on account of the increased cost of lumber and the wide spread of the use of cement, we have had calls for plans for a CONCRETE BLOCK SQUAB HOUSE. We now sell at ten cents plans for the unit squab house of concrete block construction. These show the perspective view as well as the ground floor plan and elevation. You will find probably in your town, or nearby, a dealer in the cement blocks of which this house is built. The general plan of this concrete block squab house is the same as our wooden squab house, with the exception that the south side has one large pivoted window frame to be covered with cloth (no glass) so as to accustom the pigeons to the prevailing temperature of fresh air at all seasons of the year, and to secure at all times good ventilation. In ordering building plans, please specify whether you want the wood building plans or the concrete block building plans. They are ten cents each, or both for twenty cents. CHAPTER IV. NEST BOWLS AND NESTS. Do Not Use the Old-Fashioned Nest Pans—Obvious Faults of the Earthenware Nappy— The Wood-Fibre Nest Bowl ——How the Pigeons Choose Nest Boxes—What to Use for Nesting Material— How the Birds Manage their Nests. For nest pans, do not use the heavy, deep, red clay, unglazed dishes which you may see offered for sale as pigeon nests. They are a relic of the past. In our early experience we used for a pigeon nest bowl the common kitchen yellow earthenware nappy. We em- ployed two sizes, the six-inch and the seven-inch, changing from the large one to the small one when the squabs were two weeks old. These earthenware nappies filled the bill in being cheap and shallow, and the pigeons deposited their manure in a circle outside and not inside the nest, but they have faults which are obvious. They are flat and not round- ing on the bottom. When the female pigeon turns the eggs (as she does daily, same as a hen, in order to give the heat of her body to the whole shell and to give fresh albumen to the germ) the eggs are liable to roll apart, making it necessary for the bird to gather them together again, and after two or three mishaps like this she is liable to desert them. The earthenware is cold, breakable and can be kept clean only with water. The washing of the nappies becomes a tedious task and is often neglected. In winter weather, the earthen- ware dishes become so cold that one’s fingers are numbed by handling them—and the squabs which sit in them are numbed, even frozen. Later we perfected a nest bowl made of wood which met every objection raised against earthenware. We sold thou- sands of them during the two years we had them on the market and they gave good satisfaction except when some were made of improperly seasoned lumber, in which case they would crack and split after a few months’ use. After study and experiment to remove this objection, we had expensive patterns and moulds made and began the manufacture of 45 OLD-STYLE NEST PAN. WATER DISH. LARGE NAPPY. SMALL NAPPY. Do not use either the old-style pigeon nest pan or open water dish. THE WOOD-FIBRE NEST BOWL. This is made in one size (nine inches diameter of bowl). To give stability, the bowl may be fastened to a base by one screw. The first picture shows the perspective view; the second picture shows one-half cut away. This is the most practical nest pan for squab raising and is having an enormous sale. The bowl may be screwed directly to the bottom of the nest box, (See page 48.) BATH PAN AND DRINKER. HAND BASKET. One bath pan to every twelve pairs of birds is necessary. The hand basket (price $3.50) is used in large plants to carry the squabs from the nests to the killing place. The squabs should not be killed in sight of the parent birds, 46 NEST BOWLS AND NESTS 47 these bowls out of wood fibre. Their success was quickly demonstrated and now we sell nothing else. These wood- fibre nest bowls have all the advantages of the wood bowls and at the same time are practically indestructible, cannot warp or split. The wood fibre of which they are made is thick and exceedingly tough, being solidified under many tons’ pressure. After making they are treated with an odorless, anti-moisture compound and then baked to flint- like hardness. We sell these wood fibre nest bowls in one size only, nine inches in diameter. Price, eight cents each, ninety-six cents per dozen, eleven dollars and fifty-two cents per gross. We make prompt shipment from Boston same day order is received, in any quantity. No order is filled for less than one dozen. We have the exclusive manufacture and sale of these goods and they cannot be obtained elsewhere. The advantages of this nest pan are these: (1) The eggs roll to the centre and are always close together under the birds. (2) It is warmer than earthenware and eggs are not chilled. (3) It is cleaned without water by means of a trowel, and may then be whitewashed, if desired. (4) The claws of the old birds and squabs do not sprawl, and no cases of deformed legs in the squabs are found. (5) It is unbreakable. (6) When shipped either short or long distances, no packiug is necessary, they are lighter and the freight bill is smaller. (7) And finally the birds ‘‘ take’ to them more readily than to earthenware, getting to work more quickly and producing more squabs. We make this wood fibre nest bowl in only one size as specified and illustrated (two sizes are not necessary because the feet of the squabs do not sprawl as in the case of the earthenware nappies). You will need one pair of nest bowls for every pair of pigeons (in other words, one nest bowl to every pigeon). If you order twenty-four pairs of breeders you will need forty-eight nest bowls. If you order ninety-six pairs of breeders you will need one hundred and ninety-two nest bowls. We know our birds will breed more successfully in these nest bowls than in earthenware, and to make it an object for you to buy them, you may deduct the freight charges on nest bowls from your order for birds. First order your nest bowls sent by freight, then when you order your breeders, 48 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK send us your freight receipt and count the amount as cash. Or you may order your birds at the same time you do the nest bowls (and other supplies) and when you get your freight receipt send it to us. Orders for one dozen to four dozen bowls should go by express with the birds (tied to the basket), unless it is desired to have the bowls go with grain, grit, shells, etc., by freight. Place one nest bowl in each one of your nest boxes. Let the pairs choose to suit themselves. At the end of the month, when you take out the squabs, take out the nest bowl, clean it and put it back. Many customers who do not use egg crates or orange boxes, but build their nest boxes of half-inch or five-eighths lumber, have written us that they used the construction which we illustrate on page 30, and which is good, because cleaning can be better done. The bottoms of the nest boxes are removable and rest on cleats, as the picture shows. The cleats are seven-eighths or one inch square and are nailed to the uprights. When this construction is employed, it is not necessary that you have a block or base screwed to our wood-fibre nest bowl. The nest bowl may be screwed directly onto this removable bottom. If you use egg crates or solid-built nest boxes, you will have to give the wood-fibre nest bowl stability by screwing it to a base of wood seven inches square and about three-quarters of an inch thick. When the squab house is ready for the birds, each of the nest boxes has one of these nest bowls. The pigeons build their own nests in them, taking the nesting material and flying to the nest bowl with it. The average nest has from one to two inches of straw compactly and prettily laid by the birds. Some birds use more nesting material than others. After the squabs are hatched, they quickly show that Nature never intended them to have a dirty nest. When they wish to make manure, they back up to the edge of the nest and ‘“‘shoot” outward and over the edge of the nest bowl into the nest box, which is just where the breeder wants to find it. In a week or two there will be a circle of solid manure in the nest box, but it is out of the nest, and off and away from the feet of the squabs. As the squabs grow older, their claws tread and throw out the straw on which they were hatched, and the nest bowl gets bare again as it was in the first place. The small NEST BOWLS AND NESTS 49 amount of manure which then sticks to it is removed with a trowel. The use of this wood-fibre nest bowl has lightened the work a great deal for they never have to be washed. They should not be washed, for water weakens them, particularly at the bottom, where the screw hole is. A washer should be put under the screw head to hold the bowl tight and to prevent its turning while being cleaned. We ship these washers and screws with the bowls. The pigeons will not take with mathematical regularity pair by pair the nest boxes which you have provided. Some of them will take- them in pairs, one adjoining the other. This makes it convenient for you in keeping track of them. Others will take one nest box in one part of the squab house but go to another part of the squab house for their second nest. Some will not take a nest box at all, but will build a rough nest on the floor of the squab house and rear their family there. Let them choose for themselves. The nests are built by the birds of straw, grass, hay or pine needles. The birds fly to the pile, select what wisps they want, then fly to the nest boxes and arrange the wisps in a nest bowl to suit themselves. Tobacco stems are recom- mended for nesting material, because the odor from them will have a tendency to drive away lice, but they are not necessary if the nest bowls are used and ordinary cleanliness observed. The tanners do not want manure mixed with tobacco stems which have dropped down from the nests. The stems, when wet in the vat, stain the hides. When tobacco stems are used for nesting material, it is impossible to prevent many of them from dropping to the floor, where they are tramped by the birds into the manure. The tanners do not care if some straw and hay are in the manure. Before cleaning out the squab house, the loose straw and feathers should be swept out with a broom. The best thing to keep the nesting material in is a berry crate. Fill it with straw and hay (use the fine oat, not rye straw, cut into six-inch lengths) and shut down the cover. Then when the birds want nesting material they will fly to the vertical openings in the sides of the berry crates, stick their bills in and make their selection. The cover of the berry crate prevents the birds from soiling the nesting material. 50 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK They will not build nests with dirty nesting material. It must be first-class, clean, dry and sweet or they will not use it. Some of our customers use pine needles successfully for nesting material. We have never tried them because they are not plentiful around our farm. Where they are in abun- dance, we recommend that they be tried. When a new lot of pigeons are placed in a squab house, they will cause annoyance, while they are learning their new home and getting ready to go to work, by making manure in the nest bowls, where they roost. This cannot be prevented. The remedy is, to clean once a week. Fill this berry crate with nesting material (straw cut into six-inch lengths, and hay, mixed about equally) and place it in centre of squab house. The cover prevents the birds from fouling the nesting material. They stick their bills through the slats, select the wisps they want, and fly to nests, CHAPTER V. WATER AND FEED. Necessity of Pure Water and Plenty of it—The Kind of Drinking Dish to Use and the Kind Not to Use—Manage- ment of the Drinking Fountain and Bath Pan—The Feed Trough and Self-Feeder—Feeding Habits—What Grains to Use—How to Mix Red Wheat and Cracked Corn— Use of Grit, Oyster Shell and Salt—How to Feed the Dainties —Keep Feed before Your Flock All the Time. Pure water and plenty of it is good for pigeons. When the weather is not too cold, it is the custom of pigeons to get into water, wherever it is. When they cannot bathe in it, they will stick their dirty feet into it. When they cannot get in their feet, they will douse their heads. They are after water all the time. When feeding the squabs, the old bird will fill up its crop with grain, then fly to the water and take a drink, then return and dole out to the squabs the watery and milky mixture on which they fatten. ; The source of drinking water should be separate from the bath pan. They will drink from the bath pan, to be sure, while the water remains comparatively clean, but after a few have bathed in it, it is unfit for any bird to drink, and inside of twenty minutes the pan is not only covered with a whitish, greasy scum, but is dyed greenish from the manure which has washed off their feet. There should be drinking water inside the squab house, provided you have not a running stream or some such clean water device in the flying pen. The kind of water dish you do not want in the squab house is the kind with the open top, into which the birds can wade, and which they can foul with their droppings. The best device we have found is the self-feeding fountain, such as we illus- trate on page 46. This fountain is made either of crockery or galvanized steel, or iron. Galvanized iron or steel is better than crockery, because if water freezes in such a dish the dish will not be cracked. It will be seen by examination of the self-drinker that it is impossible for the pigeons to foul 51 52. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK the water. The reservoir holds quite a supply of water, which feeds down as fast as it is drunk by the pigeons. We have seen beginners puzzled by these self-drinking dishes; they cannot imagine why the water does not all run out at once by the bottom hole. Itis a simple principle in hydraulics which you may demonstrate to your own satisfaction by fill ng an ordinary tumbler with water and then inverting it in a saucer of water. There is no way for the air to get to the inside of the tumbler except by passing under the rim at the points where it touches the saucer, consequently it does not flow down unless the water is removed from the saucer, and then it ceases as soon as the water in the saucer rises ove the rim of the tumbler again. In fact, some self-drinkers for poultry are made of two pieces of pottery exactly on the principle of the tumbler and saucer. These fountains are not so practical as the fountain which we illustrate, because a pigeon can roost on the top of it and foul the saucer with its droppings. In the fountain which we picture it is impossible for droppings to reach the mouth containing the water, even if the pigeon is perched directly on top of the fountain. The barrel shape of the fountain makes it hard for more than one pigeon to perch at the same time on its top, but one pigeon usually is found there. He gets there, for the special purpose, it seems, of fouling the water, but the fountain beats him and he can’t do it. Neither can he put his feet into the water unless he is an extraordinary gymnast capable of holding his body out at an angle to the perpendicular. The result is, that in actual practice the water keeps clean, and there is a supply of it ready about all the time. A fountain of a gallon capacity will keep two or three dozen pairs of breeders supplied all day. The fountain is filled by turning it on end and pourins water down into the opening. If you fill the fountain at the same time you fill the bath pan in the morning, you will have done your duty by the pigeons for the day. ’ Cleanse these fountains at least once every two weeks with sca'ding hot water containing squab-fe-nol (pigeon disinfectant; see our price-list for description). The best place for the bath pan is out in the yard of the flying pen. A pan fifteen inches in diameter is right for a flock up to twelve pairs of birds. The pan should be from four to six inches deep, not over six inches, for a pigeon will WATER AND FEED 53 not bathe in water where it would be likely to drown if pushed or sat on by its mates. Having the bath pan in position on the ground of the flying pen, you take to it once each day, in the morning, a bucket of water, and pour the water into the pan Thén you can go away to business, if you wish. The pigeons will fly to the pan from the interior of the house, or from the roof, wherever they happen to be. Some will splash right in. Others will perch on the rim and drink before they bathe. When the water gets dirty, they know enough not to drink, unless they are very sorely pressed indeed for water. The water gets quite dirty from the bath- ing. A thick, greasy, white scum forms. The pigeons do not rustle in the dirt, as a hen does, but rely on the water to keep them clean and dainty. They flap their wings in the water and enjoy it thoroughly. A pigeon will never run away from water, as you will discover if when you are water- ing your lawn you turn the hose on them. Let the dirty water stand in the bath pan all day if you choose, or you may go to it an hour or two after you have filled the pan, and empty the water. One bath a day is enough. If there is a stream of water running through your property handy to your squab house, build your flying pen out over it and you need never trouble with bath pans or drinking water. If it is a deep stream, you will have to contrive a shallow bath tub at the shore, or divert part of the stream into a shallow run. The squab raiser with a stream of water handy should by all means make use of it and save himself the work of carrying water in pails. The bath pan may rest in a basin, if you choose, and the overflow caused by the splashing of the wings may be con- ducted to a sewer and drained away. You may conduct water in pipes and have a faucet opening out over thé bath pan, which faucet you may control either directly or from a central station. An easy home-made arrangement to be used in conjunction with the bath pan consists of a wet sink in which the bath pan sits, and out of which the splashed water runs. In the winter it may be advisable to give your pigeons their bath in the squab house instead of in the yard of the flying pen, in which case you should have some device on the wet-sink principle to prevent the floor of the squab house from getting damp. 54 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK In northern latitudes it is not necessary nor desirable for the pigeons to bathe on cold winter days. Wait until a warm and sunny day comes. It will do the birds no harm to go for weeks in the winter without bathing. Many of our customers write us that they allow their birds to bethe in the winter seldom or not at all. Feed may be given to pigeons in a less guarded way, for they do not soil the feed dish so freely as they do the drinking dishes. You may put the feed in open troughs (or on a flat board with a rim around it) in the squab house. If you observe them when eating, you will notice that they stand up to the feed in a somewhat orderly manner and peck at its contents. They do not sit in the dish and roll around in the feed as they do in the water. But they have one fault when eating and that is, to scatter the grains. They will push in their bills and toss them around in a search after tidbits, and scatter out on the floor kernel after kernel, and it will make your bump of economy ache to see this grain scattered around. There do not seem to be any neat, saving pigeons which go to the floor in the wake of their prodigal brethren and eat the crumbs. They all have a fancy for the first table and they get right at it and scatter the grain like the rest of their fellows, and apparently the pigeon who scatters the most grain is the one which struts around with the biggest front. The way to fool them is to provide in the squab house a covered trough, that is, covered except at the slit or points where they stick in their bills for food. With a little ingenuity you can cover an ordinary v-shaped trough so that it will be hard for the pigeons to waste the grain. You may havea self-feeder made as big or as small as you choose and in which the grain will drop down as it is eaten. We will try to present the matter of feed as clearly and fully as it seems to us to be possible. A woman in Santa Cruz, California, said she would like to raise squabs, and would begin by ordering her feed of us, exactly as we recom- mended, to be sent to her by freight from Boston via the Southern Pacific. A man in Cleveland ordered a quantity of red wheat and cracked corn to be sent by freight from us, when there were thousands of bushels of both staples in elevators in his city, in fact most of the Boston supply had passed through his city. We did not like to run the chance of WATER AND FEED 55 losing the order for breeding stock either of the woman in Santa Cruz or of the gentleman in Cleveland, but we wrote to both that they ought not to go into the squab-raising business if they were to be dependent on us for grain, that it was too far to send and that if they would look around home they could get what they wanted. Here in New England we feed to pigeons cracked corn, red wheat, hemp-seed, Canada peas, kaffir corn, — the foregoing as a rule, and sometimes, when cheap, buckwheat, millet and barley. It was formerly thought that whole corn was not a good food for pigeons, on the theory that the old pigeons would eat the large kernels and then, perhaps, feed them to squabs, choking them. In practice, not one case in one hundred like that will be found. Whole corn is much relished by pigeons. They will eat it before they will eat anything else, except hempseed, and there is no danger in using it. In many sections of the country, we find, good cracked corn is not so easy to procure as good whole corn. The grain dealers take their poor whole corn, sometimes, and work it over into cracked corn. Gvuod whole corn speaks for itself and when you buy it there is no doubt about it. All the time people write to us and say they never heard of red wheat. More write and say they don’t know what kaffir corn is. Others are puzzled by hemp-seed, they have never seen any. That is surprising to us here in New England, but no doubt we would be just as surprised if we were in our customers’ places. Let us see if we cannot level up the whole country on this question of feed for pigeons. As a rule, we say, feed the grains which are nearest you. This country has its corn belt, its wheat belt, its section where millet is raised. Buckwheat is plentiful in another ‘section. For your leading grain, your staple, feed corn. The point to remember is to feed a variety of grains. Keep this word variety in your mind ali the time in dealing with your pigeons. Their appetites do not grow keen on a monotonous diet, they will not lay the eggs they should, and their health will not be good on it. Vary the diet. In order to find out what grains are convenient to you, go to your nearest grain dealer or country general store. The 56 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK dealer in nine cases out of ten knows nothing about pigeons and their feed and if you give him the name of a strange grain, he will be liable to shy and say he never heard of it. The trouble with him is that he sells horse feed and is accustomed to handling only the grains which horses need. He can get the grains you wish by writing to his nearest port or railroad junction. There is nothing odd or out of the way about the grains. They are going from one point to another all the time. Sometimes they.are scarce at certain periods of the year. For instance, nearly every fall there is no kaffir corn at a reasonable price obtainable in Boston, so we do not feed it to our pigeons then, but cut it out altogether in favor of the grains selling at a lower price. Most of the kaffir corn which we get in Boston comes from Kansas. It is a splendid feed for pigeons. Itis small and comparatively soft, and their crops make easy work of it. It is nourishing and they like it. Maybe your grain man sells a mixture for pigeons. If you will look in this mixture you will find probably kaffir corn, as well as buckwheat (in black kernels), also red wheat and Canada peas. A liberal supply of Canada peas and hemp-seed is necessary for a good egg production. Do not feed a great excess of corn, in the summer time. (By corn, we mean common Indian corn, not kaffir corn. Kaffir corn is harmless, even when forced on the birds.) The effect of corn is to heat the blood. This is what you want in the winter time, but not in the summer. Red wheat is better than white wheat to feed to pigeons because it is not so likely to cause diarrhoea, (See supple- ment of this book.) Beware of feeding too much wheat. Pigeons fed on an excess of wheat are constantly out of condition with continual diarrhoea and will lay no eggs while in that state. We recall vividly cases of pigeons doing poorly caused by the owner’s stupidity in feeding too much wheat. One customer in Kansas fed nothing but wheat and got his birds so weak that they could not fly off the ground. Another in California with a flock of over one hundred pairs had not been able in six months’ time to get more than one quarter of his birds at work. He complained bitterly that his birds were ‘“ not mated,” were all cocks, and so on, but after further correspondence WATER AND FEED 57 disclosed that he was feeding nothing but wheat, with the exception of a handful of peas in the middle of the week and a handful of hemp-seed on Sunday ! A properly balanced ration is necessary to egg production in the case of pigeons, same as poultry. Wheat is a good regulator for pigeons but corn is the great fattener and the main staple. When anybody fails with pigeons, if you pick up and handle the birds you will find in nine cases out of ten that they have sharp breastbones, which means that they are improperly nourished, out of condition, and of course cannot produce eggs because they have not the blood and fat to do it. All the grains which you feed should be old, hard, dry and sweet. If they smell sour or taste bad to your own tongue, don’t feed them to your pigeons. Above all, keep your grain dry. If you have the grain stored in bins which are damp from ground water, or which catch the drippings from the eaves, or through holes in the roof, first you will get sour grain and then some of the grain will sprout, and this sprouted grain will derange the bowels of your birds and bring on dysentery. Do not let rank little growths spring up in a dirty squab house or in the yard of your flying pen. Pigeons will peck at green leaves and grass and will not be harmed, but do not give them a chance to peck up sprouted grain and eat the sprout, grain and all, for if they do they will have diarrhcea. A pigeon in good condition and busy with a nest ordinarily will not touch a nasty little green sprout, but in the moulting season, when pigeons are in the dumps generally, and feeling like having a stimulant, they will experiment with these sprouts. Keep the floor of your squab house clean and the yard of the flying pen raked up and you need not worry about this matter. Ground oyster shell should be placed in a box handy for the pigeons to get at. The purpose of this oyster shell is to provide the constituents of the eggshell. The female pigeon needs it in order to form the egg. Grit is needed by the pigeons to enable them to reduce to powder the feed which they take into their crops The muscles of the crop work the grit on the grains and reduce the grains so that they mix with the digestive fluids. Cart two or three bushels of gravel or sharp sand into your flying pen and cover the ground with it. It is not necessary to ‘UsIpP[TIYD pue uatIOM JoJ ATeadsa uIey ay. UO BUITYsSUe ueyy Suoasid ul emseald pue AjnNvaq alow Seley ‘sjuetd qenbs YIIM sajeysa AuyUNOD dn Surjy Jo A17e~weds & aHVUL aAA ‘SSUAMWOLSNO UNO AO ANO JO WUVA 000'0028 AHL NO SANHOS sae 8¢ WATER AND FEED 59 cover the whole space of the ground of the flying pen. For fuller discussion of shells and grit, see supplement. It is poor policy to mix anything but wheat and corn together. If you make a mixture of peas and hemp- seed with cracked corn and wheat, you will find that the pigeons will dig down after the peas and hemp-seed and toss the other grain around and waste it. The only mixture, therefore, which we feed is a mixture of wheat and corn. Fill the self-feeder with whole corn and wheat, in the propor- tion of three parts of the corn to one of wheat. We call the wheat and corn staples, because with us in New England they form the major part of the diet, and are the cheapest. The hemp-seed, buckwheat, Canada peas, kaffir corn, millet and barley we call dainties. We do not feed much millet, because we have the other grains, which are cheapest, but some of our customers in the millet sections of the country feed a good deal of millet. In such cases they look on millet as one of their staples, and the hard-to-get grains are classed by them as dainties. The staple grains of which you will feed the most to your pigeons are the ones which are the cheapest for you. The more expensive grains will be classed by you as dainties. A good way to feed the dainties is to throw them out on the floor of the squab house by hand. You will see the pigeons make a rush for them and eat them with as much relish as a child eats candy. You should feed the dainties about three times a week, throwing handfuls on the floor until you see that the pigeons are satisfied and do not care for any more. Do not throw any feed on the ground of the flying pen, for the earth is liable to be damp, and this dampness will sour the grain, especially cracked corn, and if the pigeons eat it, they will get sour crops, and the fluids from the sour crops of the parent pigeons will make the squabs sick and perhaps kill them. Do all your feeding in the squab house and your pigeons will not have sour crops. Do not lay in a big stock of cracked corn at a time, for cracked corn exposed to sudden changes of the weather is liable to take up dampness, and sour. Smell and taste it once a week or so and determine to your own satisfaction that it is not sour. 60 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Some squab breeders feed twice a day, as much as the birds will eat up clean, but we do not believe in that system of feeding. Our own success, and the success of our customers in squab raising, is based largely on the fact that we insist on a continuous supply of food for the pigeons, when they are breeding. Use the self-feeder only with birds that are pro- ducing squabs. A new flock should be fed by hand twice daily what they will eat up clean in ten minutes. Keep them eager, active and racy. Do not let them get too fat, for if you do they will not start laying. Some beginners will use up weeks trying to get their birds started, others get all their pairs going in a few days. It is a matter of skillful feeding, exactly as in the case of hens. The best of mated pairs will not produce eggs unless nourished, because the act of copula- tion, as in the case of hens and roosters, has nothing to do with the volume of egg production, but only with the fertility of eggs. Food should be at hand in the self-feeder for birds which are breeding. They do not gorge, as a horse will if an un- limited supply of food is set before him. They are not gluttons, like pigs. They do not lose their racy shape. A squab when hungry will squeak loudly to inform its parents of that fact and if you observe a squab house where the two meals a day are in vogue, you will note quite a chorus of squeaks. In a house where there is feed always at hand, you will not hear many hungry squeaks. It is greatly to your interest that the crops of your young birds be filled with food. The more their crops are stuffed with food, the quicker they will fatten and the fatter they will get. The parent birds should at all times be able to fill up their crops with feed and water and then fly to the nest to disgorge for the benefit of the squabs. Squab breeders differ concerning self-feeders, same as mothers differ about ways of bringing up babies. Each squab breeder thinks his method of feeding is the best. We speak not wholly from our own experience, but the experiences of thousands of customers extending over many years. There was formerly the same prejudice against self-feeders for poultry, until a man in Ohio, raising poultry with striking success by the aid of self-feeders, made his brethren sit up and take notice. In our stories of success printed at the back of WATER AND FEED 61 this book and elsewhere, are many cases of small flocks increased enormously, and the writers take pains to state that they are using the self-feeder. That is talk that means something. The loudest advocate of no self-feeder is the man who is trying hard to sell his Homers by some kind of a story different from what we tell. It does not matter to him what he says, so long as he combats us. It is the game of such chaps to contradict all others and pose as the only real, simon-pure know-it-alls on pigeons. Some small parent Homers are such good feeders, such good fathers and mothers, that they stuff their squabs with grain and bring them up to a surprising fatness. We have had pairs of squabs which actually at four weeks of age were bigger than their parents. This is not surprising when you think that. the squabs sit in their nest hour after hour doing nothing but accumulate fat, and taking no exercise to train off this fat. The old birds are flying around and do not have much fat on them; they are trim and muscular, and hard fleshed. You can tell an old pigeon after it is cooked when you put your teeth into it, just as you can tell an old fowl. Provide salt for your pigeons to keep them strong and healthy. The safest kind of sal for you to use is rock salt, such as is sold for horses. Put a couple of big lumps of it in the squab house and let the pigeons peck at it when they wish. Put two more lumps out in the flying pen. When rain comes the water will wash some salt off the lumps into the gravel. (Empty the bath pans upon the lumps of salt.) The pigeons will eat this salt-impregnated gravel all around the lumps for an inch or so down into the ground. Do not feed powdered salt, for if you do the birds may eat too much of it and it will kill them. Coarse ground salt may be used, but the rock salt is best. Some green stuff is much relished by pigeons. It is good for them and will increase the egg, and, consequently, squab production. They are very fond of cabbage now and then, which should be chopred fine before being fed. (We mean raw, not cooked, cabbage.) When vines grow over the flying pen, they will be seen pecking at the green leaves. Green clover may be cut up and fed to them in conjunction with grain. It should be remembered that green stuff, as enu- merated in this paragraph, is fed only as a relish. 62 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOON Table scraps, or what is commonly known as swill, should not be fed to pigeons. Rice may be fed, if plentiful and cheap. It has a tendency to correct diarrhoea caused by too much wheat. Some of our customers have been influenced by adverse criticism of our self-feeder to abandon it and feed in open troughs, but they have gone back to the self-feeder. One of these customers was Mr. Tyson, who started with several hundred pairs of our birds three years ago and now (1907) has the largest and best plant in the State of New Hampshire. His wife and son, with himself, have attained a high degree of skill and proficiency in the handling of their pigeons. The squabs they are breeding weigh at least nine pounds to the dozen. They ship to New York City, where they get very high prices. Mr. Tyson started by using the self-feeder for grain, as we advise, but being influenced by something seen in print, abandoned it and gave the open-trough method of feed- ing, twice or three times a day, a thorough trial. Immediately the birds began to fall off in production, and the squabs fell off in weight, some lots getting so skinny as to lose nearly two pounds to the dozen. That experience was enough. The Tysons went back to the self-feeder and now their squabs are plump, as they were in the first place, the old birds are in better condition, and breeding better. Do not put into the self-feeder a great lot of grain, but only enough to last about two days. A great quantity is liable to take up moisture in a spell of rainy weather and go stale, and is not relished by the birds as if it were supplied fresh every two or three days. CHAPTER VI. LAYING AND HATCHING. Laying an Ege is under the Control of the Pigeon’s Mind— Fertile and Infertile Eggs— How the Cock Drives the Hen— One Day between Eggs— Hatch after Seventeen Days —How Squabs are Fed by the Paren’ Birds—Mating Males and Females— Use of the Mating Coop—Determina- tion of Sex—Color of Feathers Has No Effect on Color of Flesh— Pigeons Left to Themselves Will Not Inbreed— No Inbreeding Necessary even if you Start with a Small Flock. The hen pigeon builds the nest. When the nest is built, the cock begins to “ drive’’ the hen around the house and pen. In a flock of breeding pigeons you always will see one or two cocks “ driving”’ their mates, pecking at them and nagging them with the purpose of forcing them onto the nest to lay the eggs. The cock seems to take more interest in the coming family than the hen. The hen lays one egg in the nest, then skips a day and lays the second egg on the third day. Seventeen days after being laid the eggs hatch. The egg first laid hatches a day before the second, sometimes, but usually the parents do not sit close on the first egg, but stand over it, and do not incubate it. Sometimes one squab may get more than its share of food, and the younger one will weaken and die. This seldom happens but if you see one squab considesably larger than the other, the thing to do is to exchange with a squab from another nest that is nearer the size of the remaining squab. The old birds will not notice the change but will continue feeding the foster squab. The process of laying an egg is a mental operation. We mean by this that it is not a process which goes on regularly in spite of all conditions. The hen forms the egg in her body and lays it when she is in condition to, and when she wants to, not when she is forced to. In other words, the hen lays when conditions are satisfactory to her. That she forms the egg at will is proven by many things, principally by the fact that she allows one day to come in between the first and 63 THE QUICK GROWTH OF SQUABS FROM EGGS TO KILLING AGE IN FOUR WEEKS IS ILLUSTRATED ON THIS PAGE, PAGE 66 AND PAGE 68. EGGS IN THE NEST. SQUABS JUST HATCHED. 64 LAYING AND HATCHING 65 the second eggs. No doubt, after she has laid the first egg, she hurries the other along and lays it as soon after the first as she can, and it takes forty-eight hours for the egg, complete in its wonderful construction, to form. Hen pigeons in a ship- ping crate or close coop do not lay eggs, because they know that there are no facilities there for raising young. Once in a while you will find an egg in a shipping crate when the birds are taken out, but it is a comparatively rare occurrence. Of course, in order to lay a fertile egg, the hen pigeon must have received the attention of the cock bird. It is common for a hen pigeon at five months, and sometimes four, to lay an egg, but as a rule those first eggs from a young hen are not fertile because she has not yet mated with the sock bird. You can tell by holding the egg up to the light _fter it is five or six days old. If no embryo shows, the egg may be destroyed. In starting a flock, always purchase the adult, mature breeders. We formerly repeated the state- ment from hearsay that the male pigeon may lose vitality when from six to ten years old, but this is not so, as we know now from experience that customers to whom we sold six to eight years ago are breeding at the same rate the same pigeons with which they started, and they were from one to two years old when sold. From the day of its hatching to market time the squab is fed by its parents. The first food is a liquid secreted in the crop of both cock and hen, and called pigeons’ milk. The parent pigeons open their bills and the squabs thrust their bills within to get sustenance. This supply of pigeons’ milk lasts from five to six days. It gradually grows thicker and in a week is found to be mixed with corn and wheat in small particles. When about ten days old, the squabs are eating hard grain from the crops of the mature cock and hen. They fill up at the trough, then take a drink of water and fly to the nest to minister to the little ones. You see how im- portant it is to have food available at all times. In fourteen, fifteen or sixteen days after the first pair of squabs have been hatched, the cock begins “‘ driving” the hen again. This shows the necessity of a second nest for the pair. In this second nest the hen lays two more eggs, and the care of the first pair of squabs, now between two and three weeks old, devolves upon the cock. When this pair is four SQUABS ONE WEEK OLD. SQUABS TWO WEEKS OLD, 66 LAYING AND HATCHING 67 weeks old, it is taken out of the nest and killed and both the mature birds are concerned then only with the new hatch. This sequence of eggs and hatches goes on all the time. If there are not two nests, the two new eggs will be laid in the nest where are the growing squabs. The parents in their eagerness to sit on the new eggs will push the squabs out of the nest and they will die for lack of sustenance. The hen lays the eggs about four o’clock in the afternoon. The cock and hen take turns at covering the eggs, the hen sitting during the night until about ten o’clock in the morning, when the cock relieves her, remaining on until the latter part of the afternoon. When the squabs are taken out for market at the end of four weeks, the nest bowl and nest box should be cleaned. If this cleaning is done once a week, no trouble from parasites will result. In the summer it is well to add a little carbolic acid to the whitewash as an extra precaution. Sprinkle unslaked lime on the floor of the squab house and in the nest boxes, and spray squab-fe-nol freely. One way of mating or pairing pigeons is to turn males and females in equal number into the same pen. They will seek their own mates and settle down to steady reproduction. Another method is to place the male and female which you wish to pair in a mating coop or hutch. In the course of a few days they will mate or pair and then you may turn them loose in the big pen with the others. The latter method is necessary when improving your flock by the addition of new blood, or when keeping a positive record of the ancestry of each pair. By studying your matings, you may improve the efficiency of your flock. In the case of a. new flock of pigeons shipped to a new home, all do not go to work at the same time. Those pairs which get to work first are bothered by the slower pairs. To judge from the advertisements of some breeders, anxious to claim everything for their birds and their wonderful matings, the beginner would think that all the birds he buys from them will go to work immediately when released in their new home. This is far from the truth. The pairs will go to work to suit themselves as to time. Some will be quick, others slow. As fast as each pair goes to work, it should be caught and placed in the breeding pen. The first pen, into which the birds SQUABS THREE WEEKS OLD. SQUABS FOUR WEEKS OLD, Ready to be killed for Market. 68 LAYING AND HATCHING 69 were put on arrival, then can be used for the rearing pen for youngsters raised in the breeding pen. In case a pigeon loses its mate by death or accident, the sex of the dead one must be ascertained. The live one should be removed from the pen and placed in the mating coop with a pigeon of the opposite sex. The mating coop should have a partition of lattice work or wire. Place the cock in one side, the hen in the other, and leave them thus for two or three days to flirt and tease each other, then remove the central lattice work or wire and they usually will pair, or mate. If they show no disposition to pair but on the contrary fight, replace the partition and try them for two or three days longer. If they refuse to pair after two or three thorough trials, do not experiment any more with them, but select other mates. The determination of the sex of pigeons is difficult. The bones at the vent of a female are as a rule wider apart than of a male. If you hold the beak of a pigeon in one hand and the feet in the other, stretching them out, the male bird usually will hug his tail close to its body —the female will throw her tail. The best way to determine the sex is to watch the birds. The male is more lively than the female, and does more cooing, and in flirting with her usually turns around several times, while the female seldom turns more than half way around. The male may be seen pecking at the female and driving her to nest. When one pigeon is seen chasing another inside and outside the squab house, the driven one is the female and the driver her mate. Neither the squab breeder nor the flying-Homer breeder is much concerned about the color of feathers. There are blue checkers, red checkers, black checkers, silver, blue, brown, red,’in fact about all the colors of the rainbow. Color has no relation to the ability of a pair to breed a large pair of squabs. We wish specially to emphasize the fact that the color of the feathers has no influence on the color of the skin of the squab. A white feathered bird does not mean a white- skinned squab. The feed affects the color of the meat a little. A corn-fed pigeon will be yellower than one fed on a mixture. Squabs with dark skins (almost black in some cases) are the product of blood matings. The trouble with a dark-colored squab is in the blood and the only remedy is to get rid of them THE MATING COOP. One way of manne squab breeders is to turn cocks and hens in equal numbers into the same pen. The mating coop is used when the breeder wishes to pair a certain male with a certain female. The above mating coop is divided by a partition. The cock is placed on one side of the partition, the hen on the other, as pictured. They are left thus for a day or two to tease each other Then raise the partition, or take it out, and allow them to approach each othc. when they usually will be found to have formed an attachment. This being the case, they may be put into the large pen with the other birds, where they will find a nest hox and go to house- keeping. If they fight when the partition is removed, try again, or try other mates. The coop pictured above is two feet long, one foot wide and one foot deep. 70 LAYING AND HATCHING 71 either by killing the parents or by remating. Usually the trouble comes from one parent bird, which you find by turning up the feathers and examining the skin. Having found the bird which is at fault, kill it. This point has come up con- tinually in our correspondence. The erroneous belief that white-feathered birds produce the whitest-skinned squabs seems to be widespread and we are asked sometimes for a flock of breeders “‘ all white.”” Our experience with all white Homers is that they are smaller and have less stamina than the colored ones. The marketmen will take two cr three pairs of dark-skinned squabs in a bunch without comment, but an excess of dark ones will provoke a cut in price. Breeders who are shipping only the undressed squabs should pluck feathers now and then to see just what color of squabs they are getting. The dark-colored squabs are just as good eating as the light-colored ones, but buyers for the hotels and clubs, and those who visit the stalls, generally pick out the plump white-skinned squabs in preference to the plump dark-skinned ones. As a rule, squabs from Homer pigeons are white- skinned—the dark-colored squab is an exception. Many beginners wish to know if it will be all right for them to buy a flock and keep it in one house for six months or a year, paying no attention to the mating or pairing of the young birds, but leaving that to themselves, so as to get without much trouble a large flock before the killing of the squabs for market begins. Certainly, you may do this, providing extra nest boxes from time to time until your squab house has been filled with nests; then you will have to provide overflow quarters. We are asked if the flock will not become weakened by inbreeding, that is, a brother bird mating up to a sister, by chance. According to the law of chances, such matings would take place not very often. Pigeons in a wild state, on the face of a cliff, or in an abandoned building, would pair by natural selection. The stronger bird gets the object of its affection, the weaker one is killed off or gets a weaker mate, whose young are shorter-lived, so the inevitable result is more strength and larger size. Nature works slowly, if surely. A lot of pigeons in one pen mating or pairing as they please when old enough is the natural way, and if you follow this, you cannot go very far wrong. We advocate matings by the breeder because it hurries Nature 72 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK along the path which makes most money for the breeder. We all know how Darwin studied natural and forced selection of pigeons. He took one pigeon with a certain peculiarity, say a full breast, and mated it to another pigeon with a full breast. The squabs from these birds, when grown, had breasts fuller than their parents. Then these in turn were mated to full-breasted pigeons from other parents, and the grandchildren had even larger breasts. Darwin’s experi- ments covered a period of over twenty years and in this time he developed litle faults and peculiarities to an amazing degree. Every intelligent, careful pigeon breeder is striving by his forced matings to push along the path of progress the peculiar- ity in pigeons which is his specialty. The breeder who selects most carefully and keeps at it the longest wins over the others. By selecting from your best and most prolific breeders the biggest and fattest squabs, keeping them for breeders and mating so as to get something larger and plumper, you are all the time getting bigger squabs. Every breeder of squabs has it in his power to increase the efficiency of his flock by studying his matings. There is commerical satis- faction in breeding for size and plumpness because it pays at once, and at the same time the breeder has the satisfaction of increasing the stamina and variety of pigeons. To be master of the matings, the breeder should band his squabs. As scon as they are weaned (that is, as soon as the breeder sees them flying to the feed and eating it) they should be taken and put into one of the rearing pens. When about six months old, the breeder should begin mating them by selection, using the mating coop, then when they are mated turn the pair into a working pen with other adult birds. By looking at the number on the band of each bird, then on your record card, you know how to avoid mating up brother and sister. When the young birds are just over four weeks old, or between four and six weeks, they are able to fly a little, and if they do not hop out of the nest (or are not pushed out by the parents) you may push them out yourself. They cre now able to feed themselves. If these young birds are left in the squab house, they will bother the old birds by begging for food, and this infantile nagging will hinder the regular breeders in their next hatch, so the very best thing to do is LAYING AND HATCHING 73 to put the young birds by themselves into a rearing pen, where they cannot bother anybody. Of course there is likely to be a little inbreeding when you eave the birds to choose for themselves, but not much. If the breeder has not the time to make forced matings, then he may not care to make them. Remember in mating that xe begets like. The parent bird that feeds its young the most, and most often, will raise the biggest squab. Some- times a parent bird will have fine nursing abilities and will stuff its offspring with food. These good-feeding qualities are transmitted from one generation to another and are as much under the control of the breeder as size and flesh-color. Your biggest squabs will be found to have an extra-attentive father or mother, or both. A pigeon with a dark skin, if mated to a white-skinned bird will produce a mulatto-like squab. It is the large, fat, white-fleshed squab which you are after. Disregard the color of the feathers when mating. If when plucking your squabs you come across a “ nigger,”’ that is, a squab with a dark skin, find out what pair of breeders it came from and whether the cock or the hen is at fault, and get rid of the faulty one. It is important to start with adult birds that are not related, then you will not begin inbreeding. That is why we make a special effort with our adult birds to have them unrelated. Some letters from customers make plain to us that a clear knowledge of what inbreeding means is not possessed by everybody. Several have written to this effect: ‘If I buy two or three dozen pairs from you to start, how can I increase the size of my flock without inbreeding?’ When (1) a brother is mated to sister or (2) a father to a daughter, or (3) a mother to a son, or (4) a grandson to his grandmother, etc. that is inbreeding. We know it is forbidden by law for human beings to mate in that manner, because (a) God in the Scriptures has forbidden it, and (b) because the State does not wish to have to care for the puny, weak-minded offspring that would result from such unions. We all know that the marriages of cousins often result in demented, diseased chil- dren. Now suppose you buy two dozen pairs of pigeons of us, and number them pairs one to twenty-four. If you mate the offspring of pair two (or any other pair)to the offspring of pair one (or any other pair) that is outbreeding or cross- 74. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK breeding. What you do not do, and what you try to prevent, is the mating of the offspring of pair number one (or any other pair) to each other. So, you see, if you have a dozen or two pairs, you need never inbreed, for there is an infinite variety of matings possible. Breeders of animals sometimes inbreed purposely in order to get better color of fur or plumage, or finer bones, etc. There are no brothers and sisters in the flocks we sell. If you buy one dozen or twenty dozen pairs of breeders of us, the pairs will be unrelated, and you need never inbreed. We never heard a real pigeon breeder worry much about inbreeding, because the likelihood of it in a flock of even a dozen pairs is extremely remote, as we have demon- strated above. PIGEONS IN ST. MARK’S SQUARE, VENICE. Get. acquainted with the pigeons which you buy of us, and let them get ac- quainted with you. They will work all the better for being tame and docile. These pieeene in Venice are fed by tourists on corn only. A peddler selling whole corn or two cents a package sits all day long on the steps at the base of the monument. Several photographers in the square make a specialty of taking pictures of tourists feeding the pigeons; snap shots by amateurs are constantly being made. In this city of canals, these pigeons get no grit, in fact nothing but the corn, and they would die if obliged to pick up a living for themselves. They are healthy, proving the incorrectness of the assertion that a feed of nothing but corn will cause canker. They are small, however, of stunted growth. They are so tame that they will perch on your hand and eat grains of corn held in your lips. CHAPTER VII, INCREASE OF FLOCK. It ts Possible to Breed One Pair of Squabs Each Month, but in Actual Practice this is Seldom Attained—The Squab Raiser with Pure Thoroughbred Homers should Count on Stx to Nine Pairs of Squabs a Year—The Common Pigeon Breeds Only Four or Five Pairs of Squabs a Year, but Eats as Much or More than the Homer—Dzfferences between the Homer and the Common Pigeon—Good Homers Scarce and the Market jor them Firm and Steady. It is theoretically possible for a pair of pigeons to breed twelve pairs of squabs a year, for it takes only seventeen days for the eggs to hatch, and the hen goes to laying again when the hatch is only two weeks old. So, if you start with twelve pairs of Homer pigeons, and they should breed one pair of squabs a month, at the end of the first month you would have twenty-four squabs; at the end of the second month, forty-eight squabs; at the end of the third month, seventy-two squabs; at the end of the fourth month, ninety- six squabs; at the end of the fifth month, one hundred and twenty squabs. Now the first lot of squabs which your birds hatched will be ready to mate and lay eggs, so at the end of the sixth month you should have one hundred and sixty- eight squabs; at the end of the seventh month, two hundred and forty squabs; at the end of the eighth month, three hundred and thirty-six squabs; at the end of the ninth month, four hundred and fifty-six squabs; at the end of the tenth month, six hundred squabs; at the end of the eleventh month, seven hundred and sixty-eight squabs, and at the end of the twelfth month, nine hundred and sixty squabs. Such figures are purely theoretical and are seldom attained in actual practice. You will have some pairs in your flock which will raise ten and eleven pairs of squabs a year, but the average will be seven to nine pairs of squabs a year. If you get less, your flock is not pure thoroughbred Homers, or your feeding and nesting arrangements are wrong. In our visit to squab breeders in 1902, we asked every one with whom 75 76 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK we talked how many pairs a year he was getting from his birds, and about all of them said seven to nine. This expe- rience corresponds with ours. We remember particularly an old gentleman, Preacher Hubbell, in Vineland, who had been in the squab business for years but was just going out of it, having sold his place, pigeons and all, to a Swede farmer. He told us he had always made squabs pay him and that his birds, of which he kept a careful record, raised him nine pairs to the year right along. It is a well-known fact that the common pigeon will breed only four or five pairs of squabs a year, and if handlers of big flocks of common pigeons, like Johnson of California, can make a net profit of one dollar ver pair a year from such low breeders, we think anybody of no experience is justified in believing our statement that our Homers are capable of earning a net profit of from two to three dollars per pair a year, taking into account not only their fast breeding qualities, but the superior size of the squabs. Here in New England we consider the common pigeons inconstant and lappy-go-lucky breeders. They are not in the same class at all with the Homer pigeon. The common pigeon, the pigeon which flies the streets of our cities and towns, is a mixture of all kinds of pigeons, and it partakes of the faults of each, and not of the virtues. Its outward appearance is large, but it is an effect of feathers and not of flesh. Its feathers are loose and fluffy and its muscles soft and flabby. Its head is smaller than that of a Homer, the deficiency being marked in the curve of the skull which covers the brain. The Homer has a white flesh ring around the eye, but the common pigeon has none. The Homer has the largest brain of any variety of pigeon, and discloses this fact by its behavior. It has more sense and behaves with more intelligence. Its wonderful homing instinct marks it above and beyond all classes of pigeons and it is this quality which gives it a commercial value all over the world. The feathers of the Homer are laid close like a woman’s glove and the muscles under it feel as hard and firm as a piece of wood. Its breast is firm and well protected, with just the right amount of fullness. Its chest is large, indicating good lung power and staying qualities. Its wings are trim and shapely, in flight the poetry of motion. The poise of its body and head reminds one of a race-horse listening for the signal to speed over the INCREASE OF FLOCK 77 course. The lines from the neck to the body descend in a long, graceful sweep. Put a thoroughbred Homer into a flock of common pigeons and even a novice, if told to pick out the bird which would fly the fastest and furthest, would pick out the Homer. The Homer has a long bill (but not so long as the Dragoon pigeon). The bill of the common pigeon is short. Its bill is more hooked and is sharper pointed. Its head is shorter and more rounding on top. The common pigeon is seldom bred in captivity, because it does not pay for the grain which it consumes. If bred in a wild state, it picks up a living in the neighborhood, the owner not keeping it wired in. It is the cheapest kind of a pigeon, and thousands of pairs are used by trap shooters. Under- takers sometimes buy the white common pigeons in order to liberate them at graves, to signify the ascent of the soul to heaven. Common pigeons will live anywhere, do not get attached to any home, but a Homer never forgets the place where it was bred and will search out its home in long flights. Common pigeons will alight on any building and will drink from different springs and wells, fouling them and making themselves a nuisance in a neighborhood. The Homer will alight only on its own squab house and drink only at its own home. Common pigeons sell for fifty cents a pair and are frequently offered as Homers. Do not start with common pigeons and think to learn the habits of squab breeders with them. If you cross a common with a Homer pigeon you will take away the good qualities of the Homer and add nothing. There is not one element in a common pigeon which if added to a Homer would improve the offspring. It is hard to convince some people that there is any difference in pigeons whose feathers are the same color. The result is they buy the cheapest they can get. After feeding them for a time and getting no profitable results, they are compelled to sell them to the first trap shooter who comes along, and they go among their townspeople declaring that the pigeon business is no good. Remember this point, that if you are going to buy grain and feed it to anything so as to get a profit, it is the best policy to feed it to that grade of animal which will show the largest profit. Very few people are satisfied with shoddy suits nowadays, even if they look almost as well as the all- wool garments. It is the wear which the customer is after. 78 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Beware of shoddy pigeons. Buy the best Homers you can get, they will wear best and give you the most pride. Ex- perienced poultrymen do not go here and there looking for fowls at cut prices. They buy breeding stock of a reliable breeder which is reliable and sold at a price which will enable the seller to deliver a high quality article. We can tell when an order for our breeding stock comes from an old poultry- man, for they all write: ‘‘ I want the best stock you can give me.” Good Homers do not glut the markets. They are always fairly scarce, and the price for them has always been well kept up. Beware of cheap Homers for sale at cut prices. There is always something the matter with such birds. They have been worked too long and are played out, or if a flock is offered ‘‘ at a bargain,”’ the birds do not produce the large, plump, No. 1 squab, but only culls. If a squab breeder is going to quit the business and offers you his flock of birds on the bargain counter, make him give a good reason to you for selling. If he has been unable to make the flock pay, you may be sure that you will be unable to make them pay. If he offers them to you without a good reason for selling, the chances are that it is a poor flock and he has got tired of buying grain for them,-and wishes to saddle the burden upon you. We are always selling breeders and it is very much to our interest to protect our reputation by sending out only good Homers that will make money for their owners. This is what we do, and our large business has been built up by square dealing, and knowing the business thoroughly. A pair of Homers capable of earning a pair of squabs in one month which will sell for at least fifty cents is worth more than one dollar or one dollar and twenty-five cents a pair. A pair of birds capable of earning only a ten-cent or twenty-cent pair of squabs once in two or three months is worth only fifty cents a pair. Jersey cows are worth more than common cows because they earn more. Good Homer pigeons, bred skilfully, are worth more than poor Homers because they earn more, CHAPTER VIII. KILLING AND COOLING. Kill the Squabs in the Morning when their Crops are Empty — Not Necessary to Use a Knife, their Necks may be Tweaked — Drive the Animal Heat out of their Bodies by Hanging them from Natls— The Ideal Squab when Shipped has an Empty Crop, its Feet have been Washed Clean, and No Blood Shows — Sorting Squabs so as to Get the Highest Price from the Dealer. The time to kill the squabs is in the morning, when the crops are empty. In killing them it is not necessary to use a knife. Hold each squab in the manner shown in the illustration and break the neck with a sudden pull and push. Do not pull too hard or you will sever the neck from the body. Some of our customers have hard work to get this knack of tweaking the necks and prefer to wring the necks, or to use a knife. To wring the neck, hold the squab by the head in the right hand and throw the body around in a complete circle, this act twisting and breaking the neck. After the squabs are killed they must be cooled. In other words the animal heat must be driven out of their bodies. Provide a piece of board or studding eight or ten feet long and every four inches along this studding drive a couple of nine penny wire finish nails close together, but not so close that you cannot squeeze in the legs of the squabs. A finish wire nail has no large head like an ordinary wire nail. Suspend the studding from the ceiling by means of wire adjusted at both ends of the studding. This method of hanging it up is to prevent rats and cats from climbing up onto the studding, walking along it and eating the squabs. Place the feet of the squabs between the wire nails and let them hang down- wards over night. In the morning the heat will be all out of their bodies and you can pack and ship them. If you are delivering plucked squabs to market, you do not need such an arrangement, but will throw the bodies into a tub of ice water (or cold spring water) after you have plucked them. When plucking the feathers from the killed squabs, the 79 INCORRECT POSITION OF HANDS. CORRECT POSITION OF HANDS. A squab is killed for market when it is plump and well feathered, usually when four weeks old, although many are ready for market when a day or two over three weeks old. Hold the hands close together on the neck, as shown in the bottem icture and break the spine of the bird by pulling firmly and then pushing back. © not put. so much strength into the operation that you pull the head from the body. This method of killing is faster and neater than using a knife, KILLING AND COOLING 81 operator should moisten his thumb and forefinger in a basin ot water, to give him a grip on the feathers. They come off easily and an experienced picker will work very rapidly. A sharp pen-knife, or knife such as shoemakers use, is necessary to remove some of the pin feathers. They should be shaved off. : Ignorance of how to cool the killed squabs properly has discouraged many a squab raiser. If you throw the squabs in a pile on the floor after you have tweaked their necks, you will have a fermenting mass and the following morning, when you are ready to ship, many of the bodies will be dark- colored at the place of contact with the floor, or with other squabs, and decay will start from such discolored places. Hang the bodies from the studding, as we have described, and you wll cool them just right and you will be surprised that this part of the business ever could have discouraged anybody. If you number the nails which you have driven into the studding you will know just how many squabs you hang up, and you will not have to handle the squabs a second time to count them. The ideal squab which brings the highest price in the market is not only large and plump, but has a clean crop, so that no food will be left in it to sour. No blood shows anywhere on the body and its feet are clean. Ship in small quantities, especially in the summer. Do not pack in an enormous box, or the bottom layers will suffer. A squab should be killed, as we have stated, when from three to four weeks old, most generally at four weeks. Do not wait until it is five or six weeks old, when it may have left the nest. As soon as a squab is old enough to get out of the nest and walk around on the floor of the squab house, it quickly trains off its fat and grows lean and slender. Its flesh also loses its pure white coor and takes on a darker shade. You do not want either of these two conditions. If you tie up your killed squabs by the feet when shipping to market, do not tie a lean with a fat squab, for if you do the dealer probably will give you the price of the lean one. Put the fat squabs in one bunch and the lean squabs in another bunch. If you are shipping to two dealers, you can very often get the top price from both by giving one your best squabs and the other your second best. KILLED SQUABS HUNG TO COOL. After the squabs have been killed they should be hung as this picture shows to cool, The wooden scantling or studding is several feet long and issuspended from the ceiling at its ends by wire, so thai cats and ruts cannot climb to the squabs. A pair of nails are driven in four inches apart and the squabs’ legs set in between them CHAPTER IX. THE MARKETS. Squabs with the Feathers on Taken by the Boston and Some Other City Markets—The New York Market Wants Them Plucked and Pays the Highest Price of -\ny Northern City —Inter pretation of Quotations of Squabs as Seen in the News- papers—White-Fleshed Squabs are Wanted, Not Dark- Fleshed. The Boston market, and the markets in some other cities, will take squabs with feathers on. It is only necessary for you to tweak the necks of the squabs and send them to the train, after they have cooled over night. Some shippers do not take the trouble to box the killed squabs, but tie their legs together with string and send them along to market. In the baggage cars of the trains running into Boston you will sometimes see strings of squabs going in to the dealers in this way. The New York market demands squabs plucked. The squab breeders who have large plants and who ship to the New York market employ pluckers and pay them by the piece. A skillful plucker will strip feathers from squabs at the rate of ten to twenty squabs an hour. The proper time to pluck the killed squab is immediately after killing. When picked clean, throw the squab into cold water and leave it there over night to plump out and harden the flesh. In the summer use ice water. The squab puts on more feathers than flesh during the last few days of its growth and if you see squabs which are only three weeks old, but which are of good size, you may save a week on feed by killing the squab at that age and plucking it. When the feathers are off of it, it looks like the four weeks squabs which have not matured so rapidly. If you are shipping to the New York market, you should pack your squabs in a neat white wood box, printed if you please. Do not use a pine box for if you do the odor of the pine will penetrate the squabs. ; The New York market for squabs is the best in the North. Sa 84 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Squabs delivered by our customers there invariably bring from one to one dollar and fifty per dozen more than the. Boston market. This is because there are more rich people in New York than there are in Boston, and they are more free with their money in providing luxuries for their table than Boston folks. We do not mean to disparage the Boston market for squabs, which is always good, averaging three dollars a dozen, but we wish to emphasize the fact that the New York market is a phenomenal one. Anybody living near New York can make a fortune raising squabs. Our largest orders have come from customers who are shipping to New York. Not all the New York newspapers print market quotation of squabs. The New York Evening Sun is an exception. All through the winter squabs are quoted in the Evening Sun at five dollars a dozen. This means that a squab breeder shipping to New York should have got six dollars and seven dollars for a choice product, from private customers. A correspondent in New York State sends a clipping from the New York Tribune’s market columns and asks for an interpretation. We quote from it as follows: ‘Pigeons, 20c.; squabs, prime, large, white, per doz., $3.50 and $3.75; ditto, mixed, $2.75 and $38; ditto, dark, $1.75 and $2.” The quotation, ‘‘ Pigeons, 20 cents,’’ means twenty cents a pair for common old killed pigeons. These tough old birds are occasionally found in the markets and are worth only ten or fifteen cents apiece. They are neither squabs nor the old Homer pigeons, but arc common pigeons such as fly in the streets. A small boy might get a pair of these street pigeons and kill them and give them to a butcher who would pay him fifteen or twenty cents a pair. These cheap pigeons come into the eastern markets largely from the West in barrels and are sold to Boston commission men for five cents apiece, or fifty cents a dozen. They are retailed at from one dollar to one dollar and twenty cents a dozen. They are in the Chicago market masquerading as squabs. They have been killed with guns and have shot in their bodies. If you ask for pigeon pie at one of the cheap Boston restaurants, you will get a shot or two against your teeth with mouthfuls. After every trap-shooting contest some skulker goes over the THE MARKETS 85 field and gathers up all the killed and mained birds he can find, and sells them for two and three cents apiece, or for anything he can get, and these find their way into the markets. The cruel practice of pigeon shooting by miscalled “‘sports- men” on Long Island is quite common, and the presence of these birds in the New York butcher shops accounts for the above quotation in the Tribune. It is unnecessary to add that such birds do not compete with squabs. They can be made palatable only by stewing for hours in a pie, which takes out a little of their toughness. There is now a law in New York forbidding pigeon shooting. As to squabs, the quotation, ‘‘ Prime, large, white, per dozen $3.50 and $3.75,” is for the kind of squabs that are raised from our Homers, namely, No. 1 grade. By the quotation, ‘ Mixed, $2.75 and $3.00,” is meant that these amounts are paid for lots of birds composed of No. 1 and No. 2 grades, mixed. If you sort up your birds care- fully you will be able to get the No. 1 prices for all. Some people do not know how to sort them, and they have to be satisfied with the price of a mixed lot. By the quotation, ‘“‘ Dark, $1.75 and $2.00,” is meant the dark-fleshed squabs, as you have learned by reading our Manual. Squabs whose flesh is dark do not sell for as much as the white-fleshed squabs. Pigeons are of all colors, 7. ¢., as you see their feathers, and the squabs likewise, but when you pluck the feathers off the flesh is either a pure white with a tinge of yellow, or dark like a negro’s skin. Quotations for squabs as found in the market reports in the newspapers are always lower than they really are. The writers of the market columns in the daily papers see only the commission men and cater only to them; they smoke the commission men’s cigars and believe what the commission men tell them. They do not see the producer at all. The object of the commission men is to get the squabs as cheaply as they can. When you are breeding squabs make up your mind to get from twenty-five cents to one dollar or more per dozen than you see quoted in the market reports. The only way to find out the truth about the squab markets is to go into them and offer to buy squabs, not to sellthem. Then you will learn the true prices. *|woru Tt AP Rau ore sqenbs ayy, [ews ATA aie souo0g ey, “Snob tap pur Japa) JSOUL AIT PUL JSVO] YILM peTloiy padres ATTeUsu ole AAYL “YO Stay ytey a} QL ‘a8v Jo syooa ANOJ Ie squnbs paiq -TJoa Jo ssaudtmnju pur zis sfyvyIVtal sy} JO VaplT poos B SOALS UOYTAISHY[L 9} pur toyed LoyIN] osiLy B st STMYL ‘SadVOOsS GUssaud AMVHL 86 THE MARKETS 87 At the same time the report quoted above was printed in the New York Tribune a breeder in Mauricetown, N. J., was getting from four dollars and twenty-five cents to four dollars and fifty cents a dozen for his squabs. (This was the last week in January, 1902.) You see, it does not pay to trust wholly to the market reports in the newspapers. The motive of the city men is to get their goods as cheaply as they can. It is your motive to get as much as you can, and don't be fooled by second-hand information. Go direct to headquarters yourself in person and learn the truth. If the middleman tries to hold down the price to you, go to a consumer and make your bargain with him at top prices. A breeder in New Jersey writes that there are several squab breeders in his town, all of whom give their regular time to other businesses. He continues: ‘‘I am now (Feb- ruary, 1902), getting thirty-two cents each as they run, no sorting, for what few squabs I am now raising, and they are sold to a man who calls every Tuesday for them. When I have enough, I ship direct to New York by express. They sort them in New York.” This is doing extremely well for unsorted squabs. It is only another bit of evidence which proves the money-making condition of the New York market. (The above correspon- dent’s breeders are not first-class, he admits, saying he has been breeding for seven years and his flock has run down.) The Kansas City market does not yet know what a fat squab is. The only things obtainable there are the squabs of common pigeons, which are quoted low, as they are all over the country. A correspondent in Atchison writes: ‘‘ I wrote to the Kansas City dealer again, telling him I thought his prices were pretty low for Homer squabs. He replied that they had so few Homers offered that they did not quote them, and they would be worth from two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents per dozen. He quoted common pigeon squabs at one dollar and twenty-five cents to one dollar and seventy-five per dozen, as I wrote you before. That is better, and I want to try raising them as soon as I can get into a place where I can handle them.” Fact is, the squabs that bring from three to five dollars a dozen east of the Mississippi will bring that (and more) as soon as the wealthy trade of Kansas City gets a taste of them, 88 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Find out for yourself whether your market wants squabs with the feathers on or off. We do not know such details about the squab market in every city in the country and can- not advise you accurately on this point if you write to us from a distant town or city. The best way to find out the facts concerning the squab market is to go from place to place, or to write, offering not to sell squabs but to buy them. The squab sellers are much more interested in a possible buyer than a possible seller. They receive letters from many inquirers about markets but as a rule pay scant attention to them unless the writer is really producing squabs and has them for sale. p SOREN De hy BLE DEBI SQUAB HOUSE BUILT OF LOGS. CHAPTER X. PIGEONS’ AILMENTS. Canker a Filth Disease which Makes its Appearance in Nasty, Cramped and Crowded Quarters — It is a Captivity Disease and a Sure Cure for it is to Turn the Bird Loose to Get a Change of Food and Plenty of Exercise — A Flock Supplied with Pure Food and Clean Water Never will be Sick — Canker is Not Epidemic—It does Not Pay to Dose a Sick Pigeon, Better Turn it Out to Get Well. The principal ailment met with by the squab breeder is canker. This ailment is a puzzle to some breeders and they are alarmed when it makes an appearance in their flock, as it does if the feed is poor or sour, the water dirty, or the squab house filthy. The advice which they give when they find a cankered bird is, ‘‘Kill it.”” That is the advice we used to give at first, but now we know better. First, what is canker? It is a disease of which you know the cause (filth, poor feed or dirty water) and whose symptoms you see in the form of a cheesy-like deposit in the mouth of the pigeon, and breaking out around the bill. Catch the pigeon, hold it in your lap and force open its bill and you will see a yellowish patch or patches in the mouth, and the mouth will usually be filled with a yellowish deposit which smells bad. The disease is not serious. The trouble lies with the feed and the filth and that is what spreads the same symptoms from one pigeon to another. A case of canker in your flock should be a warning to you that the feed or water is wrong, or that you have a filthy house. Do not get alarmed and kill the bird. Catch the affected pigeon, carry it out of your flying pen and squab house and throw it into the air. The bird may fly away and lose itself, and if it does you are out one pigeon just as if you had killed it. The chances are, however, as in the case of any sick animal, that it will linger around home. Now you will be surprised to see how quickly that pigeon’s health will improve. Not having a steady supply of food before it, it will have to hustle for a living, and this exercise and the change of living, and the scanty living, will effect the 89 PAIR OF HOMERS BILLING. This illustration is made from a photograph of a pair of our pigeons caught in the act of billing, or kissing. The pigeon on the left is the male and on the right the female. Billing is one of the acts of love making. Mounting and treading generally follow immediately after billing. 90. PIGEONS’ AILMENTS 91 cure. It will get more fresh air, and a great deal more exercise, and more sun, than it would get if lett in company witn tne other birds. In about a week you will notice that it will hold its bill tighter, and if there is a sore on the outside of the bill you will see this sore dry up. In two weeks the chances are that the yellowish deposit on the interior of the mouth will be entirely gone. The pigeon will hover around the other pigeons. It will fly to the outside of the netting and look at its fellows. Place a dish on the ground now and then with a little feed and you will attract it. Catch it when you have a favorable opportunity either with a net on the end of a pole, or with a broom, pinning it into a corner. You may have to. try several times, but you will get it after a while. Its eye will be brighter and signs of disease will be gone, and you can put it back into the squab house with the others. The exer- cise, sunlight, change of food, and scanty food, have made the cure. There are few pigeons so bad with canker that they cannot be cured in this way. For that reason we have not much hesitation in saying that canker is a captivity disease, caused by lack of exercise as well as unavoidable filth and too much of the wrong kind of feed. We have observed wild pigeons in the streets and we never saw a case of canker among them. You may say to yourself that it is quite a risk to throw out into the open air a pigeon which has cost you from seventy-five cents to a dollar, but it is better to do this than to take the advice of all other breeders and books and kill it. If you do not wish to throw a sick pigeon out into the air to get well, construct a box with wire netting over the front, and put the pigeon in there for special feeding and watering until it gets well. Powdered alum sprinkled in the drinking water now and then will tend to ward off canker from a flock. It does not pay to dose sick pigeons, because a cure seldom is obtained by dosing, and you are out your time. The squab breeder who follows the advice as to feed and water, and cleanliness of squab house, given in this Manual, will not have any sick pigeons. It is so very easy to keep a pigeon in perfect health that the fear of disease is a bugbear not worth taking into account. The element of disease is a constant source of worry to the chicken breeder, and a source of heavy loss to the best of then. We wish to assure all who 92 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK contemplate starting in the squab breeding business that the pigeon naturally is a healthier and more rugged bird than the domestic hen and that positively you will not be fussing with remedies and cure-alls, in handling them. ‘“ Going light,” or wasting away, is an ailment of pigeons occasionally met with. The cause of it is an absence of grit and salt. If your staples of feed are provided as we tell, and you give a variety of feed, and you provide grit and oyster shells, you will have no cases of ‘‘ going light.’”” The disease is known by a steady wasting away of the pigeon. Catch it and vou feel a prominent breastbone, and scanty flesh, showing that some element in the feed is lacking. CHAPTER XI, GETTING AHEAD. Make your Birds Pay for themselves as they Go Along, unless you Wish to Wait Patiently until a Small Flock Increases to a Large One — Better to Take the Money Made jrom Sale of Squabs and Buy More Adult Birds than to Raise the Squabs, Because it is a Long Jump from Four Weeks (the Killing Age) to Six Months, at which Age the Birds Begin Breeding — Shipping Points. It is the birds and not the buildings which count in squab raising and if you have fifty dollars to start, put thirty-five dollars or forty dollars into your birds and the balance into your building. We have had customers start with a hundred- dollar building and put a ten-dollar lot of birds into it, con- tinuing to buy ten-dollar lots of us about once a month until they had their flock to a good size, but we believe it is best to let the buildings follow the birds, and not the birds the buildings. In other words, let your birds earn buildings as they go along. It is quite a drag on a small flock to weigh it down with an expensive building much too large for it. Put this down in your mind solid, where you will not forget it: Make your pigeons pay for themselves as they go. We sell to a great many poultrymen, and we like to get their orders, for they have been through the mill of raising feathered animals and are practical, and they are quick to see the money in squabs, and when their order for breeding stock comes along, it is in nine cases out of ten a large order, even if they have had no previous experience. They know that in order to sell squabs they have got to have birds enough to breed squabs and it is just as easy for them to spend fifty dollars or one hundred dollars at the start as it is for them to spend ten dollars or fifteen dollars and use up one liundred dollars’ worth of time while waiting a year to begin selling squabs. Many beginners are so skeptical that they do not believe squabs grow to market size in one month, or they have no confidence in their ability to feed the mature birds so as to keep them alive. They wish to make a start with a few pairs 93 94 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK and actually convince themselves. We do not believe in untried hands plunging into something of which they know nothing, and we commend the caution of the beginner with squabs who wishes to feel his way and ‘‘ make haste slowly ”’ as the saying is, nevertheless we know it to be a fact that our customers who started with large flocks are making splendid successes, and we are not so cautious as we were in former books in advising a small purchase, at the start. The rules for breeding we have given have stood the test of time; we have not had it said to us that they are misleading or erroneous; on the contrary, our customers write and tell us that their experience corresponds with ours, that the books are all right, and our business has increased right along. When a customer orders two hundred dollars’ worth of breeding stock of us and two months later two hundred dollars’ worth more (we sell to some customers month after month steadily, as their means or their inclination permit them to buy) we are given a large measure of confidence, first, that people (many of whom we never see and who are not experts) can start with our writings and our breeding stock and make a success; second, that all we have advised about the industry is of general and con- vincing application; and third, that it does not take extraor- dinary skill to make a success with squabs. There are failures with squabs, even by college professors, because some beginners are unsuited to the business. Many are lured into it by get-rich-quick stories. It would amaze you to read the letters that some beginners write. You never can tell a man’s pigeon and poultry ability by his orthography and grammar. Letters in crude spelling and crooked writing frequently come from the most successful squab raisers. The knack of caring for animals successfully cannot be acquired by some. Given two women, with cooking materials and the same cook books, one cooks splendidly, and the other mis- erably. Why? Well, it is the same with pigeons. Some can and some can’t. However, the failures at squab or poultry raising seldom blame themselves, There are many of the naturally careless, improvident persons who have turned to squabs to help them out of finan- cial holes, and they have made a failure of squab raising. Many of us remember the furore over raising chicken broilers for market, which started a score of years ago. The fact that GETTING AHEAD 95 some were making money at it started a burning hen fever in hundreds of young and old people anxious to make a lot of money quick. Clerks and society women from New York moved into the suburbs on small farms and began to try to make realities of their dreams. Not accustomed to manual labor, they made a sorry mess of it. Writers of that period tell of chicken gentlemen and ladies who went about their daily round of duties with their delicate hands carefully pro- tected by kid gloves. It did not take long for the end for such experimenters to arrive. They returned to the great city sadder, but wiser. The squab industry has suffered also the past five years from such treatment. Many have played with it as a child would with a new toy, giving up their pigeons in a few months at the slightest discouragement. The past six years are strewn with the wrecks of imitation squab advertisers and their guarantees. Every spring, when demand for breeder: is greatest, some of these come to life again, or new ones crop up, and they get what harvest they can, many of them selling what they can pick up in the way of culls, such as we ourselves sell to Faneuil Hall marketmen to be killed. These advertisers start advertising in January and by June they have quit. The following, from the pen of an old poultry writer, appeared in a farm periodical of large circulation in January, 1907: ‘‘ So far, every attempt made in this country to estab- lish a large poultry (chicken) farm has been met by failure. The extensive and successful plants of today are the outcome of a small beginning and a gradual growth. True, the main cause for failure has been the lack of experience; men have undertaken work for which they were not qualified.” So it is the rule with squab and poultry failures, especially women, to blame everybody but themselves. Such persons learn bitterly that experience is indeed a factor. The place and flock of the one who fails with squabs tell their own story. The drinking fountains are seldom washed, the pen is seldom cleaned and the place has a run-down look generally, sometimes being positively filthy. The grain is bought and fed on the catch-as-catch-can principle with no provision for variety. The cheapest grain is bought, or it is ignorantly bought, and may be full of weevils, or sour. The owner of such a place generally matches the place. 96 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Some advertisers selling breeding stock try to give the impression in their advertising that they control the matings and love affairs of the pigeons they sell, to the uttermost degree. ‘‘ We are the ones who can start you right,” they say, ‘with our guaranteed mated pairs.” Their pigeons, how- ever, behave just the same as all pigeons. You have just as much control over the minds of your pigeons as anybody. We have the finest equipment for mating m America, as it is the largest, a thousand mating coops being in constant use. One of the buildings is heated by a hot-water plant so as to get quick results in mating in the winter. It is natural for pigeons to breed, same as all animals. Do not believe that the man who offers to sell you pigeons has it in his power to control them after they have left his hands. The control of your pigeons is in your hands absolutely. If vou raise an excess of cocks, or if you have an excess of either sex, for any reason, you should procure enough of the opposite sex to match up evenly. You should have some mating coops (ordinary boxes with wire fronts will do) and in them you should pair up birds to suit yourself as to color of plumage, or size, or special characteristics, as you raise them, We fill all orders, large or small, with equal care and thoroughness, for it is just as much to our interest to please the customer and get more orders in the one case as in the other. There is not much choice as to what time of year a start in squab breeding should be made. Our customers who start in the winter have been exceptionally successful because then prices for squabs are at the top notch, and it takes only a few sales to make a new breeder thoroughly convinced to go ahead to success. We ship breeders all the year round. A pigeon will not break down under either stifling heat or bitter cold, being different from other animals. We fill orders in rotation and treat customers alike, and ship promptly. Frequently we get orders to ship by first returning express, and it is very difficult to do this. One customer in Chicago planned to start for Alaska with twelve pairs of our birds, but he held back his letter so that we got it with only two hours to fill crates and get birds to him before his departure. We filled his order as a matter of accommoda- tion. GETTING AHEAD 97 In ordering supplies to be sent by freight, remember that it takes a freight shipment some time to get to destination, especially when traffic is congested in the spring or in the harvest season. Give us your order for nest bowls and supplies before your house is ready. The live breeders are shipped by us either in specially made pine crates or wicker coops. The wicker coops remain our property and are returned to us at our expense by the express companies after the customer has released the pigeons. These baskets are expensive and are fitted with large tin feed and water dishes. It is impossible to break them open with the roughest handling. The birds have plenty of room in them and arrive at their destination in fine condition. The usual fault of inexperienced shippers is that the box or crate is too high, and too large, giving an opportunity for one bird to pass another by flying over its head. If there is too much room between the top and bottom of the crate feathers will be rumpled and pulled out, and the birds by crowding will suffocate one or two. A large, heavy crate also adds enormously to the express charges. It is not pleasant to buy pigeons and receive them in a cumbrous box weighing from twenty-five to seventy-five pounds, on which the express charges are more than double what they would be were the birds crated properly. If the birds are going to a point only a day or a day anda night distant, they need no feed nor water. For a long journey, a bag of grain should be tied to the crate. It is the duty of the express messengers to feed and water the birds en route, and they are so instructed by their companies. Do you know that pigeons are transported by the express companies at the rate charged for ordinary merchandise under the classification in force for 1907 on? The rate is found in every express book (ask your agent to show it to you if there is any dispute over charges) now as follows: “ Pigeons, homing, merchandise rate.” Tell the agent to look in the P’s for Pigeons and he will find it there. For carrying most live-stock short distances, the animal rate (which is double the merchandise rate) is charged. This is a peculiar rule when it was formerly applied to pigeons, and it worked so that the buyer at a r-mote point got his ship- ment cheaper than the buyer nearer us. For instance, we HOW WE SUIP PIGEONS. Care and skill exercised in shipping live pigeons are large factors in ee customers. It is not a pleasant experience to send money away for pigeons an have them reach you in a home-made box, generally of enormous weight, and bearing enormous express charges. We originated the above style of shipping and have two thousand shipping baskets in use. They are expensive but by their use we are able to guarantee safe arrival. The customer receives his shipment in faultless condition. The small bag of grain on top of the basket, tied to it, is for the use of the express- man in feeding the birds en route. The tin water dish is at the end of the basket, outside, where it ought to be, not inside. These shipping baskets remain our property and are returned to us empty at our expense after the customer has released his birds, 98 GETTING AHEAD 99 could ship a crate of pigeons to Chicago from Boston cheaper than we could to Buffalo. All the express companies doing business in the United States and Canada have the same rule, which is, that between points where the single or merchandise rate is two dollars or more per hundred pounds, live animals, boxed, crated or caged, are charged for transportation at the single or merchandise rate. Between points where the single or merchandise rate is less than two dollars per hundred pounds, live animals are charged the animal rate (which is double the merchandise rate). Poultry (not pigeons) are charged the one and one-half rate when the rate per one hun- dred pounds is less than two dollars. In order to obtain the lowest rate of transportation, the value of each pigeon must be stated by the shipper at five dollars or less. We have seen breeders who have been shipping live-stock for years and they never heard of the above rule of the express companies, and also we have seen scores of express agents who did not know of their own rule, but always charged the animal rate on animal shipments. But the rule is found in every graduated charge book of every express company and the experienced expressmen and experienced shippers know all about it. If the agent in your town is ignorant of the rule, ask him for his graduated charge book. Many express agents at local points seldom handle a pigeon ship- ment and do not know how to charge for it. A live animal contract release, to be signed both by shipper and express agent, is needed in all cases where the value of each pigeon is more than five dollars. If pigeons which we ship are killed in a smash-up, we can recover from the com- pany. We have no hesitation, therefore, in guaranteeing the safe delivery of our pigeons to customers. Our respon- sibility does not end when we have given them to the express- man. Our guarantee follows them as long as they are in the hands of the express company. We will put them into your hands safe and sound. Once in a while you will read of live-stock and breeding associations getting together and complaining about the “exorbitant rates ’’ charged by the express companies. The trouble is not with the rates of the express companies, but lies wholly in the ignorance of the breeders who meet to complain. 100 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK They simply do not know how to ship and how to talk to the express agents. We never read the above advice as to shipping live-stock in any book or paper. It is the product of our own experience and the information cost us at least one hundred dollars in excess charges before we learned how to get the low rate. It is worth dollars to our customers, and that is why we have given it here in detail. Killed squabs go to market at the rate charged for ordinary merchandise, no matter what the distance. Breeders having special customers who wish the squabs plucked should pack them in a clean white wood box (with ice in the summer) and nail the box up tight. Such shipments go through in splendid condition and if the breeder has a choice article, with his trade mark stamped on the box, he gets the fancy price. Squabs which reach the Boston market from jobbers in Philadelphia and New York are plucked and packed with ice in barrels. Breeders around Boston who reach the Boston market with undressed squabs send them in wicker hampers or baskets on the morning of the day after they are killed. No express agent anywhere has a right to make any extra charges whatever on our pigeon shipments. There is no duty on our pigeons to Canada, Cuba or Porto Rico, when we send with the pigeons and also to the customer, as we do, a certificate of purity of breed, declaring that the pigeons are for breeding, and not to be killed for market. CHAPTER XII. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Women and Squab Breeding — Attentions of the Male to the Female Pigeon—- Equal Number of Males and Females — Birds Flying Wild— Sale of Birds for Flyers — Variation in Size of Nest Boxes — How Squabs are Artificially Fattened — Shipping to England — Training Flyers — A Remarkable Service jor Messages between Islands. Question. I am a woman who knows absolutely nothing of squab raising. Do you think I can make a success of it? Answer. Our books are written and printed for the purpose of telling an absolutely ignorant person just how to proceed. If you will study this Manual, until you get the general plan and method of procedure in your mind, there is no reason why you cannot make a success of it. A woman is quick enough to puzzle out a new pattern of embroidery or a blind cooking recipe the terms of which are expressed in language utterly incomprehensible toa man. We find that our women customers are just as quick to comprehend pigeons as soon as they get started. It is necessary to have confidence, first, that the birds can make money, and second, that you are able to handle them right. Women succeed with hens quite as well as men. They “ take’’ to animals fully as well as men. The fact that you, our customer, are a woman, ought to encourage rather than depress you, in the squab business. Question. J have an old poultry house fifteen by twenty feet in size, ten feet high. How many pairs of pigeons can I accommodate? Answer. We have this question asked us many times, and our reply to all is the same. Sometimes the customer varies it by asking, How large a house do I need to accommodate one hundred pairs of breeders? Sometimes they say they propose remodeling a barn loft which is thirty by twenty feet in size. The dimensions of the building vary with the customer. You can always accommodate in theory as many pairs of breeders as you can make room for pairs of nest boxes. Fix up your building to suit yourself and put in 101 102 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK as many nest boxes as you wish. Then count your nest boxes and you will know how many birds you can accommo- date. You must have two nest boxes for every pair of birds. Always allow more nest boxes than there are pigeons, and do not crowd the birds, as we have explained on page 29. Question. How does the male bird impregnate the female bird? They do not seem to me to act as roosters and hens do. Answer. The human eye is not sharp and quick enough to follow the actions of the male bird. He mounts the female in a manner which is called ‘‘ treading.’”’ A female occasion- ally will ‘‘ tread’ the male bird, exactly as a female animal when in excessive heat sometimes will mount the male, or another female. Customers who had what they thought was a doubtful pair sometimes have written us saying that each would tread the other, and that of course both were males. After a while the same customer would write and say that the pair fooled him and that he had two eggs from them. The actions are in nine cases out of ten, of course, a positive guide, but there are exceptions to every rule. Question. (1) The legs of the pigeon you sent me are red; are they inflamed? (2) The droppings are soft and mushy; I am afraid they have diarrhoea. What shall I do? (3) Most of my pigeons have a warty-like substance on their bills, varying in size with the pigeon; how shall I get rid of it? Answer. (1) The red color which you see is perfectly natural. The legs of all Homer pigeons are red. (2) The natural droppings of the pigeon are soft and somewhat loose. When they have diarrhoea the droppings are extremely watery and the tail feathers are soiled. Your pigeons are all right and have no diarrhoea. (3) The growth of which you speak is perfectly natural. It varies in size with the pigeon, sometimes covering the base of the bill, in other cases clinging closely to it. Question. Can I figure with certainty that of each pair of squabs which my birds hatch, one is a male and the other a female? Answer. Not with absolute certainty, but as a rule. It is Nature’s way to provide for an equal number of males and females, for that is the way the species mates and is reproduced. Question. Enclosed find ten dollars, for which please send me settings of pigeon eggs to that value, and send me the balance due, if any. Answer. We do not sell pigeon eggs. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 103 It is impossible to use an incubator and raise pigeons success- fully, because there is no way of feeding the young squabs when they are hatched. The life of squabs is nourished and prolonged from day to day by the parent birds, which feed them. To raise squabs, you must start by buying the adult breeders. You cannot start with the eggs. Question. It seems to me that if each pair of squabs hatched consists of male and female, that this couple is likely to pair when grown, being well acquainted with each other. This would be inbreeding and would weaken my flock. What shall I do? Answer. It is not the plan of the species to mate and inbreed like this. If brother and sister mated as you describe, the species would be extinct after a while. They will look for new mates as soon as they get out of the nest and are of breeding age. Question. When are the young pigeons old enough to mate? Answer. At from four to six months. Question. My birds do not know enough to go in from the roof of the squab house when it rains. How shall I get them in? Answer. Let them stay on the roof in the rain if they wish. The rain will do them no harm. Question. Must I heat the squab house in the winter time? Answer. No. The heat from a flock of pigeons in a well- built house is considerable. You will get more squabs from your pigeons in the winter time if you do heat your house slightly, not enough to cause much expense, but just enough to take the chill off. Do not let your birds out of the squab house on bitter cold days. Question. J live in Texas and I think in this climate your squab house would be too warm and stuffy. -1nswer. You are right. Adapt the construction to your locality. The poultry houses in Texas as compared to those in the North are much less expensive and more open to the air, and your squab house should be built on the same principle. Question. Suppose I cool the squabs as you direct and pack them into a box for shipment, shall I use ice? Is there any danger that the meat will be discolored when they arrive at market? Answer. Ice is not necessary in the fall, winter and spring. In the summer time you should use ice, although if the shipment is for a short distance, ice may not be necessary. In hot weather the squabs should not be killed until the night 104 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK before shipping. In the cool months you may keep them at home longer. If the squabs are cooled by hanging them from studding as we describe, there is no danger that the meat will be discolored. The object of hanging them from studding is to cool the carcasses properly so that the meat will not be discolored by contact. Question. How shall I pack the killed squabs when IJ send them to market? Answer. Lay them in the box layer on layer, in an orderly fashion. Do not throw them in helter skelter. Question. Can I hang the squabs to cool from studding suspended in the barn, in the summer time? Answer. It is better to use the cellar of the house, or the coolest room in the house. Question. I do not like your idea of keeping the birds wired in. They are free by nature and it strikes me that they should have a chance to get exercise by long flights. Answer. You must keep them wired in, or they may leave you. Re- member that the Homer is attached to the place where it is bred, that is the Homer instinct. If you buy birds of us and on opening the crate let them fly anywhere they choose, trusting to luck to have them come back to you, you may be disappointed and lose some of the birds. You must keep them wired in all the time. Question. You say your Homers are fine flyers. What is the use of my buving them of you to fly in races or to sell again as flyers, if they may desert me when I let them out into the open air? Answer. The squabs which you breed from our birds will know no home but vours, and they will not fly away from you. You can send them away, when they are old enough, and time their flight back to your house, their home. When vou sell these trained flyers to others, you do not expect that they will try to fly them, but that they will use them for breeders. Question. How large are the mating coops? Answer. A convenient size is two feet long, two feet wide and two feet high. _ Question. My birds seem timid and I am afraid to catch them. How shall I go about it? Answer. Do not be afraid of hurting them. Take a broom and drive one where you will, finally pinning it against the side of the squab house, or QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 105 inacorner. Grasp it and hold its wings firmly and it will not struggle. Or you may make a net on the end of a pole, like an ordinary fish landing net, and scoop the bird into it as it flies through the air. Question. Suppose I have several squab houses, as you describe, but let all the birds together in one large flying pen, where they can bathe from one large fountain. Answer. This is all right if you do not wish to keep close track of your birds. If the birds can roam from one house to another, there is nothing to prevent a pair from building one nest on one house and then going to another house to build the second nest. Question. I believe I will put a strip of wire or piece of wood across the front of each nest box so as to keep each pair more secluded, and to keep the nests from dropping out. Answer. Don’t do it. Don’t worry about the nests falling out. Build the pigeon-holes perfectly plain. Question. How many squabs shall 1 pack in one box when sending to market? Answer. Having picked out the size of the box you wish, fill it up close with squabs, so they will not ‘‘ shuck.”’ As to the size of the box, make it as big or little as you please, but do not make it any bigger than one expressman can handle easily. A good size is two feet square and one foot deep. Question. Send me two males and ten females. Answer. You must buy your birds in pairs. They pair off in this way, namely, one male to one female. One male does not have two or three females. We have heard pigeon breeders talk of having one cock which would attend two hens, but never had a case in our experience. Question. After plucking the squab, and before sending it to market, do you remove the entrails? Answer. No. Question. In order to avoid the trouble of using the mating coop, may I put an equal number of cocks and hens in the same pen? Answer. Yes. Question. Can I discover the male and female organs by examination of the birds with a magnifying glass? Answer. No. You can discover them by dissecting the dead bird. Question. Suppose I build the nest boxes larger, so as to give a shelf on which the birds can alight? Answer. Don't doit. The bird will fly directly into the nest, or onto the nest 106 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK box in front of the nest. You do not need an alighting place. (uestion. Seems to me that if I start with forty-eight pairs of birds, I ought to have ninety-six perches. Autswer. The birds do not all perch at the same time. While some are perching, others are on the nests, or walking on the floor, or are outside in the flying pen, or on the roof. Put up a few perches where you have room and let it go at that. Question. I live in England; can you ship me twenty-four pairs of your breeders? Answer. Yes; the transportation charges will be four dollars. In addition you will have to pay the butcher or steward of the boat ten shillings for feeding and watering the birds. Send us six dollars and fifty cents in addition to the regular price of the birds and we will ship to you all charges prepaid. In shipping to Cuba and remote points in the United States and Canada, we do not have to pay anything extra for the feeding and watering of the birds; the express charges include the feeding and watering. Question. What is a Runt pigeon? Please quote prices on a dozen pairs of Runts. Answer. A Runt pigeon is a special breed of pigeon, remarkable for its large size. They come all colors, as a Homer does. The white Runts are an exceptionally beautiful bird and command large prices, as high as six dollars to fifteen dollars a pair. The squabs which Runts breed weigh from eighteen ounces to one and one-half pounds at four weeks. If Runts bred as fast as Homers, they would be just the bird for squab breeders, but they are fatally slow in breeding, as a rule. The Homers raise two pairs of squabs to the Runts’ one. Therefore it is of course more profitable to raise Homers. We do not sell Runts and do not advocate their use either as a separate breed, or crossed up with Homers. The large, plump, thoroughbred Homer is the best. Question. What is the difference between the Homer and Antwerp breeds of pigeons? Answer. No difference. The name is used interchangeably to apply to the same breed of pigeon. In New England we speak of them mostly as Homers. In some places they are called more often Antwerps. Question. Can I feed some of my squabs by hand if nec- essary? Answer. Yes. Mix up a mushy, soft handful of grain, hold the squab in the left hand, close to your body, and with the thumb and first finger of your right hand force the QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 107 mixture into the bill. The squab will swallow and fill its crop. A backward squab may be forced in this manner. Question. Can you sell me twelve pairs of young Homers, about eight weeks old? Answer. No. It is impossible to tell the sex of pigeons of that age. Any breeder who under- takes to furnish squabs several weeks old in equal males and females cannot do so and is imposing on you. Question. Please give recipes for cooking squabs. An- swer. See the cook books. Squabs are generally served broiled. They should be drawn, singed and washed. Cut off the heads, split into two parts, season, put on a lump of butter and broil over a hot fire. Place close to the fire at first so as to brown the outside and retain the juices, then hold further away from the fire to complete the cooking. If roasted, leave them in a hot oven’for thirty minutes. For roasting, squabs may be stuffed with cranberries or currants. Baste every ten minutes with spoonfuls of hot water and butter. Question. How shall I train the young birds raised from your Homers to fly? Answer. There is a large business in flying Homers and if you have a pen or two of trained birds you can sell them at fancy prices. There are homing clubs all over the country which have contests and it is worth while for a breeder to work for a reputation of breeding and selling fast flyers. The young Homers when five months old are strong enough to be trained to fly. Take them in a basket (having omitted to feed them) a mile or two away, and liberate them one by one. They will circle in the air, then choose the correct course. You should have left grain for them as a reward for their safe arrival home, and an induce- ment for their next experience in flying. Two or three days later take or send them away five miles and repeat. Next try ten miles, and so work on by easy stages up to seventy- five or one hundred miles. If you have a friend in another city, you may send your birds in a basket to him with instruc- tions to liberate certain ones at certain hours, or you may send the basket by train to any express agent, along with a letter telling him to liberate the birds at a certain hour and send the basket back to you. If you wish to have the birds carry a message, write it on a piece of cigarette paper (or any strong tissue), wrap the paper around the leg of the bird and SELF-F EEDING GRAIN TROUGH. It 41s quite difficult to de- vise a grain trough from which the pigeons cannot throw grain out, as they poke around in search of tid-bits. The trough illustrated at the top of this page is a good one. The grain falls down in each compartment as fastasit is eaten. The pigeons when eating stand in the front part of the trough and if they pull out any grain, this is not scattered on the floor of the squab- house but on the board front, from which it may be swept up as asigrg ye ae Bate . tern of trough was de- signed by Dr. F. D. SELF-FEEDER FOR GRAIN Clum. One sketch ‘ shows the box without cover and the other with cover in its proper place, protecting the entire box and contents from droppings of the birds. The dimensions do not mat- ter. A good size would be about four feet long and two feet wide. This would allow for feed compartments about five inches wide, nine in number. The trough for grain illustrated at the bottom of this page is for use when feeding by hand twice a day. It was devised by Charles W. Brown. It is simple and open, still the birds cannot foul the grain in it. The size shown in the pic- ture is four inches wide and two inches deep inside, thirty-six inches long outside. Twenty birds can feed at once at this size. The ends are four inches high inside to centre of pivot. These pivots are the feature of the trough and give it its ENO ViEWw SIOE VIEW novelty. The birds cannot get into the box and foul the feed be- cause the bar is in the way. As the bar is ——— pivoted and_ turns when they alight on it, Top View they cannot roost on it. The pivoted wood = bar is of one-inch 5; —— L, square stock, The box 4 ——_——— also is of one-inch stock, so as to be heavy and strong. The box is deep enough to pre- OPEN TROUGH WITH REVOLVING BAR vent birds from throw- ing out the grain when enough for twenty birds for one meal is in it. There is space between the edge of box and the bar ample for the birds to feed, but not enough space for them to get into the feeder. The fact that the bar is pivoted does not prevent the birds from alighting on it but, being pivoted, the bar turns as soon as they alight on it and off they go. They soon learn to keep off it. The illustrations and descriptions of both these troughs are taken by permission from the Nattonal Squab Magazine. 108 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 109 tie with thread, or fasten with glue or a stamp; or, you may tie the tissue around one of the tail feathers. A thin alu- minum tube containing the message may be fastened to a leg, or to a tail feather. A trap window should be constructed to time the arrival home of birds. This is an aperture about six inches square closed by wires hanging from a piece of wood at the top of the aperture and swinging inward, but held close to the aperture by its own weight. The pigeon cannot fly out but on its return home (if you have sprinkled grain on the inside of the house, next the wires) the bird will push the wire door and goin. It takes only a day or two for the pigeon to become accustomed to the trap. If you connect the trap with a simple make-and-break electric circuit, the pigeon on its arrival home from its flight will ring a bell in any part of your house or barn. When you have a record of the flyers, you will have a guide for mating. The majority of fanciers recommend a medium-sized Homer. A large hen should be mated to a small cock, or a large cock to a small hen. What is perhaps the best pigeon service in the world has been in use for several years between Newton Roads, Auckland, New Zealand, and the Great Barrier and Maro Tiro Islands, some seventy-five miles distant. A boy of sixteen years worked up the service and makes a large income from it. About twenty messages an hour are carried back and forth by the Homers. A year ago the government declared its intention of laying a cable from Auckland to Great Barrier. The project was abandoned, however, as the residents of the little island decided that they were well pleased with the pigeons, and that a cable would not be patronized. The government offered to buy the whole pigeon outfit from the boy owner, but he refused. There are from four hundred to five hundred pairs of pigeons in the service. Question. In the case of young birds mated up for the first time at five or six months of age, is it best to destroy the first eggs, or let them go ahead and hatch in the regular way Answer. Let them go ahead and hatch and learn to feed their young. It will improve them for the next hatch. . Question. Please describe the self-feeder more fully and explain its operation. Answer. The hopper of the feeder is V-shaped so that the grain will fall by its own weight to the centre at the bottom, which is cut away as shown in the 110 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK illustration so that as the birds peck up the grain, more falls from the hopper. The slit where the birds eat should be about an inch and a half in width, just enough to prevent the grain from running out faster than it is eaten. If the grain is pulled out on the floor, tack a strip of wood, like a lath, so as partly to block the holes. Question. Should I cover the yard of the flying pen with your grit? Answer. No. Providea box and keep our grit in the box. When the pigeons want grit, they will go to the box and get it. Question. Are the carrier (flying) pigeons the same breed as your Homers? -iuswer. Yes. A flying or carrier Homer is a Homer that has been trained to fly a long distance. Question. What are artificially fattened squabs? visit your plant, but, just as I am ready to start, my wife, who was to accompany me on a two weeks visit to the New England coast is taken sick. I have seen the birds which you sent to my neighbor, Mr. P. C. Evans, and they appear to be all you claim for them, tie best specimens of Homers I have yet had the pleasure of seeing. If you can let me have a small lot of one- half dozen pairs, at same price as paid by Mr. Evans, you may enter my order for same, with dozen bowls, for early delivery.—G. W. G., Pennsylvania. FLOCK WENT TO WORK QUICKLY. Out of the seven pairs of Extra Homers you shipped me June 2, 1906, I have already (August 10) got twelve squabs. I am very much pleased over having such good success, but I have no way of marking them. You will please send me an outfit for marking them by mail. Send about what yo. think a beginner ought to have. As the business grows, will send you a larger order.—L, L., Nebraska, A WOMAN’S WORK. I have 90 pigeons on hand, bred from the 26 my husband bought of you a year ago last April.—Mrs. H. C., Tilinois. STRICTLY ALL RIGHT. A friend cf mine of this city recommended you to me as being strictly all right. I will thank you to send me your literature explaining the cost of starting a squab farm of about 250 pairs, raising and marketing same, as I contemplate going in that business. Thank you in ad- vance for any information that you may give me.—W. M. A., Alabama. RESULTS TELL THE STORY. As all of my birds secured from you in May this year have their second pairs of young ones and think will continue to multiply as fast, will you kindly forward me a list of commission men as stated in your letter of recent date. Am perfectly satisfied with the results ob- tained from your birds. If you have any inquiries for birds in this locality I will be glad to attend to them for you.—J. L. T., Indiana. SIZE OF SQUABS A REVELATION. We are pleased to advise you that we ate our first squab from the lot of birds you shipped in May last Sunday and wish to state that the size of these squabs is a revelation to us, being almost twice as large as any we have ever been able to secure. The enclosed list will give you an idea as to their productiveness. I also would like to have you answer the questions contained therein.—H. B. R. Illinois, OUR BIRDS BETTER THAN WE CLAIM. My birds reached me in good order and was glad to see them when I got home from work safe and sound. I think the American Express Co. is about the best there is. Every- body that sees your birds say they are the finest they ever saw. I think when anybody is look- ing for good birds they don’t need to look any further than your place and I know they will go ahead of an: birds in this town for looks and flying, I think we will stay here till we get a good flock of birds then we will move outside of town. The next time I send for birds I will try and send you a bigger order. Your birds are better than you claim for them. Some of them have eggs before their young ones are two weeks old. They get so We were the first. widely imitated. you our birds. We have no agents. Our birds and methods revolutionized the squab industry and are But imitators who copy or find fault with our printed matter cannot give 174 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. 1906 THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. big they just about can’t sit in the nest. I think if you would put an advertisement in some of the evening papers you would get some more trade. am advertising your birds to everybody I know.—J. S., Wisconsin. COMPLIMENTED BY AN EXPERIENCED DGE. One of my hens made her nest and thought she was ready to lay but she sat all one day and part of the next and did not, but had her mouth open panting and seemed very sick. I telephoned to Mr. M. to come and teil me what to do. When he came he held her in warm water for 15 minutes and then fast- ened her in her nest. In ten minutes she laid her egg and got all right. Mr. M. holds the world’s record for three hundred miles and has some of the most val- uable birds in Chicago, and he said my birds were very fine, in fact he said he could have hardly told them from his own, they resembled them so much, . When so good a judge will compliment them so highly I feel very proud of them.— A. B., Illinois, SQUABS WEIGHING ONE POUND AT TWO WEEKS. I thought you might like to hear from the birds you sent us a year ago. They have been working overtime since. We have 54 birds now with several nesting. Every one is a solid color the same as the old ones. The squabs we have weighed have averaged a pound at three weeks old. One weighed a pound at two weeks. There is a party here getting birds of all kinds and colors and claims they are better than what we got for Extras on account of the bands.—J. South Dakota. 7 Answer. It is quite common for parties selling poor Homers to put bands on their legs, some of them quite ornamental, in an endeav- or to enhance their value, same as putting a gaudy label on cheap goods. It is the pig- eons that count, not the bands. Bands are useful to number the birds, that is all. NO. 1 PLYMOUTH ROCKS ARE GOOD HOMERS. It will probably be fall before I get my house built and give you an order for more birds. If money is not too scarce the order will be for your best birds, for the No. 1 Plymouth Rocks are doing even better than the Manual claims them to. Your Extra birds must be wonderful.—W. H. W., Massa- chusetts, WE “ SHOW THEM ” OUT IN MISSOURI. I received the grits and oyster shell all O. K, My birds jump on to the grits and hemp seed inahurry, They are doing well. I will have about sixty squabs this month and quite a number mating this week. I had an order for 100 squabs this morning. It made me sick to think I could not fill it, but my time came aftera while. I will build another house soon and I want 100 more of your birds. Mr. Hall’s birds look well. They came through nice. He is well pleased and I think he will order more, There are two more people talk- ing of going into the squab business. I will try to get an order for youu—J. W. H., Mis- souri. HAS NEVER SOLD ANY SQUABS LESS THAN NINE POUNDS TO THE DOZEN. About three years ago I purchased of you six pair of Homer pigeons for which I paid $2.50 per pair. My flock are all from the stock I bought of you and I have some nice birds. I have never sold any squabs under nine pounds to the dozen at four weeks old. I never sell my birds after they have left the nest for squabs. Will you send me your price list for ains, that is, Kaffir corn and red wheat, would like the address of Boston dealers. — C, E. W., Rhode Island, LETTING BIRDS FLY. I would like to have your opinion and advice on a matter that is very important to me. I have a beautiful start with your birds, have followed your book exactly and the result has been very gratifying. Now what I want to do is to buy about three hundred more old birds from you and pen them. Will the young birds be as prolific, mate and hatch as well if properly fed, waterec etc., exactly as my pens are, if I allow them to run loose on my farm? There is no danger of them being shot and I would much _prefer allowing them the run of the farm. I have the buildings that I could convert into com- fortable houses at once, and I will appreciate your thoughtful opinion and advice in the matter for I know you are headquarters.— T. W., Tennessee. Answer. Birds which you raise you can let fly because they know no home but vours, but Homers which you buy you cannot let fly safely because they know another home (their old home) and their instinct and desire to go home may lead them to leave you. NEW JERSEY NEIGHBORS ALL AGREED. The six pairs of birds received from you the first day of May are still doing fine (July). One pair has her third pair of young at this writing—less than three months, The rest will hatch this week. Mr. Tevis (the neighbor I spoke to you about in a former Il- -.2r) came over after me to see the birds that he had just received from you. They are fine birds and he is very much pleased with them and sorry that he did not take my advice and send The squab industry is growing every year. 1 Prices were better and they are going to be as good or better in 1907. The habit of 175 before. Price bett : squab eating is growing in every section. More squabs were bred in 1906 than ever 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. to you in the first place, but ne bought about 60 pairs from a New Jersey dealer. He showed him a letter that was supposed to have ~come from a man that bought birds of you, saying that he didn’t want any more of them. But now he sees the difference when he has them side by side. Mr. Webster, my next door neighbor, is so well pleased with the way mine are doing that he is going to send for a few pairs this fall. I would if I could, and had the room. T now have 16 pairs of the Plymouth Rock birds. My pen is open to any one that wants to see the birds before they send to you for breeders. I thank you for the fine birds you sent to Mr. Tevis. It shows that I didn’t exaggerate your ability, to send six pairs or 100 pairs of fine birds.—D. C. T., New Jersey. FINEST FLOCK HE HAD ‘EVER SEEN. A year ago to-day we received eighteen pairs of your Homers. Our flock now numbers nearly 100 pairs and all are doing fine. We have sold a few pairs at $1.25 per pair, and have had any amount of inquiries after squabs. We have had a number of fanciers up to look at the flock, and all seem to think they are an exceptionally fine lot of birds. One gentleman who keeps an excellent lot of imported birds said they were the finest flock he had ever seen, which speaks well for your birds.—B. B., Michigan. BEST BIRDS IN GIS CITY. Find en- closed $16.34 for which to send me a dozen of your Homers, a dozen of nest bowls, and two feet of aluminum tubing. Would have liked to send an order sooner but had no lace to keep them. My birds are doing ne. We have moved into a larger place where I can let my birds out in a wire cage. Your birds are the best I ever saw and the only ones I ever intend to keep. I have sold off all my young stock so I have more room for the others.—J. B. T., Wisconsin. SPLENDID WORK WITH SPLENDID BIRDS. I wish to advise you now (August, 1906) of the splendid luck I have had with the six pairs of birds purchased from you last May and which were received at my home on May 17, These birds, within a week after arrival, commenced to construct their nests and, out of the six pairs, five began hatching within two weeks and every egg produced a squab. Two squabs weighed at the age of four weeks and two days, 16 ounces, after plucking, and the remainder weighed from eight to 12 ounces. The two squabs, weighing 16 ounces, were the largest I ever saw and I thought you would be interested in knowing the weights. On account of not having room for any more birds, I am killing the squabs as they mature but would have liked to have mated the two large squabs, as I believe that their offspring would have averaged 16 ounces each.—S, P. N., New Jersey. DOUBLED IN THREE MONTHS. En- closed find money order for $1.70 for which please send leg band outfit. The birds I bought of you in April are doing fine. They have doubled themselves.—W. A., Missouri, DOING WELL_IN CANADA. Saw your advertisement in R. P. Journal, ‘‘Squab book free." Anything new in it? I have your book of 1904 with two dozen your Homers. They are doing fine. What would you sell me one dozen more ’—P., I. B., Quebec. ORDERS FOR A FRIEND. I enclose you herewith a check for $30. Please ship to enclosed address 12 pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. Be sure to send him some nice ones. Those we bought of you some time back are doing nicely and if these show up as well I think that I will be able to send you some more orders soon.—S. W. T., Georgia. HAS DEALT WITH THE FAKIRS. The pigeons that you shipped to us have arrived in fine condition and the best of health. We are shipping back to you, via American Express the wicker basket in which you sent our pigeons. Also our many thanks for the trouble you took in selecting the different colored pairs. I wish to say that the pigeons arc beauti- fully mated, because one pair have started in business already, the hen having laid two eggs, and all the others have showed promis- ing signs of mating. After having dealt with poultry fakirs and receiving their treatment, r fully appreciate your kind treatment which is so unlike that of these fakirs, but your endeavors are not in vain, as I soon expect to order some more airs. Your treatment has encouraged me. have provided an excellent house and pen for them. Thank you for your interest shown in this matter.—L. J. H., Illinois. IN THE BLUE GRASS STATE. Could you kindly tell me where I could get some white Homers? The Plymouth Rock Homers New laws passed a year ago by the legislatures of Massachusetts and New York forbid the sale of quail except in the months of November and December. for every quail found in the hands of any marketman or restaurant keeper, The penalty is a heavy fine Quail are no longer found on bills of fare in these two states except around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Squabs are on the bills of fare all the year everywhere. Other states, it is said by sportemen, will follow Massachusetts and New York with a similar game law. 176 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. I got from you are doing fine—R. L. J., Kentucky. HIS SECOND ORDER. Enclosed please find express money order for five dollars for which please send me three pairs of your No. 1 Plymouth Rocks at your earliest convenience. A previous order which I received from you has been doing fine—J. E. D., Pennsylvania. PROLIFIC BIRDS. I purchased 12 pairs Homers of you about 18 months ago and they have done fine work for me. have 50 pairs mated birds, saved the best ones and sold the second class.—-J. A. D., Pennsylvania. SENT SISTER GOOD BIRDS. I enclose a money order for $17.88 for which please send three dozen nappies and six pairs blue checkers. You sent my sister such fine birds that I would like the order duplicated.—H. S. B., New York. RECOMMENDS OUR BIRDS TO EVERY- BODY. The birds arrived in good order and Iam pleased with them. I have 14 fine birds from the first ones I bought of you and I think the last four pairs will go to work soon. I recommend your birds to everybody.—J. M. M., Philadelphia. HE KNOWS OUR TEACHINGS ARE RIGAT. I have read your Manual carefully, studied every point as I went, because I wanted to impress it on my mind. I have found in my own experience that pigeons do just as your Manual says. Your book is worth two or three dollars instead of 40 cents. I want to thank you for the favor you did at finding the weight and charges of some things for me. Would you kindly tell me what would be the cost of freight charges on one hundred, two hundred and three hundred pounds of grain?—G. A. S., Georgia. : FIVE DOLLARS A PAIR WOULD NOT BUY HIS. Birds came Friday at noon, and accept many thanks for the fine birds you sent to me. My friend says $5.00 per pair would not buy his.—J. P. B., Georgia. PLEASANT BUSINESS FOR A WOMAN. You will possibly remember that a year ago last April I bought from you twenty-five pairs of your Extra Homers. tea I now have some eighty pairs in my house and have used something like two hundred squabs. My birds have done well and I have lost only one of my original stock. ‘ I am thoroughly convinced that there is money raising squabs and it is a very pleasant business for a woman, requiring only a little time each day to attend to them and one soon becomes very much attached to them—Mrs., M. L., Kentucky. GENEROUS TREATMENT. The pigeon that I wrote you about a few days ago has died. I think it must have been injured in shipping. It was a female. I think your promise to send another a very generous one, and I would appreciate it very much. In about two or three months I expect to order more birds of you. The others are doing excellently.—A. H. B., Massachusetts. TRADE BEGETS TRADE. I have _ been instrumental in making some sales of pigeons for you. Atleast I have recommended you to several people who said they would buy of you. Did a doctor of Fairhope buy a lot of pigeons of you? He came over here to see me about what I thought of the business and I recommended you to him strongly. I just sold 30 pair of my pigeons to Dr. O. F. Caw- thon and E. J. Buck and I recommended them to buy 10 or 12 pairs of you. I will continue to advertise you all I can. Later on I want to rearrange my house and build up a big place and I will send to you for what I need, —M. O., Alabama. GOOD INCREASE IN SIX MONTHS. Yesterday I wrote you for the Manual or National Standard Squab Book, but I forgot to tell you of some of your birds I have seen. Last August or September a doctor friend of mine in Brunswick bought of you six pairs of Homers. In two or three weeks they began to lay and hatch. He sold four or five pairs at $1.00 to $2.00 a pair. He has now between seventy and eighty total. They are beauties and if mine are as pretty and do as well I don’t think I will be disappointed. Please send Manual as quick as possible.—G. S., Georgia. GOOD RECORD FOR FIRST MONTH. I deem it will be gratifying if you know how the 13 pair of Homers I received from you on May 3d are doing. There has not been a sick one in the lot and they are very much admired by all who see them, and are fronounced first-class Extra stock. They are contented and very busy all the time. Eight pairs are breeding now, with three nests each having a pair of nice healthy squabs. I think this a splendid record for the first month in a new home.—S. H. W., Penn- sylvania. LOST HIS TEXT BOOK. Please find en- closed 50 cents, and send me another Net: ional Standard Squab Book. I have mis- Remember, these are stories told in 1906, by customers who are really raising squabs with our birds and not merely talking about what they are going to do. 17 satisfactory results day after day. They are getting 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. 1906 THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. placed my other one and can’t find it. My birds are doing well. I have had 15 pairs of young birds since Lhadthem, I sold one pair of old white birds for three dollars to a bird store.—H. K., Missouri. ATTRACTING ATTENTION. Please to send some literature to address of gentleman enclosed, descriptive of the squab business, and give him prices on same, I have been talking with him in regard to the business and as he has a couple of farms over in Michigan, I have no doubt but what he will make an investment. The pigeons that I purchased of you last spring are doing very nicely. Our pen is attracting considerable attention, We have about 75 in it now and we are about to build larger accommodations.—T. T., Illinois. ENLARGING PLANT. Will you kindly advise the address of party who purchases pigeon manure? ‘ My birds are getting along very nicely. Intend putting up a large house for them in the near future and will write you later regard- ing wire for flies —B. T., New York. SWAMPED WITH SQUAB ORDERS. It is impossible for me to fill the orders that I have for squabs. Iam sending you an order. Please get them out as soon as possible. When I receive them, I will order another dozen Extras. I now have about 350 pair of breeders. They are doing fine— H. S., Louisiana. SATISFIED WITH ALL. I received the two baskets containing 36 birds on Thursday. Pardon delay in not answering sooner, as I was out of town I am perfectly satisfied with all the birds | bought of you and hope to be able in the future to secure more. Am shipping the two baskets this morning by National express, homeward bound.—J. W., New York. GOOD REPORT. Please find enclosed a money order fur which please ship me 12 pair pigeons as I saw some birds which you shipped to Mr. Walter of this town. I received a booklet from your firm some time agu but did not order birds until I saw Mr. Walter report on his. I decided to give you an order if you can send me mixed colors. Ship via Adams express. Wishing you success.—L. D., Pennsylvania. ONE YEAR’S GOOD TRIAL. Qucte me prices on your No. 1 Homers. Those I bought of you one year ago are doing nicely. —C. M. R., Pennsylvania. THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN BY ONE OF OUR CUSTOMERS TO HIS FRIEND IN A NEIGHBORING TOWN. I am pleased to know that you are getting along so nicely with your squab house, Wish you could see the last consignment of birds I received from the Plymouth Rock Squab Co. of Boston. They are beauties, and they commenced building their nests the second day after they arrived. I have no idea where you are going to purchase your birds but I certainly think you will make no mistake if you get them from Mr. Rice, for the ones he sent me are the finest I ever saw. I am confident if you buy your birds of Mr. Rice he will use you right for he has done the right thing by me.—F. B., New York. WANTS 500 PAIRS IN THE SPRING. My pigeons are doing very well but they are shedding a great many feathers. I want to make arrangements early in the spring for 500 pairs of your best stock, but before build- ing my houses I want to take a trip to Melrose and look your plant over, in order to get all the ideas about construction, maintenance, etc. I enclose separate slip with a few questions that I would like to have you answer if it is not too much trouble—J. W., North Carolina. LOST ONLY ONE BIRD, AND THAT BY ACCIDENT. I recently bought a few pairs of birds that you sold to a gentleman in this city about March Ist. He was moving to St. Louis and had to dispose of the birds. With what I got from you and the seven pairs I bought from him I now have 65 birds. Have never lost but one bird and that was my own fault for I was experimenting on it and accident- ally killed it. Ihave a market in St. Louis for all I can ship at $4.00 per dozen. If not ask- ing too much would you kindly give me the address of a couple of Chicago and New York commission men that handle squabs—W. E. T., Missouri. STARTED WELL. I write you in regard to the pigeons you will remember we bought of you (24 pairs) about two years ago this month, Our Homers have done very nicely. I have about 200 pairs. We sold 40 pairs last year. We have quite a nice little plant started.—A. C., Wisconsin. DOING WELL, GOING TC BUILD. Please send me a plan for your multiple unit house. My pigeons are doing fine.—D. B., Illinois. ' STARTED IN TO MAKE REFORMS. Please find enclosed check for nine dollars Somebody handling the small, stunted Homers may tell you that eight pounds to the dozen is good weight for squabs and that squabs are not bred to weigh more from Homers. That is true, from his Homers. Plymouth Rock Homer squabs. In these pages you will find that eight pounds is low for 178 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906, tor which kindly send us one dozen drinking fountains. We would like you to get these off as soon as possible. I was very much pleased with my visit to your plant at Melrose which I made yesterday, especially with your facilities for mating birds up. Got some new ideas along with a lot of good advice from your superintendent, and to-day have started in to make a few new reforms here.—T. H. D., Connecticut. KNOWS PLYMOUTH ROCKS BY EX- PERIENCE. I saw your advertisement of Homer Pigeons in a magazine. I would like very much for your company to send me one of your catalogues, and how much you charge for Homers a pair. I know from experience that a Plymouth Rock Homer is a good breeder. A friend of mine got some from your people a short time ago, but I did not inquire as to the price of them. In answer to letter from vou, I will send for some, and if they are satisfactory, I will be glad to get more, as I am a great pigeon fancier.—W. A.,, Illinois, ONE YEAR’S SATISFACTION. Send one bushel of Kaffir corn and one bushel of Canada peastome. It may interest you to know that the birds I bought from you a year ago are in every way satisfactory. I have doubled the number of workers in that time and have had all I wanted for my own table, and sold quite a number.—J. B. H., Massachusetts, SOME WEIGH 14 OUNCES WHEN 15 DAYS OLD. I received your pigeons in May when I was in Longueuil. Thev have done well, as I have had some which weigh 14 ounces at 15 days old. What do you think of a mirror in my squab house? I will be very pleased to receive all your advertising booklets.—G. C., Canada. SUNFLOWER SEEDS ARE GOOD. Your book doesn’t say anything about feeding pigeons sunflower seeds. Will they eat them or isn’t it good for them to havethem? Please let me know. The pigeons I got from you are doing pretty well, I think. I may get more next year.—B. J., Vermont. : Answer. Sunflower seeds are a good pigeon food and are used by many of our customers. They are rich and oily and should not be fed in excess, but as a dainty. A good way to feed them is to throw the whole head in front of the birds and let them pick out the seeds themselves with their bills. BREED WELL IN CALIFORNIA. En- closed find money order for 40 cents for which kindly send me two feet of your aluminum tubing for bands. Also send one of your price lists, as mine has been mislaid. Twenty-four pairs of Homers purchased of you one year ago are doing fine. Flock now numbers 150.—W. J. M., California. CONTINUOUS SATISFACTION. Enclosed find check which is to cover enclosed order. All the birds which you have sent me so far are very satisfactory —G. S., New York. FINEST BIRDS AROUND. Your birds I bought of you a year ago are going fine—the finest birds around, so my friends say.—Mrs. J. J. M., Massachusetts. HOTEL KEEPER RAISING HIS TABLE SQUABS. Am very glad to know that you were pleased with our menus and will con- tinue mailing them to you from time to time if you do not object. I hope that the temp- tation will be strong enough to cause you to come to our city and look over our squab farm. I have been quite successful and have a fine lot of birds. It is more than likely, however, that I shall want some additional birds in the very near future. I would like a few show Homers, Dragoons and Runts’ For squab raising purposes, I could not ask anything better than I now have. Will mail you_an order for supplies in a few days.—W. S., Georgia. BEAUTIFUL, HEALTHY BIRDS. Will you please quote me the price of your wicker shipping baskets, size for 12 pairs, or kindly forward me the address of the manufacturers of same. Also state in your letter if the drop- pings must be entirely free from straw and feathers, or reasonably so, to satisfy the pur- chasers at the tanneries. The six pairs I pur- chased of you two years ago have increased to 150 or 170, besides what I have killed, and the stock has proven entirely satisfactory in every way. I have taken pains to follow yout instructions to the letter so now I have the above number of beautiful, healthy birds.— W.H. Y., New York. Answer. It is impossible to get all straw and feathers entirely out of the manure, Sweep out what you can with a broom before cleaning the squab-house. The leather peo- ple do not care if some straw and feathers get in but they do not want gravel and tobacco stems. The latter discolor and stain when wet. BIRDS THAT FLY AWAY. On about April 20, 1905, we bought of you six Plymouth Rock Homer pigeons. Since then they have For six years we have had a complete monopoly of the fine trade cf the United States. We sell more Homers every year than all other firms and breeders combined. The reason for this is that our birds demonstrate their value and make friends wherever they go. Wo we intend to maintain. This supremacy 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. 1906 THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. done exceedingly well, and we have got a retty good start in pigeons now, but what jewiste you to-day for is this. This morning at 9 o'clock one of the birds we got of you got out of the flying pen. She flew into the airand started for Boston. This was a brown bird, and we thought she might arrive at her destination, so I wish you to keep a lookout for her and see if you can tell if she gets there. If she does arrive, would vou mind letting me know’? I am anxious to know if she gets there. This was a female bird and she left a young bird about a week old in the nest.— R. H., Iowa. Answer. No Homer would fly that dis- tance. We receive many letters like the above. Customers should watch the doors of squab-house and pens and not let their birds get away. LARGE, HEAVY AND FULL-BREASTED. Enclosed find money order for one more dozen pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I did not rush a letter down to you the same afternoon I received the other birds for the reason that I wanted to try them out first. The dozen pair of Plymouth Rocks, on their arrival weighed exactly 22 pounds, while a few days later I received another dozen pair from another company and they weighed only 17 pounds. They were not full-breasted like your birds. I received first shipment on the 2nd of March. They are now working like good fellows. Have three nests with eggs in. You will hear from me occasionally with further orders.—A. P. S., Michigan. WANTS TO BUY SOME GOOD ONES. Kindly send your catalogue and any other printed matter you have about pigeons. Ai acquaintance wants to buy some good birds and he is going to look at my lot that I received last Thursday. i feel sure I can land him as a customer for youu—H. D. C., Pennsylvania. GOING SLOWLY. Please send free book, “How to Make Money with Squabs.”’ The birds bought of you are doing well now and some of their young are hatching. Have enough now to ship a dozen a month now.— W.M., Maryland. JUST THE BIRDS. I thought I would let you know how my birds are getting along. They arrived on Tuesday, May Ist, as I wrote you. Thursday «f the same week one pair had commenced to build. At this writing four pairs have eggs. The others are build- ing. That is what I call going right to work. I am very much pleased with them. There was a party here this morning looking at them. He talks of putting in one hundred pair, and says they are just the birds that he wants. He is coming up tu see your plant. O£ course I showed him my birds and told him just what they were doing and where they came from_so I think he will be a cus- tomer for you. I shall advertise the Plymouth Rock birds wherever I have achance. Thank you for your kindness.—J. C., New Jersey. SQUABS WEIGHING ONE POUND APIECE WHEN ONE MONTH OLD. I received my pigeons from you April 20, 1905, I have one pair that has hatched eleven (11) times up to the 22nd day of April, 1906, so you can see that they have had fairly good care. I now have 110 birds and am getting them fast now and will commence shipping when I get 70 or 80 pairs. I have weighed’ a number of birds four weeks old that weighed 16 ounces and I think that is very good.—L. F., Iowa. QUICKLY AT WORK. Please pardon my delay in acknowledging the receipt (right side up) of the pigeons you shipped to me at Harpers Ferry, Va., which place I left before the shipment arrived. My wife informed me that they were all in good shape and the finest specimens she ever saw. Also thought they had returned the baskets to you. As soon as I go home, which will be in a few days, will send you another order. My wife’s third letter tells me that 16 pairs out of the 18 have gone to setting. Don’t think you can beat that athome. We have everything good to feed them. peas, kaffir corn, wheat and millet, and we intend to make a success of the business —W. S., Virginia. SQUABS HAVE AVERAGED ONE POUND APIECE. Enclosed please find certified check for $173.98 for which ‘kindly send me birds and supplies as enclosed. Kindly send the shipment of birds as soon as possible as I would like to receive them befure Tuesday. All my birds are doing nicely. My squabs, under your system of feeding, have averaged a pound apiece and I expect from the present outlook of things to make them average a good deal more —E, H. M., Pennsylvania. THIS WOMAN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA KNOWS WHAT A FINE HOMER IS. A week ago I wrote you complaining of non- acknowledgment of my remittance sent in with my order. As I was beginning to wonder if it had miscarried, I am pleased to be able to inform you that I received the best possible answer to my letter in arrival of the birds I ordered from you, They arrived The equipment at ou: farm for mating birds cost $2000 and no expense was spared to make it perfect. is heated by hot water so as to get t A thousand ee coops are in constant use. The principal mating house e best and quickest results in the cold months. 180 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. about the same time as your letter (May Ist). All of them are in first-class condition and I am very pleased with them, as I consider that they are a fine lot of birds, and I think I know what a fine Homer is when I see it, as my father and brothers have bred and sold trained flying Homers for years in Lancashire, England, some of them worth twenty-five dollars a pair. Although I never heard of squab raising before I came to Canada three years ago, when I first saw your book adver- tised in Muusey’s I thought it was some kind of game bird reared in captivity. and sent for your book more out_of curiosity than any- thing else. I think I shall like the business very much and shall probably be sending another erder in a month or two when I see how 1-0 0n with the birds I have got. Thank vou v..y much for the two pairs extra you sent, also nest bowls. They were a very agreeable surprise to me as I did not expect anything like that on such a small order. The express charges were six dollars, and 25 cents duty on nest bowls. If you would write me from time to time giving me your prices I shall be much obliged.—Mrs A. R., Canada. SQUABS WEIGHING FROM 13 TO 16 OUNCES. Please send me at your earliest convenience the names of reliable merchants to whom I can ship squabs, in New York. The 80 pairs I bought of you last fall are Sage well. I sold squabs that weighed from 1 ounces to almost one pound apiece. I have over 100 pairs of young ones that I am sav- ing for stock.—H. J., Ohio. WORTH THEIR PRICE. Sore time ago I sent you an order for three pairs No. 1 and three pairs Extra Homers, stating that I wished to compare with Homers a friend of mine was ordering at a very much_ lower figure. In a word, after due comparison, I order six more pairs Extras. Please send me fine birds.—C. J., Illinois. SQUABS WEIGHING 16 TO 17 OUNCES EACH. Please find enclosed remittance for which send me 12 pairs and supplies noted. The dozen pairs you sent me started i: to do business last month, having been moulting up to that time. The first two pairs squabs hatched, at one month old, weighed one pound each, with one that was 17 ounces. That is very good, is it not? 1 am well pleased with them. Make this dozen as good and I shall be more pleased.—C. B. G., Connecticut. HIS FOURTH ORDER. Enclosed you will please find money order for which you will please send me as soon as possible one dozen pairs Extra bred Homers (fourth order.)—L C., Louisiana, SUPERIOR IN LOOKS AND WORKS, The birds (60 pairs) arrived on the late train from St. Paul on Sunday night last, and remained in the depot here until early on the following morning when we took them home. Outside of the injured ones mentioned, I will say that the birds arrived in perfect condition and are fully up to what we expected them to be. They are now “at home” and present a beautiful appearance. The birds which you sent me last November (nine months ago) are entirely satisfactory. and “ out-class* any I received from the or these which my friend here received from the same people. Mine are plump, his are “ cranish,”’ long-legged and long-necked. I would not keep that kind of birds. My triend has not accommodations for pigeons, and wanted to sell out. A doctor who for several years rented offices in my law office building here, looked them over with the view of purchasing the outfit, and I advised him to do so, to get a start in the business. He visited my lofts, and saw my birds, wanted to buy some from me, and after he saw mine, he would not buy of my friend. I gave him your address, but have not seen him since, and do not know whether he has made a pur- chase or not. I have none to sell at this time as we are trying to increase the flock to at least 1200, for which we have ample accommo- dations, then we will begin to sell. There is no mistake in saying that the birds which I received from you, out-class those which the——-——— have sent here. If your Mr. Rice should ever come to this country I would be pleased to have him stay with me and look over the “ greatest ”’ farming coun- try on earth, My elder boy (17 years of age) visited the great Minnesota State Fair. Saw Dan Patch break his record, reducing it to 1.55 flat. He looked the pigeons over as a matter of course, and he tells me that he could find no Homers there which compared with ours. He intends to exhibit some at the fair next fall—H. M., Minnesota. MADE A SUCCESS AND GOING AHEAD ON ABIG PLANT. Lhavea party that wants to go into the squab business with me, and it is possible that I will call on you during Nov- ember for 2000 breeders. I have done very well with the 800 I have, encouraging enough to put in quite an extensive plant. I would like to have vour personal opinion as to whether 2000 birds will do as well in 20 units of 100 birds each with one fly 12x48x200 as they would in 20 units with 20 flies 10x12x48. Our whole time and energies are given to squabs. ¢ handled—promptly, courteously and thoroughly, with every detail attended to. It is a business with us, pushed steadily every day in the year except Sun- answered at once, We handle trade as it ought to be Letters are jays and holidays, and not a side issue or an amusement, 181 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. account of labor I would prefer the one large fly, but I want no experiments and leave the matter with you. I can get $4.00 per dozen for a large portion of my squabs, and would like to have an opinion as to what 5000 of your breeders would net us yearly when we taise our own feed on the farm. WE SUPPLY HENS TO THOSE WHO NEED THEM. After recommending your firm to A. F. Kennelley of this city and he being a purchaser from you recently, I find that he is well pleased with treatment accord- ed him. Enclosed please find $5.00 for five female birds to be used as breeders. I bought some birds from a friend of mine and he had five odd cocks which I want to mate up. You will forward these by first express to my address.—H. E. W., Ohio.. BEST BIRDS HE EVER SAW. The Homers ordered from you reached me in due time and in excellent condition. They certainly are the finest birds I ever saw. [ really believe they are a finer lot than the first consignment, if that be possible. The second day after their arrival they commenced building their nests, which I imagine is a pretty good record. Some of my friends have secured birds from other parties and although I have not seen their birds, I am confident they can’t tell me that they have a finer lot than mine. Tf I have an_opportunity of securing you any customers I shall be only too glad to do se.--B. Y., New York. BEST HOMERS IN CALIFORNIA. Birds received in Al condition. Your birds have stirred up quite some interest here and what I hear from people who know is that your birds are the best in the colony. As it is I am well pleased with the bunch. I have a house (2x 32 feet divided into four pens 8x9 feet with a three-foot passage running the length and everything up to date. That also has opened their eyes in the building and arrange- ments in an up-to-date squab house. I have had the birds less than a week and am pretty well advertised already. The market here is strong at $3.00 to $3.50 and the demand far exceeds the supply.—C. H., California. SOLD YOUNGSTERS FOR $2 A PAIR IN SAS. Enclosed find remittance for one leg band outfit. My pigeons have been doing fine, and are keeping busy all the time. Have sold off the young pigeons at eight weeks old for $2.00 per pair. What is the difference in Canada peas and the peas we raisc here? Will the common peas do to feed to the pigeons?—G,. W. S., Kansas. LATEST NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK MARKET; HIGH PRICES WHICH ARE GOING HIGHER BECAUSE OF THE NEW LAW FORBIDDING ENTIRELY THE SALE OF QUAIL EXCEPT IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER. I take the liberty of asking you for a little more advice for the birds I bought from you last November. Of sick- ness I have not seen any sign of it. I lost only two of ther, one of apoplexy I think, because it, fell like shot dead, the other one died of diarrhoea, Of the young squabs, the cas- taltics have been a little higher, but out of 50 I did not lose more than six, or 12 per 100. Now I wish you would give me your opinion how I have progressed, if I am on the regulat average or if I am under it. The prices for squabs on the [-- York market have been very high all winter—have reached as high as $6.50 a dozen for squabs of over 10 pound a dozen, and $4.50 for birds of near eight pound or so. Of course private trade 1s better and I have been able to sell squabs for 50 cents apiece easily. have a set ot birds that give me three eggs and have hatched them successfully with three days late for the extra one. Does that happen often?—H. G., New York. WILL NOT BUY ANY HOMERS BU? PLYMOUTH ROCKS. Last May I ordered from you twelve Plymouth Rock Homers. They arrived on the eighth of May and on the twelfth_of the same month the first egg was laid. Five pairs of them went to work almost immediately and have been at work eve1 since, I raised the squabs during the summer. Ihave now 13 pairs of mature pigeons. Twelve pairs work constantly and I am very much pleased with them and want to thank you for them and as you are so kind as to offer to answer questions and to help we people who do not know all about raising squabs I shall be so much obliged if you will give me a little help. My present ambition is to increase my plant. I want to buy some Extras from you as soon as I can raise the capital. I can buy Homers nearer home but yours have done so well for me that whatever new stock I get ] would like to get from you. You say in your book that you will give your patrons tle address of a good New York buyer. Will you ee send me the address?—C. O., New ersey, BRANCHING OUT. Please quote me your best figures on the following: Homer pigeons in pairs ready to go to work in lots of 20, 50 and 100 pair lots. Hempseed in bushel lots. Health grit in 100 pound tots. I have your prices of last year but presume there are some changes. I purchased 12 pairs of Homers from you last spring and they raised me about These are strong letters. Read them over. You want some assurance, when you buy pigeons, that you will be treated right, as these customers were. 182 £906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS 1906 STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906 # Woe once by the first of November.— BLOOD AND HIGH BREEDING COUNT. Enclosed find draft for which you will send by Pacific express, Extra Homers, as per memorandum, Several weeks ago I ordered 15 pairs of- . When the birds came I did not think they were much more than common birds. A friend in our town wanted some breeders and I got him to try your birds. They came last night. There is a big differ- ence between the birds. My first birds do not show any white on bill to amount to any- thing and they are most all white or very light color. Yours show their high breeding. Blood tells, when you put them together. [ sold mine at half price to-day to get shut of them. What I want is blooded stock or nothing. Please send me a_ good collection of assorted colors, blues, reds and checkers, I ordered one of your squab books some time ago and I think it the best I ever read on pigeons.—J. A., Missouri. TRIFLING DEATH LOSSES. In January of this year I purchased 12 pairs of your Extras. They are now (April) in fine condi- tion and have hatched out 24 young ones, 22 of which are living and doing fine—W. J., Massachusetts. SEVEN PAIRS WORTH $25, THIS ARKANSAS CUSTOMER THINKS. Writing you a few lines to let you know that I got the pigeons all They were all well. I got them two weeks to-day and out of the seven pairs, four pairs of them have built and are setting on eggs already. I would have written you sooner but wanted to see what they were going to do. I would not take $25 for the seven pairs. Sending the basket back this evening with the letter. You can put this letter on your list. I think it is the only one from Arkansas.—C, W., Arkansas. GOOD SHOWING AFTER THEIR 3000- MILE JOURNEY. Enclosed please find Wells Fargo Express money order for $1.70 for which please send me by mail post paid, one leg band outfit at your very earliest convenience. My birds received from you March 17 are doing fine. They got right to work and one month from the day I received them I had three pairs of squabs hatch. Since then one more pair has hatched and two more pairs are setting and two pairs building. I think that is a pretty good showing in six weeks for 10 pairs after travelling 3000 miles. I lost one hen. She got sick and I could not find what was the trouble. She did not have diarrhcea, but just seemed to droop and die. The cemainder of them are as fine as could be. Will you please quote me prices on nine pait Extra Homers to be delivered in June or July. Caunot tell yet just when I will be ready fer them, but either June or July sure. Best wishes for your continued success.—E. M., California. ARKANSAS CUSTOMER IS PLEASED WITH SQUARENESS, I received your Man- ual a day after I wrote that letter, and J received another one. I have sold both of them, and find enclosed $1.00 to pay for your extra one and another one for myself. You people treated me so well I won’t buy any Homers from anybody else. I was surprised at your squareness and have told every one about it and got them all a-going in the right direction. I was very, very much pleased with your Manual.—G. R., Arkansas. HIS MONEY TALKS FOR HIM. Last August T purchased 124 pairs of your Extras and am now in the market for about 375 pairs more. Iam also in need of some extra hens of the same quality. Can you supply samc? Also let me know if you can furnish these birds in pairs in the following colors: blues, blue checkers and red checkers in any number I| may desire. Please state your very lowest rice on above number of pairs. Let me hear rom you by return mail, as I am in a great rush for the birds.—S. T., Indiana. CANNOT SAY TOO MUCH IN PRAISE OF OUR HEALTH GRIT. Enclosed find $2.00 for 100 pounds of health grit. I find this grit the best on the market for pigeons. I cannot say too much for it as it keeps the pigeons in fine health. Although the price is high I would never be without it. I have quite a few people that want to get this grit from me. Can you let me have it cheaper, so that I can make something out of it? Answer and let me know.—R. O., New Jersey. BIG SQUAB FARM WHOSE OWNER BOUGHT HIS BREEDERS OF US._ I visited a squab farm last Sunday and before I left found that the owner bought his breeders of your company, five hundred pairs. He has 1100 pairs at present and is making a fortune. After seeing this farm I was more than con- vinced that the Plymouth Rock Squab Co. is O. K. If I get as good a lot of birds as he has I certainly will be pleased. ~ Tam sorry that I did not figure on handling more birds than I did. Have built house to accommodate 100 birds. Enciosed find stamps for which please send plans and specifications for squab houses. No doubt you will receive a larger order from me in a short time. Will notify you in a few days when to ship birds. Beware of anybody who tries to make a sale to you by running down the Plymouth Rock Squab Co. Insist that he show you letters like these in proof of his claims. 185 1906 LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS STORIES OF SUCCESS ON THIS PAGE ARE NEW. 1906 THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY OF BOSTON IN NINE MONTHS OF 1906. I want to have everything complete before I have them sr:pped.—lI. S., New York. HAS TRIED THEM AND KNOWS. I am at present debating with myself and with some of my relations in regard to starting in the pigeon business. My folks are trying to persuade me that it is going to cost too much to start, and that I will not realize any great rofits very soon. As I see, and at the best can figure it out, it will take about $100 to start in with fifty pairs of breeders and builda home to accommodate them, pelting the price of building down as low as possible with lum- ber at its present price. What I want to know is, do you think it would pay me to start and about how long do you think it would take to get back the amount paid out if I relied entirely on the birds? I think I could get it back in four months at the most, because I have three pairs I pur- chased of you in January, besides the young onesI have raised. I have watched and studied their ways and know something about them. I know how fast they breed, etc. Now am I right in my estimation as to the time it would take to regain my money and would you advise me to start if possible? My birds I have now are doing fine.—S. A., Massachusetts. MANURE FOR SALE. Will you please give me the address of some firm to which I can sell my pigeon manure? My pigeons are doing well this spring.—T. O., New York. RHODE ISLAND SUCCESS. I am enclos- ing money order for which kindly send me enclosed supplies. If this money order does not cover cost do not delay the grain but send me bill for extra. _ My birds are all doing finely.—B. O., Rhode Island. THIS IS THE KIND OF PLAIN TALK ONE LIKES TO HEAR. Iam finding out for my- self if there was money in squabs and I have found it to be true by other squab breeders. I was to a man’s place this afternoon and he said he had no trouble in sclling his squabs for a good price. I guess the only trouble is people are sleeping half the time, That's why they don’t know much about squab breeding. Ifa fellow doesn’t believe in squab breeding, all he has ts do is to open his eyes and look around. I’ve been to a couple of bird shows and have seen nothing to go ahead of your birds yet. My friend was saying what nice birds they had at the show, and I thought T would go down with him. We had to pay 25 cents to ect in. After we looked at the birds, he said that mine would get the first prize if I would take them down. Then I found out that I have some of the biggest birds in town, I would like to get some pictures taken and show you some of the birds I got from yours. I found your book to be a book anybody can read and knows what he is read- ing about. Everything is so plain—what a beginner wants to know about breeding birds. I was thinking of sending you my third order, If I do, it will be next week. Hoping you are doing a good business. My birds are doin, fine. Your birds are the best breeders and i won’t take any others.—S, C. H., Wisconsin, NEST BOWLS ALL RIGHT. Please find a moncy order for one dozen more of your nest bowls, They are O. K. Put them in the house one evening and on going in the next found that a pair had already taken posses- sion and started a nest. Have 11 pair setting on eggs and they are doing fine. I intend to purchase more from you later as I am going to build a unit to start this spring and enclose money for your plans for squab houses. Wishing you every success.—W. A., Massa- chusetts. ENLARGING. Enclosed find check for which please send me seven pairs of your Extra Homers and one dozen_ fibre nests. Send by American express. This time I would like to have different colored birds. The birds and supplies you sent me in Janu- ary came in zood shape. I was well pleased with same. Am thinking some of putting in 50 or 100 pairs more this summer if I can arrange for another house.—H. B., Indiana. BEST EVER SEEN IN OKLAHOMA. Enclosed please find money order for which send me your best Extra Homers as specified. Send all blue-speckled birds, as shown on right of special offer sheet. Your last ship- ment of birds are fine ones and every one that has seen them say they are the finest they ever saw. Trusting these will be the same or better and that I may receive them at your earliest convenience.—W. H., Oklahoma. BUYING MORE AFTER ONE YEAR’S EXPERIENCE. A little over a year ago, I bought 24 pairs of your pigeons. Now I wish to buy 300 pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and am fixing a house for them and will be in shape to receive 75 pairs a month, say March 1, April 1, May 1 and June 1. Isee that $1.70 per pair is your price in lots of 300 pairs and upwards. I should want the best birds as I believe they are the cheapest. Now if this arrangement is all right, you can let me know and I will send yeu $127 50 for the first 75 pairs. I want your best birds.—E. F., Ohio. Is there anybody in your town who has failed at squab raising? Some play at pigeons as they would with a new toy, then give them up. 184 them and not with the pigeons. If they bought of us the trouble is with APPENDIX D (Copyright, 1908, by Elmer C. Rice) Squab market prospects for 1908 and 1909 are excellent, as encouraging as they ever have been — always a hungry demand. To keep the subject up to date we give on the following pages a fresh lot of facts bearing on the industry. We have pictures mostly contributed by customers to whom we have sold breeding stock. During the past ten years the demand for squabs has more than kept pace with the supply and this is true today (January, 1908) although the supply has been systemized by us and enormously increased, for in this period we have sold over half a million Homers, and we estimate that now there are breeding on the Western Continent, from these Plymouth Rock Homers, at least two million pairs of Homers. The squabs from these Homers bred from stock originally sold by us are in every market on this continent where poultry is sold. These figures show what we have done for the squab industry, and they are conservative. In fact, before we began shipping breeding stock, the squab business was of no volume. Our methods and our birds have created this new vast industry. Our efforts, of course, would have heen useless without the co-operation of a large and enthusiastic body of customers, whose syalty is our pride and satisfaction. Let the good work goon. More people are going to eat squabs. Squabs for dinner are nowa settled habit with hundreds of thousands of families. Our advertising constantly in the best periodicals suggests every week to many new people that squabs are a new delicacy for their tables, and thus the demand grows. We print on left-hand pages immediately following letters received in December, 1907, from three representative New York squab buyers, Messrs. Silz, McLaughlin and Heineman. We have selected these to show the present eager market for squabs bred from our birds. They were written by these dealers when prices for everything were temporarily set back by the short-term panic. Prices for squabs during 1908 and 1909 will be as high or higher than in any previous year. We have selected these New York marketmen four reference because they have been largely instrumental in working with us to standardize and develop the national squab market. Mr. McLaughlin’s system of grading by weight per dozen is now in common use not only in his own city but all over the United States. Refuse to ship your squabs to anybody who offers you a small price based on count. Grade your squabs by weight and get what you are entitled to for the big squabs bred from our birds. Weigh them yourself and you will know just what you will get from the dealer. You will see in Mr. Silz’s letter that he is pleased to get squabs from our birds because they are so much better. Mr, McLaughlin advises our breeders, and to keep free from other kinds, Messrs. Heineman advise the use of nothing but our best breed of birds. This is expert testi- mony by practical business men who control the squab trade in the Jargest city in America. Knapp & Van Nostrand, 208 to 243 Washington street, New York City, write us under date of December 4, 1907, stating that they are paying the following prices for squabs. (This firm divides with the three others above mentioned the greater part of the enormous New York squab trade). ‘‘ Ten to twelve pounds to the dozen, $4.50; nine pounds to the dozen, $4.00; eight pounds, $3.25.” Their letter continues: ‘“ We receive and sell hundreds of dozens every week. Squabs from shippers mentioning your company compare favorably with general receipts, Sales have increased in New York.” : When customers of curs wish to begin shipping squabs to the four firms above mentioned or any other New York squab dealer, we give letters of introduction which will smooth the aay for them. 185 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 No matter in what part of the United States or Canada you live, we will put you in touch with your nearest best squab buyer, provided of course you have not a private trade of your own, which always pays best. In Pittsburg, for example, there is a concern which has a very large trade and is constantly after good squabs. They write us: ‘For eight-pound squabs we are paying $3.00 a dozen, nine-pound $4.25 a dozen. When communicating with your custom- ers, kindly let them quote us price on the different sizes. We would like to get in touch with some shippers who can supply us the year around with what squabs we want. We can use 100 pounds to 150 pounds per week. Kindly put us in touch with some good shippers.” A correspondent living in West 36th street. New York, writes us under date of October 12 1907, after personal investigation of the New York City markets: ‘I am studying up the squab business. with the intention of woing at it up at my home in Pennsylvania, when I can con- veniently see my way to it. Your statement about the market for the product in 1902-1903 still seems to hold good here in New York, I was down at Washington Market not long ago to inquire of commission men how the call for squabs runs, They all said that the supply hardly equals the demand. Many of them were selling or offering for sale little bony, discolored Bites that would hardly tempt a starved cat. So when I am ready I shall talk business with you.” In the first part of our Manual we quote prices in a great many cities in force in 1903 or thereabouts. We have not the space to follow the quotations in these cities year by year. What is true of New York is true of Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Fran- cisco, Seattle, Portland, all the large places. The demand everywhere continues eager at high prices as you can readily find out for yourself if you live near a city. In your nearest city you will ind Plymouth Rock squabs going in regularly to the dealers there and dominating the market, We quote as follows the prices prevailing in New York City from the summer of 1907 to the end of the vear. These quotations are not retail prices, remember, but are what a dealer paid breeders for supplying him with squabs. The first quetation in each case, is for squabs weigh- ing ten nounds to the dozen. The second figure is for squabs weighing nine pounds to the dozen, The third figure is for squabs weighing eight pounds to the dozen: fy a eet: uly oe 0 3. August V2 sek 3.50 3.00 September 2.... 3.50 2.75 September 30.... 3.75 3.00 October 14.... 3.85 3.25 November 4.. 4.00 3.50 November 18.. 4.00 3.50 December 2.... 3.60 3.25 December 9 3.40 3.25 The reader of all the quotations we print must be impressed that the chorus for the big squabs grows each year larger in volume and more insistent. Dealers want the big ones and to get them they offer the very attractive bait of substantially-increased prices. It is folly for anybody to start breeding squabs now with inferior birds, for his squabs (weighing six or seven pounds to the dozen) will be crowded to the back of the counter in every market and the breeder will have to be content with a price which will pay for the grain, perhaps, but little more, This is not unsupported talk by us, unfounded sayso, but, in the words of our ex-Presi- dent, is a condition and not a theory. We have actually supplied the breeding stock whose Squabs now constitute the squab markets of the country and are making the weights and prices. Before we introduced the Plymouth Rock Extra Homers, there were in the New York or Philadelphia, or any markets, no squabs weighing over eight pounds to the dozen. No such squabs were traded in because no such squabs existed, in commercial quantity. Now they are in the markets every day by thousands of dozens weighing from eight to twelve pounds to the lozen. The letters which we print on the following pages are selections from a large number received by us in 1907. These show a great many facts bearing upon all sides of the industry and we recommend their reading for the news they contain. Many of the writers note ways of their own showing original thinking and adaptation. We withhold the names and addresses of the writers for the business reasons stated so many times by us, but we assure new friends as well as old, that all are genuine, every one, written by real customers not connected with us in any way excent by the sale of our birds and supplies to them. The original letters are filed at our office in Boston, where we will show them to anybody. If some one is holding back an order from us thinking that any letter here is ‘‘ made up,” and cannot come in person to Beston to see these letters, as many do, we will pay the fee of his representative living in or near Boston for examining our files and reporting. Write us first, and we will convince you if given the opportunity. LETTERS RECEIVED FROM CUSTOMERS BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 186 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 READ THIS STORY OF SUCCESS BY A MAN 80 YEARS OLD. HE HAS DONE SOME ORIGINAL AND EFFECTIVE THINKING. NO BUILDINGS FOR HIM. HE USES AN ATTIC ROOM AND GETSTHERE.” Being old (80 years), failing s.zht drove me out of a mechanical business and the prospect before me was to live and lean on my children. I had always been a lover and keeper of Bipenns from boyhood until a few years since when the telephone, etc. came, and I killed all off. My daughter saw your advertisement in a magazine and sent for your booklet. I saw at a glance the chance offered. I knew you were telling only what was the exact truth about pigeons, and the pictures showed them to be the best kind for the purpose. Had I been 20 years younger, I would have gone into it with all my means, su as it was I- made a very modest beginning. In February, April and June you sent me three small lots, 40 in all, not your Extras. I put them in an attic where I had birds before with nest boxes, some hung up, some on the floor, any way to keep them apart. They soon began to work. Six pairs had eggs in a week. When squabs began to come six, seven or eight at a time, a butcher took them, and since then we have given him over three dozen in one week. He first paid at rate of $3 per dozen and has risen twice since to now, $3.75, and has not been pushed. My daughter takes them in and gets the cash as if they were gold or wheat. The butcher says it is not the size but a plump breast that tells, so they go large and small many times, between seven and eight pounds to the dozen, bled and dressed. Of course my stock has been increased by some getting out of nest, or saving some peculiar color. I keep those with odd markings and know them personally. The first year the 18 pairs averaged eight pairs each. I do not keep them to be a month old as they would all be on the floor then and butcher looks for wool on head. Seeing none he says: ‘‘ How long has this been flying?’’ So I send them at 24 or 25 days. The younger they go, the faster the old ones breed, as well as saving of feed. So since May, 1905, when I began with 18 pairs, I have sold 805 squabs and increased stock from 18 pairs to 56 pairs, and no stint of feed. I sell no manure. , You are right on feed question. Cabbage is good. I give (when I have it) lettuce, parsley and even marshmallow weed and sunflower seeds, but my birds avoid wheat, eating very little. They know me personally, come in from outside when I go in and get down under my feet. My attic where I breed is a queer shape, with two places for them to get outside, and fced boxes on floor to give them a chance to hide from the others at times. The other 20 pairs are in an old wagon-house with the boxes over head to be away from rats, and a cat there most of the time. I suffer some from the makeshift pens I have. I need the arrangement you have, though I have a third place for the young unmated, When a pair in that place gets young, say 14 days old, I move pair (box and all) at night into one of the regular units and that fetches them. But here comes what few and those only that know me will believe. In the course of this April and May seven pairs have had three eggs each. Three pairs hatched all and are gone to butcher. Two more are hatched and doing well and of the two to come, all eggs are guod. Some have had one smaller than other two, then I take the small one and give it to another which has younger or some of same size. I am raising them all. The books say pigeons often have only one, but nothing about three. Are we getting a new breed? I have none for sale alive so this is no advertisement. For squabs I have received in money just double what I spend for feed.—D. G. L., New York. Note. There is a great deal of sound sense and experience in the above story of this valued customer, written by himself. Eighty years old, and with failing sight! Not much; he is young and keen. First, he had confidence that he was being tuld the truth by us and would get good birds, for he had known pigeons all his life. That is half the battle. He sold his squabs when they were plump, even if only three weeks old, before they had a chance to walk around and train off fat. He treated his birds so that they loved him. His butcher had customers which evidently did not weigh the squabs. Asmall plump squab is good but a big, plump squab is what 99 dealers out of 100 are after, because they get much more money for them. The educated markets once supplied with the big ones do not fancy the smaller ones. Our customer if he had started with our Extras would not have been content to sell to the butcher, but would have looked up the butcher’s customers and received also the 50 per cent profit made by the butcher. : As to three squabs in a nest, this comes to pass, but we never knew so many cases in a flock of this size at the same time. That was extraordinary. s . His practice of changing the smaller squab in a nest for a squab of size equal to the one remain- ing is common, With two squabs in the nest, if one grows larger, than the other, this means he is stronger and is continually stealing the share of the parents food belonging to the little one, Take the little one to another nest where there is a squab of its own size, bringing back a larger squab equal in size to the one in the first nest. | i His story of success is that of a small flock. He simply makes a small lot, housed in a crude way, pay in profits a share of the running expenses of the home. LETTERS RECEIVED FROM CUSTOMERS BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 187 caeLe aponess SILZ NCW YORK,® TELEPHONE 4900 CHELS ER , geek, ” Nec. 2nd,'o7. Mr. Elmer C. Rice, Plymouth Rock Squab Co., Boston, Masse Dear Sir:- In reply to your letter of Nov. 27th, the present prices on Squabs you will find on the enclosed card. There will not be any let-up in the demand for Squabs 4f the prices remain normal. The season for all game closes with the end of this month so there will naturally be a better demand for Squabs after that time to take the place of game. We use from 175 dozen to 200 dozen squabs each day. Your Squabs are very much better than others, and I think you have accomplished wonders for the Squab industry, and every Squab raiser should feel grateful for your efforts in this line, and you could very appropriately be termed " KING * of the Squab_busipess. Wishing to assist you in your continued efforts to put the Squab business ahead, we are, Very truly yours, A. SIIZ, Inc., u/P... ~Lomee sacle: be ivf] va) 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 THIS IS THE BREEDER OF WHOM WE WRITE AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 56 OF OUR MANUAL. HE FED WRONGLY AT THE START AND BLAMED US FOR NO RESULTS, BUT HE IS A GOOD FRIEND NOW AND HAS SEEN A GREAT LIGHT. I received the new Manual O.K. Accept my thanks. I think that it is up-to-date in every respect and in no way far-fetched, nothing but sensible, hard, experienced facts. I notice that you speak of a California breeder using nothing but wheat and a handful of hemp with no return for six months, pase it was me yourefer to. Well, I deserved it, for ‘‘a guilty conscience needs no accuser.” did not feed them enough to keep them alive. Now, Mr. Rice, money will not buy the birds. active; working all the time. Even now (September 11, 1907) they are in full force nest build- ing. I can point out lot of pairs which are now on their eighth lots of eggs. I would like to have any one show me that they have as good birds as I have. It would be a very hard matter to convince me that there are any birds as good as the Plymouth Rock Homers of Boston. In short, any one who fails with those birds should not blame the birds or Mr. Rice, for it is up to them to handle them right. Do not think, Mr. Rice, that I am “fishing” for something. Far from it. Iam only speaking as my true conscience dictates, that there are no better birds They are beauties, so plump, bright and than yours. ounces. How is that? the goods. We have just weighed six squabs and they tipped the scales at five pounds, 13 Some will say that Homers cannot do as well as that but I can show The only trouble is the best I can get is $3 a dozen and a private trade at that. Have not had a chance to save over one dozen for breeders. As regards more birds. \ _l certainly want more of your birds and will want only Extras, as I will use the Extras exclusively for raising my breeding stock. for them, as I am going to build four more houses. I will not be ready until spring Then I promise you a picture of my house worthy to goin your book, All I ask of you is to wait until I have completed my plans. Mr. Rice, I have some Maltese hen pigeons I wish to dispose of. are mated pairs and the rest young ones ranging from two months to seven months. could trade me your Homers for them, or find omy kept them for fancy, GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL IN CALI- FORNIA WELL PLEASED. The four pairs of Homers shipped to me on October 2, 1907, arrived to-day in apparently first-class con- dition, The birds appear to be satisfactory in every respect. I thank you for the extra pair; also for the supplies included. After the birds get to work I shall furnish you with a further report, and if I have occasion to order again, shall not forget your prompt and liberal treatment.—C. W. L., Register, United States Land Office, Department of the Interior, California. BETTER AT $1.50 A PAIR THAN WHAT HE PAID OTHERS $2.50 A PAIR. SIX MORE ORDERS FOLLOW. I have received your Plymouth Rock pigeons which you sent me in perfect order, I am very much pleased with them. They are as good as the ones I beught of and for $2.50 per pair.—P. P., New York. Note. The above customer has sent us in 1907 up to date (November) six orders. ONE HUNDRED MILES IN FIVE HOURS IN A STORM. Please send me one of your 1907 catalogues. The birds that I received in April, 1906, are doing finely. I broke them in at my loft. I flew one of them 100 miles, making the distance in five hours, in rain and storms. I will ship him 200 miles in a few weeks with others of my birds. I think he will do fine in his 200-mile race.—J. M., Texas. There are about 20. Three If you me a customer I should thank you. I have Now I will close, wishing you the best of luck.—J, B. W., California. SATISFIED AND BUYS MORE. Some time ago I ordered a half-dozen pairs of pig- eons from you; at the same time I ordered six pairs from the———. I wish to say that I have now received all the birds and I have concluded that yours are the best. As soon as I get a little more ready money I expect to order more birds of you. It is my intention to build up a large flock just as soon as I can. I am perfectly satisfied in my dealing with you. You can publish any part of the above letter if you want to except the name of the other company. (Later). Enclosed find check for $18 for nee pairs of your Carneaux.—L, T. P., New ork, 4 FIVE PAIRS OUT OF SIX IN TWO WEEKS AFTER ARRIVAL PROVES FAST MATINGS. Received pigeons two weeks ago. I think the Extras are far ahead of anything T have ever seen. I have had mine only two weeks and five pairs have elready gone to work. Enclosed please find stamps for 37 cents for which send me by mail two feet of alum- inum tubing. —T. J. S., Iowa. BREEDING WELL IN TEXAS. I am doing fine with my pigeons and I think they are the best kind. 4 started with 14 in November and now (June, 1907), I have about 66. They are doing fine. I have sc many that I will have to order some wood- fibre nestbowls, Find enclosed $3.84 for which send me four dozen wood-fibre nest- bowls.—W. P. C., Texas. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 189 TEL, 1288 FRANKLIN. Aefarences:—All Commercial Agencies. Win. R. McLaughlin COMMISSION MERCHANT Poultry, Eggs, Game, Squabs, Calves Etc. 362 GREENWICH STREET NEw YORK November 29, 1907 Elmer C. Rice, Eaq., Treasurer Plymouth Rock Squab CO., Boston, Mass. Dear Sir: Yours of the 27th duly received. I am pleased to hear from you once more. If beginners will stick to your breeders, they will have no cause to complain as to size, quantity and quality of squabs, and net profits they receive from same. The demand is still good for all the fancy white large squabs we can get, and the market’ has kept at uniform price for a long time. In fact, since the new season started, there has been very little change in price. The small and mixed lots we must sell to out of town trade where everything looking like a squab zoes at a price; while the city trade want the larger bird and are willing to pay for them. Many do not buy enpugh brecders at the start so that they can ship a fair sized lot. I can use daily all the squabs I can get and do not look for prices to go any lower during the winter,---1f anything, quite some advance. I think if any two need any praising as to results brought about, and profits to raisers, it is you and myself, as I was the first to in- troduce selling by weight according to size, and was laughed at for trying, even by those who would not now admit the change more than doubled their output. The one who does not like the change is the speculator who got the large birds for nothing, and the small birds at their actual value, and made the extra profit when selling to consumers. I would advise beginners to get a quantity of your breeders; keep free from other kinds. They will have no cause to find fault with results, and will always have a market and demand at good prices, for they can raise and ship at any time of the year. Serid me the names of: your customers yourself and I will post them as to the market, and send shipping cards. Yours truly, Lt OoULinnghlla. 190 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 STARTED WITH 12 PAIRS AND BRED THEM TO 100 rae ENLARGING BUILDINGS STEADILY. HAS COMPARED PLYMOUTH ROCKS WITH MANY AND FOUND NONE SUPERIOR. Your letter of October 24, 1907, received, and wish to thank you for the informa- tion furnished. Two a 20-foot fly, purchased six pairs of your ,Two years ago I built a pigeon house ten feet by 20 feet, nine feet high with dividing the house and fly with wire screen, making two compartments. I Homers in September and six pairs more of you in February. To my surprise, three of these pairs started building their nests the day after their arrival, and, in fact, the 12 pairs went into the business of raising squabs and have been in the business ever since. I now have 100 pairs of the finest birds in the country; no question about that, as I have made it a point to visit quite a number of places to compare birds. and I am satisfied with my birds, if they are with theirs. Last winter I built another house of the same dimensions as given above, building at the lower end of the original fly. I took the wire screen from the end of the fly, and with it divided the fly into four parts, thus saving the expense of building a fly for the new house, and the birds do just as well with a ten-foot as with a 20-foot fly, I imagine. and birds was about $175. It is my intention to sell squabs this winter The total cost of the two houses (1907-1908) while prices are high, keeping the squabs hatched during the summer months for breeders, and saving the squabs from my best record birds as breeders, as I believe I will get even better results from them. In my opinion the squab business is similar to other business enterprises, requiring patience and hard work at the start, and squab business than in any other line. I started in the business for the reason that I think there is good money in it. if a man is a ‘ “quitter ” he will make no more money in the My “ feathered race-horses ’ look good to me, and I am placing my money so that they come under the wire winners. My advice to one starting in the squab business is to Will try and send then they will have started right. uture.—F. B., New York. MAKES HIS HOBBY PAY WITH TEN- POUND SQUABS. My success with your birds is the result of following the instructions in your Manual. When I enter my squab- house, I always whistle so as not to frighten them too suddenly, and do not often take strangers into the loft. Am not troubled with lice. I disinfect about every two weeks. My squabs will weigh one pound apiece, or from 10 to 12 pounds to the dozen. Of course, I do not ever expect tu be an extensive breeder, as I have not the room, but I can accommodate about 75 pairs, and make a little money on the side, and enjoy taking care of them. Pigeon keeping was always my hobby ever since I was ten years old. I will say a good word for you and your birds at any time.—D. E. A., [llinois. SMALL ORDER JUSTIFIES A LARGER ONE. The 13 pairs birds that you shipped to me in May have done su well that I feel justified in ordering four dozen more of your xtra Homers and 17 1-3 dozen nestbowls for which I enclose check, Your birds have been here nine weeks last Saturday and I now have twenty-five squabs, one having died.—F. M, J., New York. INTEREST SHOWN IN WELFARE OF CUSTOMERS, I am very much obliged for the information given me. Once again, I cannot too highly praise you for your prompt- ness and interest shown in the welfare of your customers. I intend ordering some more birds from you and would like to know the best time to get them.—M. A. C., New York. secure your birds and your Manual and you a picture of my place in the near BETTER THAN ANY OTHER ST. LOUIS FLOCKS. I take this means to show you that I appreciate a fair, square deal such as yougave me, The birds are as you advertised them and are far superior in some respects to what you advertised. They are perfect pets and to my surprise they began building nests the second day after their arrival. They are far superior to any flocks which I have seen in St. Louis and as soon as I can find a suitable site will erect some modern build- ings according to your Manual and stock it with your birds. It will take several months to carry out my plans.—W. E, P., Missouri. FOURTEEN-FOLD INCREASE IN ONE YEAR IN NEBRASKA. About a year ago my father, who lives in Crete, Nebraska, purchased ten pairs Extra Plymouth Rock pigeons from you. They have increased to over twelve dozen pairs. I wish to get the whole flock if it is practical to ship them here, so I am writing to you for advice on the subiect_ Can you furnish shipping crates ?— B., Vermont. HAS KEPT PIGEONS BEFORE AND KNOWS A GOOD LOT. The pigeons you shipped me arrived all right on Friday morn- ing. I notice the pairs were broken up (from the separation, I suppose) for four days, but they are now mating again. As I have kept pigeons before, I know a little about them. This is a good lot of pigeons and 1 thank you for you ¢romptness in shipping.— J. R.S., Maryland. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 91 Telephone Call, 8261 Cortlandt. Hememan J Co, COMMISSION MERCHANTS. Bruits, Produce and Poultry, Southern Vegetables a Spectalty. 273 & 275 WASHINGTON STREET. Ahi Yash December 4, 792% Mr. Mimer C. Rice, Plymouth Rock Squab Co., Boston, Mass. Dear Sir, We wish to advise you on prices and general run of 6qudbs which a goodly number of breeders of your fancy Homer pigeons are Bhipping us. They are now selling from between $3.75 to $4.50 per dozen and, in all probability will go higher, as the winter advances. There is a good demand for this kind of birds and we are receiving quite a deal of them. We can handle anywhere from one thousand to two thousand dozen @ week aa bur trade constantly inquires for them. We can assure you that the breed of birds we get from our shippers are very fine and we notice a large majority of these same shippers mention your name. The market at present wants cquabs weighing between 9 and 11 lbs. to the dozen, and we would advise any beginner to use nothing but your best breed of birds, as they are the cheapest in the end to him, We thank you for your kind consideration and past favors. We are Very truly voursa, Garecneay 192 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 HOW TO PRESERVE, COLLECT, BAG AND SELL THE MANURE. HOW TO USE TOBACCO DUST FOR BOTH PIGEONS AND POULTRY. I have several hundred Homer pigeons raised entirely from stock purchased of you a little more than three years ago. 1 wish to write you to obtain information in regard to selling the manure. I have your National Standard Squab Book in which you say you ship to the tannery and obtain 60 cents a bushel. I would like to know how you ship it. In bags or barrels? The manure has always been used on our farm, but I have recently been deprived of my husband and need the money very muri, and as I cannot do the farming that he has done, feel obliged to sell the manure. It ic free from sand or sawdust. The most foreign substance will be feathers and some little nuc.ing material that they have scattered around, as of course I should not try to sell the old nests that would be nearly all nesting material. The packing will have to he done by my daughter and myself. I have been told that it is bought by the bushel, but it would be a hard task to measure it all, as I am considerably over 60 years of age and very lame. I find the freight will be 21 cents per 100 from here and if I ship by weight it will be easier to measure it all by the bushel and they would have to take the freight agent's figures instead of my measure. Ihave quite a quantity. Have measured up one bushel and found the weight 36 pounds, which at that rate would take only three bushels to weigh a little more than 100 pounds and 1907 I think I have 30 bushels or more.—Mrs. M. Answer. estimation of the tanners, but they like it free from gravel and from tobacco stems. The manure varies in weight according to the amount stems will discolor the hides in the vats. of moisture in it. It should be dried and then measure and use it. W., Rhode Island. Feathers and common nesting material in the manure will not hurt it any in the The bagged. two bushels to a bag. Buy a bushel Always ship in bags and get the bags back empty. They are worth at least five cents apiece even if second hand, as burlap has gone up. Squab raisers who use tobacco stems for nesting material cannot sell the manure to tanneries. The only reason for using tobacco stems is to ward off possible lice. The same result may be attained when straw or pine needles are used by dusting the nests now and then with tobacco dust. pounds of tobacco powder for $2. I powder will not injure the manure for tanneries. SOME AGREEABLE DISAPPOINTMENTS I have not written you since receipt of birds, consequently will send you a word at, this time. My first agreeable disappointment was the promptness with which you filled my order. I live 500 miles from Boston. mailed my order for the pigeons at eight o’clock Wednesday morning and at five o’clock Friday evening the birds were waiting for me at the express office, just about 53 hours from the time J mailed my order until shipment was received. I had not expected to receive the shipment before eight days. The birds reached me in first-class condition— except for a few broken tail feathers you would have thought they had never been out of their native loft. They lost very little time in getting climated, for three days after turning them loose they were nesting and soon all were hatching. In comparison with other Homers I have seen, everything is in favor of the Plymouth Rock breed. They are cleaner, better pro- portioned and less shy than any others I have seen. The squabs from these birds are everything an epicure could desire, big, fleshy and meat the whitest. I have only words of commendation for the stock of breeders you handle. I can only wish you increased sales of your excellent money makers. You are at liberty to use this letter to interest prospective customers or my name as a reference.—P. F., Pennsylvania. We sell tobacco dust for 11 cents a pound. « than many fancy lice powders selling for two or three times that price. In smaller quantities 11 cents a pound. The use of this It is equally good for poultry and is better We will supply 25 TEN PAIRS OUT OF THIRTEEN SPLEN-. ID PAIRS QUICKLY AT WORK, Our cheese maker at Aldenville, Penn., ordered thirteen pairs of Homers from you. We have encouraged his going into the business for the reason that several months of the year they are not busy at the trade and could just ag well care for a nice flock of Homers. The thirteen pairs received from you a few weeks ago are splendid specimens and ten pairg are at work at present. Not being contented, we wanted to mix the blood and ordered thir- teen pairs from an imitation squab company. The birds came yesterday and we are so badly disappointed in them that we would like yery much to return them, and not mix with our high-class birds received from you. We want eventually to put in a few hundred pairs of the party and will want from twenty to twenty-five pairs of your selected birds in a few weeks time. What will be the price and can you give us a fine lot?—G. S., Penn- sylvania. RAPID BREEDING IN MICHIGAN. I pur- chased of you last year three pairs Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and at this writing J have had them just one year and seven days and instead of having three pairs I now have 24 pairs that can fly besides a dozen squabs and as manyeggs. What do you think about that? As Iam in need of nestbowls, please send me three dozen of your wood fibre nest bowls.—R. E. F., Michigan. LETTERS RECEIVED FROM CUSTOMERS BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 193 ‘saded asayy Uo s19q3a] 94} Ul payutsd amsvotd puv yUIUTJepuoA Jo suOIssaIdxa ApIvaY 9q} JNO Tuts yy} spas oy} ase osayy, ‘soysuyds ‘syOR]G ‘SIAT[s *sJayIIYO pot *sraqoayp any ‘sieq anpq :esay 218 spélq JUsoglUseU sayy JO SLOOO ayy [TY ‘auNyotd sty} Ul UALOYs [Joi aL UTeIYS INO Jo Aynvaq PUL azts AIvUTPIOBIXE oy], “SUANOH MOOU HLNONATd VULXe 194 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 HIS FRIEND PURCHASED 12 PAIRS OF US THREE YEARS AGO, IS NOW SHIPPING SQUABS FROM 300 PAIRS AND CLEARED $1000 LAST YEAR, A HIRED MAN DOING THE ORK, You ave been recommended to me by a friend who three years ago purchased 12 pairs of Homers from you and he has to-day 300 pairs and cleared $1000 last year without any labor on his part. He simply instructed a common laborer. Tam very much interested in squab raising. I am now attending the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. I live in Chicago and it seems to me that would be a good market. The first six months I intend to raise for breeding purposes, and then if T succeed can put $200 or $300 more in squab raising. Do you consider this plan practical as I have outlined it?—G,. C., Iowa. Answer. Remarkable successes are being made by customers of ours who started with 12 pairs to 50 pairs and raised up their own birds. It is not wise, however, to start with less than 12 pairs of birds, unless your stock of patience is large and you can stand waiting for two or three years before getting returns for your money. The trouble with beginners who have failed is that they have tried to do too much too fast. RATS AND DIARRHOEA. As I am sure you are very good authority on the pigeon question, being first in the business and revolutionizing it, Lhope you will not count it amiss or intruding for me to appeal to you (to use court language) for help and advice. We have lots of mice in our pigeon house. What could one use or do to kill or frighten them away with perfect safety? The second troublesome thing is what I call the shivers. The pigeons get to shaking violently and seem to lose nearly all interest in everything. Your birds beat anything we have from else- where at most every “turn,” I might say. Indeed, some we have from another near by who gave us a written guarantee ‘' for health, good workers, heavy squabs, no canker and all mated birds,’ proved in nearly every instance a sham, for they were not even mated except a few pairs, out of a hundred pairs, and died right along, and they were not mated for over a year after they came. Yours are tame also, they will eat out of our hands. I think those broad-shouldered, thick-legged blue (with black broad bars over wings) are very good ones, We raised some nice breeders from them. A friend of ours at Marlton, New Jersey, spoke of getting nice birds of you. I have made interesting visits among the pigeon keepers in New Jersey.— Miss M. H. B., Pennsylvania. Answer. Rats and mice, as we have ex- plained so many times, must be kept out by elevating the building. If it is impossible to do this, take one-inch mesh wire netting and bury it completely in the dirt floor, six inches deep. At the sides and corners bring it up above the sills of the building and fasten it with staples, This will give you a wire-net- ting carpet for your squab house (buried six incliee under the ground), and through this barrier it is impossible for rats or mice to get. It is a hard task to exterminate them by poison or traps after they have once got in to an improperly-arranged place, and if you succeed they are bound to come again. Do it right by elevating your building or burying wire netting and that willend the bother. What this customer calls the shivers is diarrhoea caused by feeding too much wheat. TWO PAIRS ONLY. Iam going into the squab industry in a very small way to raise a few birds for our own use and find a pleasur- able occupation as an aside, I shall later want a few pairs of your birds. I bought some time ago ten pairs of another company, but so far am sure of only two pairs in the lot and they have given me no little trouble.— Rev. G. B. L., Vermont, NINE AND ONE-HALF POUNDS TO THE DOZEN AND SOLD FOR FOUR DOLLARS. Will you kindly inform me to whom to write about disposing of pigeon droppings. I made the first sale of squabs last week, They weighed nine and one-half pounds to the dozen, plucked, bled, empty crops. I received fou dollars for them. How is that?—F. H.S., io. GENERAL VERDICT. Please send me addresses of New York squab dealers. I received the three pairs of Extra Plymouths; all were in fine condition. My friends all say they never saw a nicer lot of Homers. I also thank you for the prompt shipment. I expect to send for another lot in about a month.—J. B. S., Pennsylvania. SQUABS TWO WEEKS OLD WEIGHING THREE-QUARTERS OF A POUND IN COLORADO. Birds ordered of you some days ago reached me in pretty fair shape, with the exception of one male dead. Thank you for your splendid treatment to my order. Squabs from the first lot at two_ weeks weighed three-quarters of a pound. How is that? Will return baskets in a few days.— J. F. B., Colorado. BEST BOOK ON BIRDS HE EVER READ. I received your Manual and find it just what you say. It is the best book on birds I ever read. I have a large plant of common pigeons but since I read your book I have built one of the prettiest pigeon houses and flying pens in which to put the pigeons I am ordering of you to-day. If your birds are as fine as you say I will get rid of all my common pigeons.—C. E. G., North Carolina. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 195 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 A GOOD-LOOKING ILLINOIS PLANT. These are two of the buildings of the breeder whose letter is printed on this page. Notice his handsome white omers., LOST MONEY BY NOT KNOWING PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. NOW HE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK. HE IS A TRAVELING SALESMAN AND HIS DAUGHTER DOES MOST OF THE WORK ON THis BIG PLANT. SQUABS WEIGH 11 POUNDS TO THE DOZEN. I have just completed my new squab unit according to your plans. Please find enclosed Adams Express money order for birds to fill same. Other parties have been working on me for this order and I told them I would buy nothing but Extra Plymouth Rocks. (A burnt child dreads the fire.) I lost enough by experimenting with cheap birds when I began. Since I began buying of you I have had no trouble. The last three shipments I received from you cannot be beat for size, beauty and breeding qualities. About one-third of all the squabs I have sold in the past 12 months have averaged a little over 11 pounds to the dozen. We have quite a lot of squabs that weighed a full sixteen ounces each, Now, Mr. Rice, as long as you continue to ship me in the future as fine stock as you have in the past, I am with you and the Plymouth Rock Co., and ‘‘ the other fellow ’”? might just as well save his postage stamps and breath. I have not lost a single old bird by death or disease in 14 months. We had three or four squabs picked badly. ii found by taking the squabs away at three weeks of age and placing them in a small feeding pen and feeding hempseed for a week that they fatten awfully fast. What is your idea about that? I hope you will excuse this long letter. Every time I think about my experience at the start with all kinds of mixed up birds, I have “ brain storms ’’ and you can rest assured my talk over the country will be for nothing but Plymouth Rock birds. As you know I am a traveling man and ought to be a good talker. Consequently in order to repay you for favors in the past I often tell my experiences and how I lost money by not knowing Elmer Rice. My oldest daughter does all our feeding and taking care of our birds and she is getting to be an expert pigeon keeper and delights in the pastime. We are figuring on increasing our flocks just as fast as we can until we get 2000 pairs.—S. S. H., Illinois. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 196 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 POOR WHEAT SET HIM BACK. HE SELLS ALL HE RAISES, THE SQUABS BEING ENGAGED BY CUSTOMERS EVEN WHILE THEY ARE ON THE NEST. I write to you for information concerning my flock of birds. I got my stock from you in 1904, and have been building up my flock. I got along finely with them until the latter part of last summer when I had the bad luck to lose about 20 or 25 of the old birds, which broke the mated pairs up. I would like to increase my flock to the full capacity of the house built from your unit plan, 12 by 16. I lay the loss of my birds to some poor wheat I got from the mill here that must have contained a good deal of ergot that caused the females to die. I wrote to Mr. Rice at the time and he told me it was the wheat, at least I have had no more trouble since I commenced feeding first quality grain. The squabs weigh 12 to 14 pounds a dozen. I herewith send an order for 12 females to balance my flock. My original purchase of you in 1904 was six pairs Extra Plymouth Rocks. The birds arrived all safe and in good condition and attracted a good deal of attention at the time, for some of my friends put on a broad smile and have been expecting me to bust up in the pigeon business, but have been at it now for over two years and the order accompanying this don't look much like it for I can sell all the squabs I can raise. They are even engaged before they are fit to take off the nest. I get 50 cents a pair just killed, and if I dress them ready for the oven I get 75 cents a pair in the local market. My squabs will weigh 12 or 14 pounds per dozen, and think it is on account of the way I am handling and feeding, for I find you cannot make meat unless you feed for it. make my own grit of glass and it has been very satisfactory. I keep a counle of bricks of salt cat in the house, also a codfish occasionally, and they are doing fire now, if I did have some bad luck, but then one must expcet drawbacks in any kind of business.—A. D. D., Pennsylvania. Note. You will never have sickness of any kind with pigeons if you provide sound grain and clean water. If your grain dealer needs watching, and has not vour interests at heart, examine especially the wheat and corn, tasting both. Some grain dealers will take whole corn which has germinated and make cracked corn of it. You can always tell sour grain by smell, taste and sight. It 2s quite true, as this customer states, that feed is a factor in the weight of-the squabs. Too much wheat keeps the old birds thin, and the squabs dark and thin. Plenty of corn and peas makes the squabs fat. DISPOSING OF THE SQUABS IN SOUTH CAROLINA WHEN THEY REACH THE AGE OF 23 DAYS. RECEIVING THREE DOLLARS A DOZEN. Our order for 17 pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers was placed with you early in March (1907) and the birds arrived and were placed in our pen about the 20th. They were all in good shape, having stood the trans- portation well, and made themselves entirely at home in-their new quarters. The day follow- ing their arrival one of the hens laid, and from that time until now (June 24) the flock, as a whole, has worked splendidly, and results have far exceeded our expectations. At the present time 15 of the 17 pairs are at work, having either eggs or young squabs, We believe that every pair would have been at work, but two of our hens escaped, and we had to order two more to replace these, and this accident upset our flock considerably. We find that the squabs will weigh from three-quarters to seven-eighths of a pound when they are three weeks and two or three days old, and we have been disposing of them at that age. No doubt, this fast growing is due to the equable climate which we have in South Carolina. We have no trouble in disposing of all our birds at that age at 25 cents apiece, The pigeons do not require much of our time, and we are so thoroughly satisfied with our experience that we are considering ordering 20 more pairs in the next few days.—Mrs. C. B., South Carolina. SQUABS WEIGHING FOURTEEN TO SIXTEEN OUNCES. It is now July, 1907, six months since we purchazed from you 44 pairs of your Extra Homers. ©:ven pairs met with accidents, because they were disturbed several times on account of the plant not being finished. The remaining 37 pairs are in every way satisfactory. We have at present 11 pairs on eggs and 21 squabs. On account of not having too much room for the birds and also to answer the many demands of our sick, we are killing the squabs at three to four weeks when we find them to weigh 14 to 16 ounces, and at which time the mature birds are again breeding.—S. E., Illinois. RECEIVES $4.20 A DOZEN. My squabs from your birds weigh when dressed nine pounds to the dozen and I receive at the rate of $4.20 per dozen for them. I have fed corn, wheat, peas 4.1d millet, buckwheat and bread. have Lad success by letting the squabs on the flo-r when they are four weeks old, that is, when I am going to keep them for breeders. They are not troubled by the other birds and they feed themselves sooner and the old birds get to work earlier. I have had no sickness or lice. Your Manual is all right and is good for the starter and experienced.—P. E, D., Dis- trict of Columbia. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 197 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 SHOWING CONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. This building, part of the plant of a Florida customer, is built of only one thickness of lumber. Only the roof is shingled. No glass windows are needed, The climate of the South is exceptionally good for squab breeding. SUCCESSFUL FLORIDA SQUAB FARMER SAYS THE CLIMATE OF HIS STATE CANNOT BE BEAT. LIKES THE CARNEAUX. The Carneaux arrived here yesterday. I am much leased with them. They show more white than the birds which my mother sent me from ‘rance and are larger.- The more IJ sce of the Carneaux, the more I like them, and wish I had nothing but them in my squab farm. I believe there is going to be a tremendous run on them as breeders. My Homers are mated and all hard at work. I was fool enough last spring of 1906 to band the mated birds of that season with colored bands, blue for cocks, red for hens. The bands I bought from ————, who guar: teed that they would last a lifetime. I note at least one- third have broken and come off. I snall have to reband 300 pairs over again. No more colored bands for me. Enclosed find check, for which send as specified. You will be glad to hear that Iam making a success cf the squab business, and now have 700 mated pairs. As soon as the fall commences and the price of eight to nine pound squabs advances from its present low standing here, I am thinking of starting to ship to the New York markets. In this Southern climate our birds work better and faster, produce far better grade of squabs in the winter and spring months than in the summer; while I understand with you the summer is your best time. I believe our Florida climate cannot be beat for squab farming. If I like and find out that the Carneau is all it is cracked up to be, 50 per cent of my Homers will be replaced gradually by them.—W. B. W., Florida. HEALTHY, RUGGED BIRDS. Enclosed HIS FATHER IN IOWA LIKES THEM. please find draft for $11.52 for one gross of | My father at Des Moines, Iowa, is breeding your nappies. The birds I got of you last your birds and likes them very much. Please spring are all right. I have not lost a one send me present price on 10 and 20 pairs with sickness or any other cause—A. M. J.. Homers. I want the best that I can get Iowa. regardless of cost.—C. H. D., Illinois. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 198 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 KNOWS BY EXPERIENCE THERE IS MONEY IN PIGEONS. MANUAL “ AWFUL GOOD.” I trust you will pardon my tardi- ness in answering your letter with reference to the new National Standard Squab Book. Of course I want this book. I do not send for these books through any idle curiosity. I have kept pigeons and I know there is mone in them if they are properly looked after. want to get back in the pigeon business after the first of the year, and intend to do so, and I want to start with the best birds I can get. I think the National Standard Squab Book very fine. It is “awful good.” More eae and satisfaction than I can express. ion’t know of any improvements you could make, unless you went ahead and said the same thing over again. I enclose 20 cents in stamps for your new 1907-1908 Manual. I also send by this mail, under separate cover, the old Manual. I intended to purchase some of your birds when I sent for your book, but conditions have been such that it has been impossible. Can’t say exactly when, but will buy some of your birds soon. The main reason I haven’t bought some of your birds is because I haven’t had any place to keep them. I have kept pigeons all my life, know a great deal about their habits, and above all, I am very fond of them. How- ever, I had to dispose of all the birds I had about 18 months ago, and since that time I haven’t had the room to keep them. I had to dispose of them on account of having to leave Atlanta. My lease on my present home runs out about January 10, 1908, at which time I expect to buy me a place with large premises, where I can keep pigeons, as I made a good deal of money on then during my school days, and believe I can dou so now as a side line if nothing more—M. R. L. Georgia, PLEASED WITH YOUR BUSINESS METHODS AND BUYING STEADILY. I have never seen a more likely lot of pigeons, and as I have room enough for another 10 pairs, I enclose P. O. order and I hope that before the next batch arrives I shall be ready for fifty more pairs. I| am very much pleased with the manner in which the Ply- mouth Rock Squab Co. does business.— R. W, J., Virginia. MAKING THEM PAY AS HE GOES ALONG. I now have seventy. One year ago last March I bought six pairs from you. I want a better start before I sell very_many, but I make them pay for their feed. Your Manual is ‘the goods.”—D. E., Illinois. HIS HOMERS LOOK LIKE PYGMIES ALONGSIDE PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRAS, I have 60 Homers, but they look like pygmies alongside of your birds.—F. W. D. OUR HOMERS MORE THAN WE CLAIM FOR THEM. Your Homers are more than ou claim for them. At least mine are. ‘hey are models of beauty and are very large. I was skeptical at first, but I am thoroughly convinced that the Homer is the only bird. Some of my Homers are as large as the white Italian birds that I purchased from you. The squabs are fine lenge fellows and I am sure that a nice flock of Homers beats a drove of chickens for meat, either for home or market use. I shall take pleasure in recom- mending your birds to my friends and prospective buyers. Please find enclosed 50 cents for another Manual.—M. A., Kansas. HOMER HEN SITTING ON EGGS. PIGEONS CRAVE GREEN FOOD. I bought of you June 20, 1906, 24 pairs of your Homers. I have lost three birds, all of my raising, and now have 100 pairs (April, 1907). They all seem to crave something green to eat. What would you advise? Shall I feed them any green foods? I am giving them kaffir corn. a few peas, wheat and cracked corn.—F. M. P., Georgia. Answer. Yes, throw some lettuce or any green leaves on to the squab-house floor occasionally, say twice a week, and let them peck away at them to suit themselves. WISHES TO GET PIGEONS OF SUPERIOR QUALITY. You may hear from a gentleman, Mr John Fyle. Send him some of yort literature, as I will always recommend your stock to all who expect to go into the squab ‘usiness. This Mr. Fyle has pigeons, but of an inferior quality, and having been_ told about mine, wants some like I have.—R. S., Maryland. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 199 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 OR Te ea a weno | | Uh =e d pS Z Z P hae (ete cree a VRE I PE LIGHTED BY ELECTRICITY AND HEATED BY STEAM. This shows part of the up-to-date plant of the customer in New York State whose letter is printed on this page. The birds hanging in front of the brown paper are squabs just killed to get them into the picture. PAYING PLANT IN HANDSOME BUILD- INGS. I enclose photograph showing my four units and office room, The building is made of matched-lumber so that they are ab- solutely air-tight if so desired. It is eauipped with steam heat, electric light, hot and cold water and both telephone systems. In the office room the grain bins are zinc-lined and moisture proof. The top is upholstered so that when the lid is down the room has a very pleasant appearance. I have today broken ground for two more units, as my young birds are coming on_so fast that I must make room for them. Be- sides supplying the Elmira market, I am sav- ing my most promising young ones in order to increase my flock. IT have bought from you exclusively because I liked your business methods and believe you are fair and square. Your birds are good breeders and throw heavy, white-skinned squabs. Business is good and as fast as I make money I enlarge my plant.—L. S. W., New York. SOME AT WORK AFTER LONG JOUR- NEY. The pigeons (dozen pairs) arrived, August 12, in good condition with the excep- tion that two of them had each one wing hurt. I have waited to see how badly thev were hurt before writing, but think they will pull through all right fur one of them has taken a mate and is building on the floor of the pigeon house. Five pairs of them are building and three pairs are driving, while several others are paired off.—B, V., State of Washington. FINEST BIRDS PERFECTLY MATED. CHANGED HIS HOUSES. I want to tell you about my birds. J received them the Satur- day of the week you shipped them, turned them out on Monday and they went nght to building. I have got three setting and I see the others are starting to build. hey went right to work without any trouble. They go into the house every night just as if they were raised there. They are the finest birds I ever saw. I have just finished another large pigeon house and flying pen and I have put my white ones into it. Since I read your Manual I_have changed most all my pigeon houses. I find they are so much better than mine. If any one is going into the pigeon business I would advise them to get one of your books on birds. I am sorry I did not get one long ago. Just as soon as I can get rid of my common pigeons I want to replace them with yours. I have got to build another pigeon house and it will be about October before I get through with it, and I shall need nestbowls and other supplies——C. E. G., North Carolina, SMALL ORDER FOLLOWED BY LARGER. Enclosed you will find an express money order, for which please ship me the following: 12 pairs Extra Homers, one dozen wood-fibre bowls, 25 pounds hempseed, 100 pounds Canada peas. Please ship as soon as possible. The three pairs of Extra Homers you sent Tuesday reached here Thursday in fine condition. Thank you for your prompt shipment.—G, J. A., New Jersey. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 200 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 NEY tee es WOMAN RECEIVES $4.00 TO $7.00 A DOZEN FOR SQUABS FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRAS. From the six pairs of birds I bought from you in 1905 and the extra pair you kindly gave me I have raised 215 birds. My squabs average 11 pounds to the dozen, sometimes more, The birds work all the time. They breed on the average of nine pairs every year, I have never had to give them a drop of medicine since I have had themas they keep in perfect health. : Ihave lost about five pairs of squabs from the rats getting them, but never any from sickness, I have built my coops after your suggestions in your book, The National Standard Squab Book, and am not troubled any more from rats. I have never seen any birds to compare with mine in size. I have seen hundreds of pigeons but every one praises mine up and remarks how large, full and broad they are across the breast. So far I have been selling my squabs here in town. They bring from $4.00 to $7.00 per dozen, according to the time of year. This price I get for them right out of the nest without killing or picking. I feed kaffir corn, cracked corn and wheat every morning, and every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday I give them hemp seed and Canada peas (on trays) as much as they will eat. They have fresh water twice a day in summer and once in winter and once every week I scald out their drinking fountains with hot water to keep them sweet and clean. _ L have one box of grit and one of oyster shells in the coop all the time and instead of putting it on the yard floor I put it in boxes. I also have a lump of rock salt and a salt-cat in each coop made as directed in your Manual. Once a week I clean their coops and take the white- wash pail in with me and whitewash the boxes out and sprinkle slaked lime on the floors of the coops and the vards. Your book has been a great help to me, and I have read it over many times and try to follow its directions in every particular. I am thoroughly satisfied with my birds and feel I have had great success with them and would not have any other breed or kind were they to be given to me free. I am now ordering 30 pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, same as I got before in 1905, making $75.00 worth, at the rate of $2.50 per pair. I enclose check for same, $75.00.—Mrs. S. V. F., New Jersey. QUICK START BY A 700-PAIR FLOCK. In January and February, 1907, a customer in the Mississippi valley bought 700 pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. On arrival of the birds he wrote: ‘' They are as fine a lot of thoroughbreds as I ever saw. You deserve the success you enjoy for your business methods.”’ The last consignment left us February 4 and reached him February 8. Nineteen days later he wrote us: ‘Our birds are doing very well. Have 400 pairs of eggs and squabs in the house, and probably 50 pairs driving. If the marlret will take all of our supply next month, we will put up another house at once and buy the birds of you, for you have always been fair and just with me.’”’ On March 5 he wrote: ‘ Our squab house is a mass of squahs and eggs. The birds were at work within three days after placing them in their rooms, which shows that the wood fibre bowls and surroundings suited them, and that they were properly mated. The special lot of 50 pairs is the most remarkable pen we have ever seen. In 30 days after their arrival, there were 40 pairs on eggs. We feel it our duty to compliment you on your fair, honorable and just dealings with us.” SIX DOLLARS A DOZEN IN CANADA FOR SQUARS WEIGHING NEARLY ONE POUND EACH. About two years ago I purchased |from you 15 pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. They have given excellent satisfaction in every way. All the squabs raised in two summers weighed 10-12 pounds to the dozen and at all times J was able to get $6.00 per dozen for them, indeed, I could not nearly supply the demand. I had offers to supply one of the largest hotels in Canada if I had enough stock. T think I am as enthusiastic a squab raiser as can be found. I have always kept fancy pigeons for pleasure, but never until I raised these from you have I raised squabs to sell—A. M., Canada. INCREASE TWENTY-ONE FOLD IN TWO YEARS IN OKLAHOMA. Would you please inform me where to ship the pigeon manure to a tannery? We have 200 pairs and we have burned 15 bushels this year. As I heard that you shipped the manure, I thought that I would write to you for my information. We are thinking of getting some more pigeons from you. Two years ago the 15th of February we got 11 pairs from your Company and now we have 231 pairs from those 11 pairs.—C. O. L., Oklahoma. BIG FLOCK IN KANSAS BRED FROM SMALL BEGINNING. Some two years ago I pur- chased from you 38 Homer pigeons. I now have a pen of 500 of the nicest birds in this locality. {am expecting to build larger pens and divide the bunch, and I wish to get all the printed matter I can on the subject of squab breeding, also all the information you can give me by letter regarding the mating of birds, even if I have to pay a reasonable fee. Please let me hear from you by return mail and oblige —G. G., Kansas. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 201 1907 1908 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS ON A POLE AT TOP OF FLYING PEN. INDIANA WOMAN WON FIRST PRIZE AT HER FAIR. QUICK INCREASE IN SMALL FLOCK. HOW SHE FEEDS THEM AND CARES FOR THEM. In the spring of 1907 I bought 15 pairs of your Plymouth Rock Homers. In March they started to build their nests. At present (October) I have 82 young squabs with eight pairs on eggs. When the squabs are four weeks old they weigh 14 to 16 ounces apiece. They are very rich eating. One pair of birds raised me from six to seven pairs of young squabs (in less than eight months). When the squabs are two weeks old I clean their nestbowls out twice a week. Twice a week I sprinkle slaked lime around, J use tobacco stems. Also every day I give my coop a good cleaning. I have no kind of lice. I sprinkle a little slaked lime on the floor. I have a good many visitors. They say, how can you keep it so clean? Mr. Kline, Mr. Martin and several others were here to look at my birds. They thought they were fine. Some of my young birds are larger than some of the old birds. Some of the young birds have raised some young squabs for the second time, of which the first eggs were no good. I feed my birds in the morning. give cracked corn, wheat, kaffir corn, buckwheat and barley, all mixed together and feed fresh water, plenty of it. Also their morning bath. This is their morning feed. At noon they get lettuce or cabbage leaves or Swiss chard. They are very fond of dry bread or cake. In the evening I feed the same as the morning feed except I scald a little oats; when cold, I mix it with the other feed. I put a teaspoonful of carbolic acid in their drinking water once a month. I am feeding sunflower seed once a week. hen my young birds are six weeks old I pull their tail feathers out. I find out they do better. It seems to help them to shed their feathers quicker. I band my birds when four weeks old and place them in another coop. My coop is 16 feet long, 12 feet high, 10 feet wide, with a double floor with tar paper between, also it is lined with tar paper and has three large windows in it. I have 132 nest boxes. They are 12 inches square. I build them like you have them in your squab book. I would like to send you a picture of the squab house, but_I planted lima beans and spun them up the wire. I will send you a picture later on. I got first prize at the fair. I have seen several kinds of pigeons but they don’t compare with mine in size and weight. We eat squabs about every Sunday. I make pot pie, also I have soup. I make what you might call noodle soup. They are the best stuffed with dressing made with one egg, one onion cut fine, little parsley, pinch of salt and pepper, a little grated nutmeg, the hearts and gizzards of the birds and bread broken in small pieces, water enough to moisten. This is enough for three birds to dress.—Mrs. S. B., Indiana. MOVED HIS FLOCK, BUYING MORE. About a year ago, I purchased 12 pairs of Homer pigeons from you. At that time I was located at Lowder, Ill. About February 15 this year (1907) I moved them from Lowder to Waverly, which is about eight miles. I now have 34 pairs. Will be in the market for more birds at’once. Also quote me prices on supplies.—G. C. H., Illinois. ONE-POUND SQUABS. NEVER LESS THAN $3 AND AS HIGH AS $4.50 A DOZEN OBTAINED IN SOUTH DAKOTA. In Sep- tember, 1905, I bought some Homer pigeons from you. Most all squabs that i have taised from your Extra Homers weigh one pound at five weeks old and I have got as high as $4.50 per dozen for them, never less than $3 per dozen. You may use this information as it is correct.—J. H. K., South Dakota. NO AILING PIGEONS. Well, it has been some time since I received the 13 pairs pigeons from you and I will say I am quite well satisfied with them. They are all work- ing but two pair and I have quite a bunch of good healthy young ones in my rearing pen and think I would have had more if I had given them more time and care, but I have too much other work. I keep the house clean and have it white- washed, and don’t believe I have an ailing pigeon in the loft. I think I have some lice but they are not bad, I spray my lofts once or twice a week, being careful to choose a bright, warm day,—C. R., Illinois. VERY FINE FLOCK. I purchased some of your Plymouth Rock Homers a few years ago. J have a very fine flock of birds now.— J. M. W., Pennsylvania. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 202 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 FIRST PRIZE ON ONE PAIR, FIRST PRIZE ON COOP OF FOUR PAIRS, COMPETITION LIVELY AMONG SEVERAL HUNDRED BIRDS (September, 1907.) I took first money on one when the Fair was over. I will do so now. air, the speckled wing birds, and first prize ribbon on coop of four pairs. secured from you and one pair from my pen. I promised to write you about the birds Three of the pairs The judge said that the hen bird was fine, but cock not so good. Of course I did not have time to trim them or fix them up for the occasion. I had to go up against several p pageon fanciers but came out with flying colors all the same. We had several hundred birds of different kinds at the Fair. I informed several where those birds care em ign mah longIhad them. Hoping this will be as satisfactory to you as it is to me.— arylan "TOOK ONE PAIR TO EXHIBITION, WON FIRST PRIZE, WAS OFFERED FIVE DOLLARS FOR THEM, TURNED DOWN OFFER. It has been a long time since you have heard from me, In the first place, I must let you know that my birds are getting along very nicely. 1 am very well pleased. I have 15 pairs of old birds and 75 young birds. I took one pair to the County Fair. They were red checkers. I received first prize. I was offered $5 for the pair of birds. I told that man that I would not sell my birds and that if he wanted any birds I would give him your address so he could buy some.—Mrs. B. A., Indiana. BEST PAIR OF HOMERS IN THIS ALABAMA COUNTY EXHIBITION. ORDERS MORE BIRDS. Your favor of October 19, 1907, was duly received. In answer to your query about our winning the prize on our Homers at the County Fair, we will state your information is correct. e won the prize for the best pair of Homers with a pair of blacks we got from you. We expect to make a better display at the next Annual Fair ard if we see that we have a lot of prize winners we will probably enter them at the State Fair at Birmingham. We hope you will assist us in our efforts by sending us extra good birds in our next order.—C., O., Alabama. TOOK 18 TO THE CENTRAL MAINE FAIR AND WON 11 PREMIUMS, I have over 100 pigeons on hand. | I purchased three pairs of you at $2.50 ca pair and bought two pairs of C. E. Melvin at $2 a pair, and this is the product of the two kin I took 18 of them to the Central Maine Fair at Waterville the past week (September, 1997) and got 11 oes on the 18 birds. The others are all about the same, good, healthy birds.—S, A. P., Maine. FIRST AND SECOND PREMIUMS AND SPECIAL COMMENDATION AT THIS ILLINOIS POULTRY SHOW. The pigeons you sent me obtained the first and second premiums at the poultry show with special commendation. I was informed the judges stated that one (pair in particular would be very hard to beat anywhere. I thoroughly demonstrated that ‘‘ blood tells.’—O. J., Illinois. ANOTHER WON FIRST PRIZE AT AN ILLINOIS COUNTY FAIR. I have some of your Homers bought. They are fine. They have won first prize at the County Fair. Send plans for pigeon houses.—T. H. W., Illinois. ONE CUSTOMER WON THE PRIZES AT THE FAIR WITH OUR BIRDS AND HIS NEIGHBOR WISHES TO GET SOMETHING TO BEAT THAT. Enclosed you will find money order for which please send me three pairs No. 1 Homers, one drinker and six bowls. Colors, one pair blue checkers, one pair reds and one pair blacks. Please send mated birds. Send some good birds because I want to beat your customer Mr. N. in the poultry show here soon. He got the prize at the Fair. I have some blue barred hens. Please send me all the circulars that you send out because I want to start in the business right —B. R., Alabama. COW PEAS SUBSTITUTED FOR CANADA PEAS. I enclose you what they call “ cow peas ”” here to ask you if they are what you call “ Canada peas.” The pigeons I got of you are satisfactory in every respect. Will probably get more March 1.—D. H., Illinois. Answer. Cow peas are not Canada peas but they are fed largely to pigeons and if they are plentiful in your State, feed them. BETTER BIRDS THAN ANY IN yee BIG so ie goad SHOW MON SOMEBODY HE COULD NRELY On MOR aig GENUINE. I am verv well pleased with the stock I received to-day. They are the finest lot of pigeons I ever saw. I received your letter and direc- tions this morning and the pigeons this after- noon. Thank you for the prompt and careful selection you gave me, any thanks for the extra pair of pigeons. They seemed glad to get out of the box. They look fine for the long trip and all perfectly well. I did not expect to see such fine birds tor I did not know how they wouid get through the snow blockade in the Dakotas. Although I have seen only one letter from your customers in Montana, I think that if I follow your direc- tions closely, I can make a success of it. There ought to be a good market here and in the big poultry and pigeon show there were none could stand beside these, The “ National Standard Squab Book ” convinced me that I wanted somebody I could rely upon for the genuine.—M. G. S., Montana. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 203 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 CHEAPEST POSSIBLE CONSTRUCTION. Single boarding, covered with roofing, no shingles, The long, shallow wood trough is for the birds to bathe in. The water enters from a faucet in the foreground. After the birds have bathed, the water is emptied b a plug at the end. The trough is cleaned with a broom. The man who sends this photograph writes: pulling ‘T raised 1650 young ones from March 1, 1907 to July 1, 1907 (four months) from 450 pairs of breeders in this building.” MADE A TRIP SOUTH AS FAR AS VIRGINIA AND FOUND OUR BIRDS THE BEST ALL ALONG THE LINE. NONE OTHERS ANYWHERE NEAR THEIR EQUAL FOR SIZE AND UALITY. I have sold lots of squabs this summer. i average about 800 a month. Besides that I have worked up a little side trade in selling mated birds, but only the very large ones, such as I raise myself. Such orders bring me $3 a pair. I can't raise them fast enough to supply my trade, but I guarantee to do what is right by them all. I can say the credit is yours for supplying me with the old birds, as you did, but I only wish I had sense enough to have held on to all I ever got from you. the largest Homers that any man can raise. 1 visited a plant in Pennsylvania. Mr. Rice, I claim to have raised While I was there I was also down to Philadelphia and Delaware as far as Virginia and I saw your fine birds all along as I went, but none others were anywhere near their equal as far as size and quality went. will take the largest Homers you have to-day and breed them in my coops and raise the young ones myself, and the young birds will be larger than the old ones, but that is experience that does that.—L. Y., Connecticut. WHY WE HAVE MADE A SUCCESS. 1 wish to thank you very much for the nice selection buth in size and perfect marking. I readily see why it is you have made a success of Homer breeding. have long since found a satisfied customer is by far the best advertis- ing medium in building a substantial business, I will give you my future orders. I hope to add frequently to my nice loft of birds. No off-color_or inferior birds can exist in my ens. Wishing you success—W. B. T., ‘exas, CANADA CUSTOMER FINDS PROFIT- ABLE OCCUPATION. About six months ago I purchased from you seven pairs of your Extra mated adult Plymouth Rock Homer pigeons. Have had very good success with them. Starting with seven pairs, J have now (June, 4, 1907) fifty-six hardy Homers. I also got a Manual from you and find it very helpful. On the whole, I think squab rais- ing is one of the most profitable industries pursued to-day. You can publish this letter if you wish.—J. M., B. C., Canada. LBTTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 CONNECTICUT WOMAN’S BIRDS BREED BETTER THAN MANUAL STATES. SHE HAS SEEN ONLY ONE LOFT OF BIRDS AS GOOD AS HERS AND THAT MAN BOUGHT HIS STOCK OF US. I will give you a statement of the birds I received from you the 23d of April, 1907. My birds do very much better than you state in your Manual. They arrived in perfect condition and are very large and beautiful, have always been perfectly healthy, There has never been only one that was sick and that was caused from moulting and raising birds too fast. I took her away until she had recovered and her mate cared for the young birds. These birds lay when their young are from 12 to 21 days old. Some of them are sitting on their fifth lot of eggs. They have hatched 48 young birds in four months and just three weeks, and expect more will hatch this week. Some of the young ones are beautiful. A I have never had young birds remain in their nests over three weeks. One pair build on the floor and their birds leave their nest at 17 days old. These weigh at three weeks 14 ounces, others at ten days weigh one-half pound each, some at three weeks weigh one pound. I have some that are very delicate from which I shall use for flying. These birds do not weigh but 14 ounces at four weeks old. have seen but one loft of birds as large and handsome as these birds, and those were owned by a Mr. Cornwell of Milford. He bought his first birds of you and claims that they raise 11 pee of birds a year. One of my neighbors who was watching my birds said: ‘‘ In all the birds have ever seen these are the largest and most lovely.” I have followed your advice in the care of them and would like to know if mine are doing as well as the average youhear from. If I amsuccessful in flying the birds will let you know. Enclosed you will find money order for 50 pounds of health grit—Miss A. A. W., Connecticut. CHAIR SEATS USED FOR THE BOTTOMS OF NEST-BOXES, CHEAPER THAN LUMBER. HOW TO CHOP UP STRAW FOR NESTING MATERIAL. I note you say use long boards for bottoms of nests and short pieces perpendicular. 1 reversed this before seeing your plans by standing up long boards 12 inches apart, toenailed to wall. These boards have three-quarter- inch by three-quarter-inch cleats for bottoms. I use 12-inch three-ply perforated seats. These seats are varnished, are light and strong, as your excellent bowls. They are slightly concave in center, just fitting the nestbowl, and the perforations do not extend beyond margin of bowl. I fasten bowls to them with stove bolts. I can remove nut in a moment and have bowl and base separate for cleaning, and they are cheaper than good lumber, which costs five to six cents a square foot. Seats 12 inches square can be bought for three cents each. They come 10, 11 and 12 inches square. You suggest no easy way for chopping straw in proper length for nests. I have stumbled onto a cheap and easy plan for small fellows like me. Use a common mitrebox and saw. Place mitrebox on table near end anda receptacle beneath. One or two strokes will cut through a big handful of straws and as you move up for next cut, the short ends drop iz.) receptacle. I hope you do not consider all this didactic (or what not) for to tell the truth 1 have gotten more pleasure and information out_of your Manual than I could have gathered with endless and expensive experimenting, and I want to help if I can in any small way.—P. O. L., New Jersey. HIS BATH-PANS ARE MOUNTED ON A PIPE AND HE EMPTIES ALL WITH ONE TURN OFACRANK. FILLS ALL BY TURNING ONE VALVE. My self-feeder is just perfect. Two of the ranches about here are fitting up with it. I also have all my windows raised or lowered at the same time and with only one motion. One ¥ as many as you like can be detached and remain closed. I can stand in my feed room and do the whole thing without taking a step, My bath-pans are all mounted on a one-inch pipe running through the flying pen. The crank is just outside the end of the pen. It locks when_the pans are up for bathing. The water is turned on by a faucet outside the flying pens. Now to empty this, no going inside the pens, frightening the birds and swashing the dirty water onto your hands. You just unlock the crank, rock the pans to and fro two or three times, turn down your crank and every pan dumps its dirty water onto a drip board running outside the pen. Leave your pans down and no snow, ice, or droppings can get ioto them. : : My drinking fountains all work from the passageway. Not a particle of filth can get into them. Now I have not written this in anv spirit of egotism. I consider it just common sense economy of my own construction.—J. W., New Jersey. THIS FLORIDA CUSTOMER BEGAN WITH TWELVE PAIRS OF OUR EXTRAS IN 1903. We now (September, 1907), have about 400 to 500 birds and during winter and spring have killed on an average of 25 squabs per week. To be accurate in this I cannot, as no account was kept, but must say the birds have proven very satisfactory indeed. Will give Mrs. B. your letter upon her return and she can answer it also.—J. C. W., Florida. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 205 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 SQUABS SHOULD NOT BE SOLD DRAWN. THE COOK IS THE ONE WHO DRAWS THEM, The six pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers have increased to about 60 since last May 20, breeding right on all the time, just the same now (January, 1907), as last summer, all large youngsters, whicu weigh with feet off, head off, entrails removed. just over half a pound. Please let me know whether commission men weigh them that way, or if they leave the feet and head on?— P. A. W., Pennsylvania. Answer. Squab dealers always weigh them with the head and feet on and _undrawn. Never draw your squabs before selling them. They will not keep so well in the markets, and the marketmen do not take them that way. The heads, feet and insides are removed by the cook. THE START, In this barn, the customer whose picture is printed on this page made his start. It is still in use but the greater part of his breeding is done in a long multiple unit house nearby. AFTER ONE YEAR'S SUCCESSFUL TRIAL HE BUILDS A HOUSE FOR THREE HUNDRED PAIRS. The pigeons I got of you a little over a year ago have been doing finely. Am now (April, 1907) building a house to accommodate three hundred pairs. Enclosed find check for $23.04 for which please send me two gross of the fibre nest- bowls. I will have a picture of my new house taken a little later on and send to you. I could not give you any definite figures as to what your birds have done for me, as l had some other birds in with them, How- ever, the ones got of you are the best and largest. One pair especially has raised a pair of squabs almost every month. I expect to put some of your birds to themselves as soon as my new house is ready, and may be able to give you figures on them later on,—H. B., Indiana. GRAIN AND SUPPLIES TO THE GULF STATES BY STEAMSHIP. Please quote me price on 200 pounds of mixed feed but with- out chops. cannot get wheat or hemp seed, and I find my birds do better on your mixed feed, The birds I ordered from you some time ago are doing finely. I am very much pleased with them.—B. E., Mississippi. Note. We ship a great deal of grain and other supplies to customers living in Gulf tates by boat from’ New York to Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston and other ports, a quick and cheap route, much faster than rail, and more satisfactory, The shipments get less handling. THIS CUSTOMER Started with a dozen. pairs of our birds and has run them up to 800 pairs, paying a handsome profit. This is spare time work for him, as he is regularly ainployed at his trade. WONDERFUL MATINGS. MORE SALES PROMISED. I received the 12 pairs of birds O. K. in fine shape April 11, 7 pm., 1907. They are a nice-looking lot of breeders and all you claim them to be, as two of them laid eggs while in transit and two more laid to-day, April 13, so you see there is some- thing doing. he other six pairs are doing well. All laid but one pair, and I think they are coming along all right. JI assure you that such fair treatment means a continuation of sales wit me and I shall recommend the Plymouth Rock Squab Co. to those who are buying breeders. Will return baskets to-day. ou can use this as a testimonial if you wish. --W. B. H., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SWUAB COMPANY 206 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 BEAUTIFUL PAIR OF SPLASHES. The second bird on the left and the last bird on the right are types of oddly-marked Plymouth Rock Homers FEEDS HIS BIRDS LOCUST LEAVES AND PEPPER GRASS. BOSTON DEALER ALWAYS GIVES HIM MORE THAN THE MARKET QUOTATIONS BECAUSE HIS SQUABS ARE WORTH MORE. I purchased 12 pairs Extra Homers of the Plymouth Rock Squab Company, in February. 1906, the best stock Icould buy. Isaved all my squabs for breeders up to January 1907, when I began to ship the squabs. They average 9 pounds to the dozen, and I receive from $3 to $4 per dozen for them. Iship to the Boston market. I feed my birds on wheat, cracked corn and kaffir corn in equal parts, with peas and hemp- seed as dainties. I feed them in wooden traps, not finding any self-feeder which I like. A box containing grit, oyster shells and charcoal is kept before them all the time and the flying pen outside covered with coarse sand. I find pine needles to be the best nesting material, the birds building a small, neat, compact nest with them. I sell the pigeon manure to parties in town at 50 cents per bushel. feet long by 14 wide, with a passageway three feet wide on one side. My flying pen is 36 feet wide, 18 feet long and ten by fountains placed in the passageway. feet high, divided into three parts. I find my birds to be very fond of locust leaves and pepper grass, eating it like grain. My squab house is 36 The birds are watered They like peas and hempseed so well that they will fly on to my hand for them. My birds are mostly blue checkers, with a few reds and silvers among them. I ship nearly every week to a large commission dealer in Faneuil Hall Market, who always gives me more than the market quotations. among them, and are raising big, fat squabs at the present time. Massachusetts, MOVING, GOING INTO THE BUSINESS ON A LARGER SCALE. Our Homers have done fine since we have had them. We have doubled. So far we have lost only one pair of squabs and we think the parents smothered them. Then one of our young birds of our first pair got out and away and we think he was frozen or caught by a cat, for the night was a cold one. Now we are going to move and take a place where we can go into the business on a larger scale, so we will hope to send for more birds as soon as we get coops tready.—Miss H. L. A., New Jersey. PLYMOUTH ROCKS BEST IN MEMPHIS. I have lost only one bird from sickness I have had no trouble with lice at all. My birds keep very clean and are also very tame. I go to see all the pigeons around Men phis but find none as fine looking as yours. Your Manual is a fine teacher, why it is worth a dollar. I hope to have success by following your Manual as I have done so far.—W. A., Tennessee. My birds are all in fine dondition, no aes ones «Bs, a (June, 1907.)— SQUABS TEN POUNDS TO THE DOZEN. GOING TO SHIP TO NEW YORK FROM IOWA. If you remember I bought some fine Homers of you a year ago last September. They were the Extras. They have done well. Must have now 150 birds, fine large ones at that. I can send squabs to New York from here for $1.50 per 50 pounds. That is what I want to do eventually. I weighed 12 squabs just as they came, one month old. They weighed a trifle over 10 pounds. One pair weighed two pounds exact.—J. C., Iowa. SUPERIOR HOMERS BREEDING EX- TREMELY LARGE SQUABS. ~ Accept my thanks for your fair treatment with regard to my order of June. The birds are breeding extremely large squabs. Since then I have had given to me twelve pairs pedigreed Homers, but yours are superior in every way. Enclosed find P. O. money order, for which ss tobe send me six pairs Extra mated adult fomers and twelve wood-fibre nestbowls.— mR. M., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 207 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 PLYMOUTH ROCK BLUE BARS AND BLUE CHECKERS, BOY IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY 13 YEARS OLD GOT RID OF HIS FLOCK OF COMMON BIRDS AS SOON AS HE SAW PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHAT THEY WOULD DO. The nappies ordered of you came on time. My pigeons put them to use as soon as they arrived. I bought six pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers in January, 1907. I now (July) have 32 large, full-breasted birds. Some of the young ones are going to work now. Iam 13 years old and was anxious to do something to make a little money while going to school, and saw an advertisement of your Homers and made up my mind to try them. I am more than satisfied with my investment and within the next year I expect to have a very nice little income. In your Manual you show a diagram of a self-feeder, and I had one made which is very satisfactory, as it saves so much work and attention. I can get all the grain recommended by you except the buckwheat and hempseed, and I use red (instead of white) wheat, and my birds are thriving and doing well. 7 I hope to be able to dispose of all I can raise here in my home market, as they are so large and fine. In fact, there is all the difference in the world between my Homer sguabs and the ordinary scrub squab, and it will pay any one wanting to go in the business tn get the best to start on. I weighed some of my squabs this morning (just three weeks old) and they average one pound each, or two pounds to the pair. I had a flock of common birds and the squabs were dark skinned and weighed about eight ounces, and when I read of your birds I at once sold out and ordered from you, and I certainly feel that I made a good trade. I expect to order six pairs more soon. Thank you for the promptness and care taken of my orders.— L, G., Indian Territory. THREE DOLLARS A DOZEN FOR PLY- MOUTH ROCK SQUABS IN ARKANSAS. Please send six’ more pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and one dozen nest- bowls. We are able to get $3 a dozen for our squabs at the hotels here—-W. A. T Arkansas, LARGEST EVER SEEN IN ONTARIO. The weather has been very cold here, 30 degrees below zero, so I have kept a coal oil stove going most of the time. Your birds have been greatly admired. They are the biggest that have ever been seen here.— G. S. B., Ontario. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 208 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS " eS + Bs . ape ——- moat ane | ae We. 7) ran - % ON A RUNNING BOARD IN THE SUN. NESTBOWLS VERY PRACTICAL AND ARE A NECESSITY. BUSINESS SHEET OF A BEGINNER WITH SQUABS IN CANADA. On May 5, 1906, I received your lot of seven pairs Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, one pair out of the seven being free, as some nestbowls were bought previously, to allow for the express charges on them. I may say that these bowls are very practical, as none of my squabs have suffered from sprawled feet as is noticed when earthen- ware nappies are used, The breeders were put in the pigeon house the same night and it was not long before they became acquainted with theirnew home. Fullinstructions were sent before the pigeons reached here and as these were clear it was very easy to follow them. Sixteen days after their arrival there were two eggs in a nest. This was an event, as many friends were interested. They were much surprised to see these three-week-old squabs weighing 14 ounces and even more than 16 ounces at four weeks. Their common pigeons were looking very small against my Plymouth Rock Homers which were looking so fine. It was really funny to hear them taking notice of the wonderful difference. Mine were looking so fine with their large breasts, their bright-looking eyes, their wings which look to be detached from them. The opinion of my friends was that they were the finest birds they ever saw. At the end of the first month there were four squabs and six eggs, at the end of October 12 Pairs of eggs had been taid and hatched, making a total of 22 pairs of squabs at the end of six months, All the squabs of the first August were eaten at a family dinner and proclaimed the finest squabs that were ever served on such an occasion, Since that time we disposed of the squabs for breeding Par noses and for eating. Last winter I had 15 pairs of squabs laid but as the winter was very cold some of the squabs died because the parents were not acclimated, but Iam sure that this winter will not be so fatal as they will be acclimated. Since April, 1907, I have had 29 pairs of eggs, of which 26 pairs of squabs have been eaten. In consequence, pigeon keeping in Quebec has proved to be a success, a paying business, when proper birds are used—that is, the Plymouth Rock Squab Company Homers. Business Sheet of an Amateur Squab Breeder. May 5, 1906 to September 1, 1907. Total of eggs laid, 66 pairs. Total of pounds of grains, 638, at a cost of $11.47. Rations of Grains for Feeding Purposes. Winter Summer PCaS. 2e0s4kit ad Ame ok eee See 30 Ibs. 30 lbs. Red Wheat 15 lbs. 25 Ibs IBMCK WEA by ace vnsieis 9) tearnaicye asi eithendiesendie eenene cates samidei® anitis isbacy LOMOS. 15 lbs Cracked corn (not sifted)........ 40 Ibs. 30 Ibs. During September and October I fed 30 pounds red wheat and 40 pounds peas. The pigeons are sold in Montreal for: 50—70 cents per pair in winter, 45—55 cents per pair in autumn, 30—40 cents per pair in spring, 25—35 cents per pair in summer. Average price, 40 cents per pair —G. G.. Canada. KNOW WHERE TO BUY WHEN THEY WANT THE PIGEONS WHICH ARE THE VERY BEST IN EVERY RESPECT. In February, 1906, I bought pigeons from you from which I am raising the finest flock of pigeons that I ever saw. I am sending to you herewith with hopes of getting more from you that are equally as good if not better than the ones I got last year. The enclosed order is partly for myself and partly for Mr. Ritter, who has been corresponding with you recently, We want pigeons that are the very best in every respect.—W. A. G., Ohio. BEAUTIES, EXCELLENT LAYERS, VERY HEALTHY. In September, 1904, I purchased from you 12 pairs of birds. We have in- creased our flock to over 100 pairs so at present (October, 1907) I am obliged to sell some of our young birds for the need of making room ‘or others, They are beauties and give good satisfaction. They are excellent layers, hatching fine, large squabs weighing, from eight to 12 ounces and are very healthy. Perhaps next year I shall be situated so I can order about 50 pairs of your first-class breeders.—E. E. H., New Jersey. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS areca PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS INTERIOR OF MASSACHUSETTS CUSTOMER'S HOUSE. Wire netting is used always to separate the units, not board partitions. This breeder has not set nest boxes up against the wire netting, but this is done in almost every case. NEVER HAD A SICK BIRD AMONG OURS, BUT BIRDS FROM ANOTHER SOURCE ARE WEAK AND POOR BREEDERS, HANDLED UNDER THE SAME CONDITIONS, You will probably remember me as having bought two dozen pairs of Plymouth Rock pigeons from you last November. Out of the 25 pairs you sent me, I have 20 pairs working. One bird died, one got away and one cock bird I killed. I thought I would try some one else’s birds to see what they would do, so I bought two dozen pairs from built a new house exactly the same as I put your birds in, and have given them the same treatment, but they are not doing as well as your birds. They do not seem strong and vigorous like your birds. I would hke you to send me 24 pairs of your very best Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I am not particular as to color so long as the quality is there. I have kept the birds I got from the other man in a pen by themselves as I want to give them a fair chance. They may be young birds, as they do not seem to care for their eggs and young as they should do. I give them exactly the same treatment as I give the others, but they do not seem as vigorous as your birds. I have never had a sick bird among yours, since I got them, only the one that died soon after I received them.—J. W., West Virginia. NEWS OF OUR SUCCESS CARRIED TO INDIA. Having heard something of your wonderful success in this business from a gentleman from America, I should very much like to hear full particulars. have some young nephews in California whom 1 should like to help make a start in some way.— M. C. H., Bombay, India. LOST ONLY TWO YOUNG SQUABS. Will you be so kind as to tell me where I can get a good cut of a pair of Homer pigeans? My birds which I bought of you are doing well. I have not lost any but two young squabs before they were grown. They are certainly nice.—L,. L. D., Georgia. GOOD MATINGS. FOUR NESTS SIX DAYS AFTER REACHING KENTUCKY. Homers received in splendid condition on March 8. They are surely a beautifui lot of birds. Am very much pleased with them and hope to duplicate order in a short time. They have built four nests already. (March 14.) —I.P. Y., Kentucky. ONE HUNDRED SQUABS A WEIGHING ELEVEN TO FOURTEEN OUNCES. I have nothing but your Extra stock ex-lusively and am now turning out 100 or more fine squabs weighing 11 to 14 ounces and ee every four weeks.—E. M., South -arolina, MONTH LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 210 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 SIX SQUABS WEIGHED A LITTLE OVER FOUR AND ONE HALF POUNDS. I am sending you by mail a photo of one of my pigeon houses. 1 cannot have both houses taken in the same picture because they are too far apact. This picture was taken when I had only 25 pairs of birds in it. I now have 45 pairs in it, all your birds, and they are doing fine. The birds are not quite through the moult yet but they have been breeding right along. I killed six squabs to-day and they weighed a little over four and one-half pounds after they were picked; so that’s not so bad, considering that they are moulting. Please let me know if you can let me have two pairs of good Carneaux, something you can recommend, as I would like to get good ones.—W. L., West Virginia. WOMEN ENJOY SQUAB RAISING. HE HAS THE LARGEST HOMERS IN HIS PENNSYLVANIA TOWN. I think it is time to let you know about my birds which I got from you in April, 1906. Well, they are doing all right. You know J got three pairs. Now (May, 1907) I have 36. About 16 young ones died last winter on account of the very cold weather we had. I must thank you very much for the birds which you sold me. We have quite a lot of people that have Homer pigeons around here, but I have the largest of them all, so I am well satisfied and shall always recommend your squab farm and your Homers.—H. D. K., Pennsylvania. EXTRA POCKET MONEY. I thought I would write and tell you how my birds are getting about. I have raised squabs enough to pay for their expenses and extra pocket money.—J. D., Massachusetts, EXTRA PLYMOUTH ROCKS SUPERIOR TO ANY RUNT CROSSES AT MUCH LESS COST. I have been interested in your advertisements for some time, and if you will favor me with any suggestions regarding my own birds, I will be grateful. About two years ago, I got some Runt-Homer crosses of the best strain, thinking them best for heavy squabs. hey are as prolific as can be, but the squabs weigh only 14 or 15 ounces at four weeks old. The surroundings, feeding, etc., are all right, as I am only keeping a few pairs for pleasure of it. Would like to be put aright.—P,. A. R., California. Answer. The strain of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers we have developed are superior in weight of squabs and rate of breeding to any Runt cross, at one-fourth the cost of Runts, The only birds superior to our Extra Homers are our Carneaux. These breed squabs weighing 12 pounds and more to the dozen, and breed faster than Homers. NO LET-UP IN BREEDING IN STATE OF WASHINGTON. FINE, FAT SQUABS. Since last August I have been a very sick man; in fact, came very close to the divide, but have not crossed over yet. (April, 1907.) About my pigeons, I have not noticed any let up about their breeding since they com- menced last May. I have about 150 all told now, fine big fellows. I have fed them red wheat, kaffir corn, hemp seed and the small yellow seed you recommended, have forgotten its name, with grit, clam shell from the beach, salt and charcoal once in a while, fountain of water in the house and running water in the yard. The birds do not like strangers. They are not afraid of me. have some fine fat squabs. You can im- prove on your hopper feeder by nailing a lath on the inch piece to which the feeding holes are nailed. Let it stand up one-half to three-quarters inches above the one-inch piece. It does not allow them to pull out the grain so fast. I send you a picture of the house and yard with a few of the pigeons on roosts.—G. H., State of Washington. TWELVE PAIRS OUT OF THIRTEEN PAIRS AT WORK IN TWELVE DAYS AFTER RECEIPT. I thought it might be of interest to you to know how my little flock of birds are getting along. It has been just twelve days since they arrived and I now have twelve pairs out of the baker’s dozen at work. It strikes me that there is ‘‘ something doing.” I have a nice, roomy home for thei and do everything that I can to make them happy. and enjoy the care of them very much. I feel now as though I will succeed and if I do I will build me a unit plant next spring and will stock it with your Homers. J go East about once a year as far as New York, and the next time I go, I will go over to Boston and visit your plant —B. A., Georgia. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPAN 211 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 AT THE BACK OF A BARN. Showing how a New York customer made a handsome home for his birds without doing any building. (This flying pen is shown in detail on next illustrated page.) THAT THE WORK IS NOT BEYOND THE PERSON OF AVERAGE ABILITY IS PROVED BY THE SUCCESS OF THIS 15-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO HAD NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AND NO GUIDE BUT THE MANUAL. Please send me prices on pigeon supplies, also prices on breeding stock, as I have mislaid those that I received from you about a year ago when I purchased pigeons of you. Iam only a boy of 15 and must wait until I can earn enough from the ones I have, My Extra Plymouth Rock Homers have done very well. My brother bought six pairs of you and he sold them to me immediately after they began work before winter was half way begun. One pair died, so that left me only five pairs of breeders. I was se interested in these that I forgut about the pair that died. They worked fine until cold weather set in, having averaged a pair of squabs from each pair every seven weeks, but during the cold weather we raised less. Our loft being upstairs, in an old granary, was pretty cold. This spring (1907) they began work in earnest again, laying their eggs again before the squabs were two weeks old. One young pair only four months old raised a pair of squabs weighing one and one-half pounds. I have now about seventy-five (75) birds old and young and Jots of eggs. We got 50 cents a pair for the squabs we sold, but I did not wish to sell many because I am to raise them for breeders, It certainly pays to buy the Extras, for everybody who sees them says they are splendid, but I believe your Manual is just as necessary ty make it a paying business. I do not see how I could raise them without it. Perhaps I will want some more breeders if I get the building ready this summer.—G, L, G., Wisconsin. ONE SALE LED TO ANOTHER. No OUTGROWN THE COOP. Please send me doubt you are acquainted with Carlton five dozen nestbowls and one drinking Daniel, who is a first cousin of mine. His fountain by express. My coop has got too Pigeons looked so fine that they encouraged small to hold the birds. The dozen pairs me to buy of you. I don’t think mine can be you sent me have increased to 125 birds.— beaten.—F. W., Indiana. F.C. W., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 212 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 SHIPSHAPE FLYING PEN. This is the flying pen of the place illustrated on preceding page. By the use of inch boards the owncr has finished off the timbers so that the effect is permanent and beautiful, THIS NEW JERSEY BREEDER RECEIVES $4.50 A DOZEN FOR HIS SQUABS AND THE DEMAND IS SO GREAT THAT HE CANNOT FILL HIS ORDERS, SO BUYS MORE BIRDS In sending my second order (January, 1907) for your Extra mated birds, I would like to put in a few words in regard to the birds I received from you in 1904. My birds have done finciy. I sent to Boston $30 fur 12 pairs. The birds arrived in the finest shape that was ever seen in this part of New Jersey. I received the birds in May, 1904, and had eight pairs cf squabs in July. I then went to work and kept all the squabs for a short time until they got six to seven months old, then I went to mating them the way you show in vour Manual. I now in January, 1907, have 200 birds which is only one-fourth of the birds I raised, but the demand for squabs was so great that I could not get the chance to save any for breeding. That is the reason why I send an order for 50 pairs of your best birds. My house is 12 feet wide and 26 feet long with a hall three feet wide, one window on the north side and three windows on the south side, with 200 nests. My first house was 12 feet by 12 feet, but I found out that when handling Plymouth Rock Homers it does not take long for them to make money for a larger house, and to get a start in a business of our own. I would like to tell you that I put one advertisement in a paper of our town some time ago, not to sell my squabs for I had more orders than I could fill, but to let my friends know that I meant that there was money in handling your birds. The advertisement brought me so many orders that I didn’t know what to do. The demand for squabs is so great that I get $4.50 per dozen. My squabs average nine to 12 pounds to the dozen. . I am going to build house No. 3 this spring and then I will need more of your fine birds. I would like to tell you a few words in regard to the Manual. It is the finest I have ever read for the reason you show how to run a successful squab business. I use the self-feeder which you show in your Manual. JI always find the feed clean and dry, which is the main part of the feeding part. I feed cracked corn, red wheat, Canada peas and hempseed. The feed bill will not exceed 85 cents a year per breeding pair. I can figure on nine pairs of squabs per year at 75 cents per pair, which leaves me a net profit of $5.20 per year for each pair of breeders. if : j : I am perfectly satisfied with the results obtained from your birds and wish you continued success.—A. N., New Jersey. VALUES HIS BIRDS AT FIVE DOLLARS USUAL STORY FROM IOWA. The birds A PAIR. I would not sell my birds for five received_from_you last winter are doing dollars a pair now.—C. E., New Jersey. ~ finely —E. R. W., Iowa. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 213 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 BIRDS FED ONLY CRACKED BARLEY. KNOWS WHERE TO GET MORE BIRDS. I have some fine birds and am stuck on that last basketful you sent—those nice dark checkers, and some of the nicest sky blue I ever saw. I have some young birds from the last ones you sent me that will mate in two or three weeks, so you can see they did not lose much time after shedding feathers. There was a man at my place, whose name I forest. He said his birds were from your place and that my birds were livelier than his. I told him if he would follow your book he would be all right. I told him he was feeding too much, or he was not giving them the right feed, and he said he was feeding cracked barley so he cannot expect much from his birds. I went to the market to find out what they are paying for birds. They are paying 25 cents apiece for old common birds and he said that they pay more for Homer squabs. My birds are getting along finely. I am going to get 60 cents a bushel for manure with straw in it, which I think is a good price. If I want any more birds I know where to get themeand that is from your place.—J. C., Wisconsin. READY SALE IN LOUISIANA FOR ALL & UABS THAT CAN BE PRODUCED. ICES ARE GOOD, RANGING FROM $2.50 TO $4.00 A DOZEN. I received your National Standard Squab Book on the evening of the 5th inst. and have studied same over carefully several times and will say that I am perfectly satisfied with it and consider your Manual one of much value and indis- eve to one who intends to raise squabs. expect to order from you in half dozen and dozen lots, until I get me a good flock of breeders. (This I will have to dv on account of my limited means and again I am not at my home. I am employed by the railroad company as foreman and my house is 25 miles from my work. However, I am con- fident that I will be in a position to quit railroating in 12 months from now if I have good luck with birds.) I have an ideal place for a squab plant containing 12 acres of good land and nice dwelling and out buildings. have also investigated the marketing of squahs in this territory and find that I can get ready sale for all that I can produce at from $2.50 to $4.50 per dozen, according to weight and plumpness.—T. H., Louisiana. THIS ILLINOIS YOUNG WOMAN HAS GIVEN US HALF A DOZEN ORDERS FOR BIRDS BETWEEN 1903 AND 1908. Please find enclosed two post-office money orders for $125 and send me 50 pairs Extra Plymouth Rocks. My mother’s. sickness interfered with my plans. I have lost many orders by not having enough breeders. I think it safe to try now.—Miss J. M., Tllincis, HAS KEPT PIGEONS FOR _ YEARS. PLYMOUTH ROCKS DO BETTER THAN ANY HE EVER BRED. I had 35 pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers to start with. They are fine birds and very good breeders. I have kept pigeons for years, but yours do as well and in some respects better than any I ever had. I intended to breed them for squabs, but there is such a call for good breeders that I have not had any chance to sell squabs.—A. T. K., Massa- chusetts. FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY EARNING POCKET MONEY FOR TWO YEARS. About two years ago I bought three pairs of your best Homer breeders and they are getting along very nicely. I am only 15 years old. I am running my business the way described_in your National Standard Squab Book. Have you a 1907 copy of this book?—J. A. M., Wisconsin. NEST OF STRAW AND FEATHERS. Some birds build a scanty nest, using only a few wisps of straw, with perhaps a feather or two. nestbowl is an absolute necessity for such pairs, otherwise the eggs soon roll apart or out of the nest box. In April, 1907, a Missouri woman wrote us as follows: “Enclosed find draft for $11. 52, for which please send me one gross of nestbowls. One year ago I started with 40 pairs of Homers. Now I have something over 400 birds. I have lost a great number of eggs, and feel like I must have the nestbowls, as they pre- vent the eggs from rolling out. Send them at once.” GETTING RID OF COMMON PIGEONS AND PURCHASING PLYMOUTH ROCKS. THE MOST WEIGHTY BIRDS HE EVER SAW. have a number of common birds which I am either going to sell, or kill them for my own use, but I will exert every effort to sell them and purchase more birds of you, as I think yours are the most weighty birds I ever saw. As soon as I am rid of what common birds I have on hand now, you may expect my order for some more of your breeders.—T. W., New York. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 244 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 UICK WORK BY THE NEW FLOCK OF A NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY. I should _per- haps have written you earlier of my_boy’s success with the Plymouth Rock Homers which you sent. One pair were nesting in three days and inside of three weeks there are, I think, ten of the thirteen pairs at work, and if my recollection serves me, inside of four weeks he had ten or a dozen squabs hatched. It is now nearly five weeks since he had them and some of the squabs are nearly large enough to market. I consider this a pretty good record.—H. C., New York. Note. The above gentleman is a well- known business New Yorker. His boy is only nine years old. DIFFERENT SIZES, This shows two squabs, one of which is growing faster than the other. This means that it is pushin, its smaller mate out of the way at feeding time an getting more feed from the parents. In such cases, the bigger one will grow fast and the smaller one will be stunted. The latter should be helped by bein taken out of the nest and put alongside a squab of its own size in another nest, the larger squab there being brought back to grow up with a mate of its own size. The parents in both cases do not neglect the new comer. MARYLAND CUSTOMER SATISFIED AND ENLARGING. On November 27, 1906, I received from you 50 pairs of Plymouth Rock pigeons. I put them into what I considered an up-to-date house, using nappies for nests. I am starting another pen and expect before fall to have 150 pairs of good stock. I feed cracked corn and wheat and I also give the Canada peas when I can get them, a little hemp and rice once in awhile. i am entirely satisfied and when I am in the market for more birds, Elmer Rice’s birds will do for me. Thank you for your many kindnesses.—W. B. C., Maryland. UICK BEGINNING BY MATED PAIRS. ALL AT WORK WITHIN TWO WEEKS AFTER DELIVERY AND A PAIR OF SQUABS ON HIS TABLE WITHIN SEVEN EEKS. MORE ORDERS FOLLOW. Within seven weeks from the date of receipt of the birds I ordered from you, I have had a pair of broiled squabs on my table, and such squabs I never saw before. few days before they were four weeks old, they weighed a pound each. Some of my pairs went to work within five days and all of them within two weeks after their receipt. Jt has been less than three months since I received the seven pairs, and_I have killed two pairs squabs, and my flock has more than doubled. I think this is a good record. I can readily sell my young pigeons here for breeding purposes at good prices, but as I ordéred them to raise squabs for my own table, have, so far, declined to sell any. Two of my neighbors have duplicated my order since they have seen mine, and I am sure other orders will follow. I am delighted with the business and take a great interest in my birds, which have learned my voice, and when I go out to the fly, come fluttering at my call. I prefer squabs to chickens, and they are much less trouble, and so much easier to raise.—J. M., Mississippi. BEST THESIS HE EVER READ ON ANY SUBJECT. I have the pleasure of acknowl- edging receipt of your National Standard Squab Book and having read it once through and made notations of details (not indexed) at the sides of the pages, I can get the meat of any subject promptly. I want to say (which, of course, must have been said a great many times to you) that “it is bully,” it is the best thesis I ever read on any subject. I have tried to think of questions that sug- gested themselves to me I would like an- swered, but in vain. You have answered everything. I want to state to any one interested in squabs, surely your Manual is worth its weight in gold.— W. C., Wisconsin. NEVER WAS TREATED MORE FAIRLY. My birds arrived October 1 in first-class condition, earlier than I expected. Never spent money for anything better. They are regular beauties. I thank you for the extra pair; I never was treated more fairly. Hope to give you a larger order next time.—P. M., New Orleans. MAN OF FORTY YEARS’ EXPERIENCE HAS NEVER SEEN BETTER HOMERS THAN OURS. The birds came safe last night. I told you before, I had some of that sort (a few pairs) continuously, for over forty years. I never had any better and many inferior in fancy points. Accept my thanks. L. O., New York. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 215 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 MATED PAIRS START QUICKLY. BEST BREEDERS IN A LIFE-TIME OF EXPERI- ENCE. SUGGESTION FOR CITY PEOPLE. SURE WAY OF MATING. I have received yours of the 18th and am following out your request. About the color, either a blue or a red checker cock will do. I should like to know how I am to get him. I started in just one month ago with my shipment of 12 birds and about five days later, in which time they had to pick up from the fatigue of the journey, a pair of blues were sitting on eggs. his was kept up at intervals by the others until now when I have ten young ones and two eggs, which are being hatched by a pair of flights. Barring one sick one I can honestly call this a good investment because I have had pigeons since I was ten years old and in that time I have not seen any better done. Should they keep this up, I find the market good, I shall buy some more this spring. You said the Eagle and Sun had quotations on squabs, but unless it is somewhere else than on the market page, neither of these papers has them, They want a dollar a pair for them in butcher shops. The Manual is all right, but if you want suggestions I should say that the way you describe for having pigeons in the city is very seldom used. The most popular way is putting a conp and screen on a flat roof or on poles in the yard. This is the way you will see most coops in Brooklyn and New York. However, the way you describe is a very good advice for these with peaked roofs, as I know many people would have pigeons if their roofs weren’t peaked. On mating birds I should also tell of a very effectual way I have for mating stubborn pigeons who absolutely refuse to mate. This is to put them in a box or something so that they cannot get any light and leave them so until you think they ought to be taken out and then put them together and in most cases they will be so glad to get back to light and see another pigeon that they will mate right away. Should they still refuse repeat the method until they do, but this method has worked so that I have yet to come across the oe could not mate this way.—H. H.. New ork, FIRST SQUABS WHEN TWO WEEKS OLD WEIGHED TWELVE AND FOURTEEN OUNCES. Perhaps you will be interested to know that the first pair of squabs at two weeks weigh 12 and 14 ounces respectively. Am pleased with the weight—A. T. V., New Hampshire. ONE YEAR OF PROGRESS. Enclosed find money order for which please send me six dozen wood fibre nestbowls by freight. The Homers I got from you about a year ago are working splendidly.—E. A., Pennsylvania. MONEY-MAKING STORY BRIEFLY TOLD. BIG FLOCK RAISED FROM SMALL PURCHASE. PROLIFIC BREEDERS. If you remember, I bought from you in the autumn of 1906 12 pairs of squab breeders. One pair went to work the second day after arrival, the others following in close order. In two weeks every pair but one hadeggs. I now have (October, 1907) 576 pigeons, two pairs having raised 11 pairs per year, the others nine and ten. feed cracked corn, whole wheat, hemp seed, barley, kaffir corn and rice. During the moulting season I feed a good quantity of hemp seed. I think the squab business is a very good money making enterprise if well attended to.— R.F.S., New York. AN INEXPENSIVE START. TWO YEARS’ SUCCESS. GOING TO SHIP TO BIGGER MARKET. I am now raising more squabs than our local market demands at reasonable price and in order to obtain good prices must find market elsewhere. Can you put me in the way of same? I bought my first Homers of you in August, 1905, and have had remarkable success with pigeons, having lost but 15 that were able to fly, in all the time since then. I will feel very grateful for any information you may be able to give me. Also kindly quote me price on 50 pairs Plymouth Rock Homers, as I think of adding another loft.— C. H., Wisconsin. ALL PAIRS AT WORK MOUTH ROCKS RECOMMENDED ABOVE ALL IN DELAWARE. My Womers arrived safe and I am certainly pleased with them. They are all mated and I expect eggs soon. I recommend your birds above all. I told several parties about my birds and I think they will give youan order.—R. W., Delaware. UICKLY. PLY- LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 216 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 LAYING AND HATCHING WITH TEM- PERATURE FIFTEEN DEGREES BELOW ZERO. My first pair laid and hatched out squabs which grew the fastest of anything I ever saw. When the eggs were laid and the birds were hatched it was 15 degrees below zero half of the nights (February, 1907) and the water in the fountain in the squab-house froze hard every night. My first young birds are about as large as the old birds (April) and are flying just as easily, I think, as the old pds S. B., New York. Note. The old pigeons protect both the eggs and the squabs more closely in cold weather. They adapt their attention to the climate. Do not fear that you cannot raise winter squabs, even if you live in the coldest parts of Canada. NOT ONE SICK. NO LICE. My pigeons are getting along very nicely. You sent me 13 pairs last December and now (July, 1907) I have about 30 pairs. Not a one has been the least sick, and have not been troubled with mites nor lice among them as yet. Will soon have to double the size of my house. I attend to them myself—M. V. B., South Carolina. A ROW OF BEAUTIES. SELLING IN ST. LOUIS FOR $4.50 A DOZEN. You will find enclosed herewith an order with remittance for 55 pairs of your Extra Homer pigeons, which I hope to receive as soon as possible. You will find also that I send order for yarious other supplies which, if you think it will be cheaper, you will please send by freight. The pigeons I purchased of you last year are doing nicely and have produced some fine, large squabs. They are selling in St. Louis for $4.50 per dozen. Thank you for fair dealing in the past and wish you success in the future. —R. C. H., Missouri. THREE ORDERS FROM ONE TOWN. Enclosed herewith I send you check for which lease send me seven pairs of Plymouth Rock omers. I ordcred seven pairs from you a short time ago, and also had Mr McRaven duplicate my order.—J. B., Mississippi. GOING TO TRY IT AGAIN. Please send e your printed matter as soon as you can. Phad some of your Homers a year ago and they did ver: more.—J. well. I expect to buy some ., District of Columbia. CHICAGO MAN REPLACING HIS FIRST BIRDS WITH PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS AND BUILDING A LARGE PLAN Your letter of October 28 at hand. Please send me the female as soon as possible as I can mate her with the other male. TI still have the birds in the crate but will empty it Saturday. I am building now to accommodate 500 pairs of birds and have torn down my old coop so I have not had place to keep my birds. I am building it in units of 50 pairs to each unit. Am getting rid of my common birds as fast as possible. From March first to the present time (October) I have 38 youngsters from my original six pairs, three pairs of which were No. land three pairs Extra, Both birds bred alike, with the exception of the Extras breeding a much larger squab. Eleven pairs of youngsters have eggs at present. I have lost none and with the exception of the moulting season, I think I have done fairly well. I have not sold any as yet, but have been asked to. Not wishing to sell any until I have 50 pair, I had to refuse the order, but referred him to you. People who have seen my Homers think well of them and I believe I have a few interested.—A. S. C., Chicago. TRIED TO GET ALONG WITHOUT THE INSTRUCTION BOOK AT FIRST. I have bought two sets of Extra Homers of you, but have had bad luck. I do not have any now. Iam going to read up on the care of pigeons before going into it again. I have your National Standard Squab Bsok of 1905 and think that it is very well written and it con- tains some very sound advice, which if I had followed I never would nave failed. Is the 1907 edition different?—T. H. O., Jowa. EVERY PAIR BREEDING SHORTLY AFTER ARRIVAL IN FAR WEST. _I received seven pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers the first part of April and now (May 20) have five pairs of squabs a week old and the other two pairs are setting. I am well pleased. Strong, healthy birds. It is a wonder the way the young sauabs grow.—R. R., State of Washington. LITTLE LOT GAVE HIM CONFIDENCE TO BUILD AND ORDER MORE BIRDS. The three pairs of pigeons I received from you in January are doing finely (April, 1907), and I would like to have you send me one of your plans for building, and as soon as I have the plans I will send to you for some more pigeons.—R. S., Chicago. EXACTLY AS REPRESENTED. The breeders I got from you are first-class and exactly as you said they would be, and are well. Please send me prices on grit and other supplies, also on 12 pairs breeders.—W. J. W., Pennsylvania, LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 TWO CUSTOMERS WHICH HAVE BRED LARGE FLOCKS FROM SMALL BEGIN- NINGS. Mr. Bartholemew of this place has about 250 birds which he has bred from six pairs of No. 1 Plymouth Rock Homers which he says he got of you. I notice the difference between the Extra and No. 1 Homers. Mrs. Virkler has about 150 birds of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers bred from six pairs.—C. W. B., New York. EATING FROM HIS HAND. The California man who owns these pigeons writes: “They are beauties and breed fine squabs. have bred squabs from your Homers weighing a pound apiece. Your Manual is straight and true.” RECOMMENDED VERY HIGHLY BY A LOUISIANA FRIEND. Enclosed you will find a money order for which vou will please send me by express six pairs Plymouth Rock Homers No. 1 mated. JI trust you wil! make me a good selection, as I am expecting to raise pigeons and wish the best. You have been recommended very highly to me by Mr. oseph Malbrough, as he has ordered the lymouth Rocks from you.—H. H., Louisiana. AN. GET THIS RESULT IN TEXAS. I bought six pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers from you last November, and I now (May, 1907) have 31 in all, and 17 youngsters. Four pairs have eggs. Out of the 17 squabs, I lost only one, the death of that being caused by one of the parent birds stepping on one the day he was hatched. My squabs have weighed one pound to a pound and three ounces. I have built a pen for my young squabs as you advise to do, and ! find that they do very much hetter, The things that I find most necessary are, to have a clean house, water and feed, so I clean my squab house every two weeks, and have clean water and feed always. I use your self-feeder so the pigeons can feed their young whenever they choose. he ground of my flypens is covered with sand, and I renew it every month. also use oyster grit and rock. It is placed in the squab-house, where they can get it any time they want it. I feed wheat and kaffir corn and a little cracked corn now and then, but they do not need much corn as the weather here in Texas is warm nearly all the year around, I think your Homers are the best I ever saw, and every one that sees them says the same thing about them. Any one starting into squab raising should buy your Manual. I have been trying to follow it as nearly as possible and by doing so I think I will succeed in raising squabs. I intend to order more pigeons of you at once,—F, §., Texas. SUCCESSFUL BREEDING BY THE SISTERS OF A CHICAGO CATHOLIC HOSPITAL. Please send us 36 pairs (Janu- uary, 1907) the same as you did the four pairs ashort while ago. Kindly send the very best breed only.—Sister M. M., Illinois. Note. In September, 1907, we shipped 36 pairs more Extra Plymouth Rock Homers to the above customer, who is the sister superior of a well-known hospital in Chicago. NEW JERSEY FRIENDS SATISFIED. Enclosed please find check to cover order for 24 pairs Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and supply of feed. We know your dealings have been square with friends of ours in New Jersey. We have plenty of ground here and everything going right. Will soon have the other houses finished up—G. M., Massa- chusetts. INCREASED FIVE-FOLD IN SIX MONTHS. Regarding the ten pairs of birds I bought from you last spring, I now (Novem- ber, 1907), have 52 pairs.—C, V., Ontario. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 218 1907 1908 WISCONSIN HOTEL PAYING $3.50. POUsES WEIGHING TEN AND THREE- FOURTHS POUNDS TO THE DOZEN. I thought I would write you a few lines. I want to buy some more hirds from you, seeing I am getting along so nicely with the others you sent me. I am getting $3.50 a dozen at the Plankaton House. They weigh ten and three-fourths pounds to the dozen. He said they were some of the best squabs he had ever seen. He wants me to come down some night to have a little talk with me. I want to get a basket of birds from you in about a week and about three dozen of nest bowls and a couple of weeks later, some mote birds, if everything goes all right. I have some fine young birds, some of them weighing a pound apiece. I find out that you are a nice man to deal with and that everything you say is all right and that the birds cannot be praised too much. Guess I will close, hoping everything is going good. —S. H., Wisconsin, STEADY GROWTH IN THREE YEARS. ORDERS FOR SQUABS OUTRUN BIRDS, SO MORE ARE BOUGHT. I am going to send soon, before February (1907), probably in a week, for 50 pairs of Plymouth Rock Homer squab breeders, and want to engage them at once, before the February trade begins. I bought of you six pairs three years ago, since then 12 pairs, 18 pairs and 12 pairs again. (Four orders.) I do not yet have enough for the orders. The birds are doing better. constantly. Their houses are better, and I know more how to care for them, and what things are important. Have almost finished a house—all but nests and a little finishing of yard. It seems as if it would be a good plan to get birds now before the really cold weather comes. I want the Extras, best you have.—M. I., Illinois. LIVELY WORK IN MISSOURI AND THE LARGEST SQUABS EVER SEEN. I am in receipt of my six pairs Extra pigeons and am very thankful to you for the care you have taken in sending these to me. I had them just one week when two pairs had eggs, and was so surprised, but yesterday I was still more surprised when I went into the pigeon house and found four pairs setting, and two of these had young squabs. Every one of my neighbors is surp.ised to see the nice. pigeons you sent me. Mr E. C. Rice, I will in every respect recommend your goods very highly and I am sure that you will appreciate it. These squabs are the largest that I have ever seen. I will have one of my friends take a snap shot of my pieegn house and send you a picture-—-E, B., Misgouri. MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS MORE ORDERS FOR SQUABS THAN HE CAN FILL. HOW TO FEED SUN- FLOWER SEEDS. I am thinking about planting a batch of sunflower seeds. Will you please let me know if this is a good feed for them, and how to feed it—either fresh from the stalk or pick it and let it dry. I¢ would be a great saving to feed this during the winter for me. he pigeons bought from you are O.K., doing their duty. I have more orders for my squabs than I can fill and getting 35 to 40 cents apiece. I do not do any plucking. My pigeons are doing fine considering being locked in all the time.— W.S., New York. Note. Sunflower seeds are good for pigeons, being used largely as a substitute for hemp- seed. Cut off the heads when grown and dry them. When you wish to feed a head. throw it into the pen whole and the pigeons will pick out the seeds. READY TO KILL These squabs are four weeks old. See how plump and broad-breasted they are. FLORIDA FRIENDS ENTHUSIASTIC OVER PLYMOUTH ROCKS. Ihave a friend who is very enthusiastic over my pigeons. He will send you an order the first of the coming week for 48 pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rocks such as mine Do your best for him. Of course he expects to get two extra pairs thrown in asa premium. My birds are getting along very nicely —W. J. D., Florida. HAS HEARD FROM HIS FRIENDS. 1 have heard from several of my friends about your birds, stating they were very fine. [ want to get some of your stock.—S. W. H., Kentucky. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 219 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 WOULD NOT TRADE HIS PLYMOUTH ROCKS FOR ANY IN HIS MONTANA TOWN. I have had fair luck and in all the Homers in town from different companies, I would not trade the ones I got from you for any of them, Friday noon, April 12, by carelessness, some boy friends in going from the coop let one of my fine red checkers out, which I would not have parted with for $2. He rose into the air and after circling once flew away faster than I ever saw a pigeon fly before. In discussing the matter with some people, they think he will come back, but he has not. Others think he has gone back to you.—M. S., Montana. Note. Letters like the above come to us constantly. Guard your doors carefully. Have springs on them so they will close with- out attention. Homers which you raise you can safely let fly, because they know no home but yours, but Homers which you buy will fly off. SQUABS 25 DAYS OLD. Note that although they have becn in the bowl since hatching, it is comparatively free from manure. They back up to the edge of the bowl and void into the nest box. It is the nature of pigeons to try to have clean nests, and they should be given a chance by the use of nestbowls. NO CONCEPTION OF THE BEAUTY AND SIZE OF OUR EXTRAS. [I reccived the birds last evening, just 24 hours after my order was sent in—prompt work, that. After having read your Manual and a great many testimonials, I was expecting somz2 fine birds, but find I had no conception of the beauty and size of your Extras. The compact bodies, rich, healthy color and uniformity of size were a thorough surprise. I am going to follow your directions given in the Manual, and you may count on me as a customer to the extent of my means,—Mrs. M. F. C., Massachusetts. PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS IN DEMAND IN THIS GEORGIA TOWN. Enclosed find my check. Send me by express six pairs Extra blue-barred Plymouth Rock Homers, mated. I have about got this town started on raising pigeons. Mr. Barnes, my brother- in-law, has just handed me your new circular. He tells me he has ordered 12 pairs from you. hope you will ship him some nice birds. His son has just bought some birds from the —————~ and I want the birds you ship me and his father to make him regret that he did not order them from you. I ordered blue-barred birds from another party some time back and they sent me checkers. If T did not think you would send the order as Iam sending it in, I would not send it to you. You remember I bought a few pairs of birds from you a little over a year ago. I have sold a great many birds and I have about 100 to 125 pairs of working birds on hand now. I am building me another pen that will hold about 200 pairs.—R. H. N., Georgia. RAISING PLYMOUTH ROCK STOCK ONLY. BEST BIRDS EVER SEEN ANY- WHERE. The birds came yesterday all O. K. and were fine birds, and the hen with a little age will also be on top. Please accept my thanks. What I especially wanted was solid reds and when you do get hold of such a pair that is A No. 1, send them to me and send me the bill. I om raising strictly Plymouth Rock stock and have developed some A No. 1 birds, the best I have ever seen anywhere, and so I swear by E. C. Rice stock. You state that not one in 100 birds are solid reds. J know this to be a fact. When I do go into the show I want to have the best of all colors and_they shall be Extra Plymouth Rock stock.—R. B. W., New York. OUR WHITE HOMERS COMPARED WITH OUR COLORED HOMERS. I do not know cf a man I would trust any quicker than you. I would like to know if you have pure white Homers that are as large, plump birds as your colored ones are —G. M. L., Vermont. Answer. We charge $2.75 a pair for our white Homers. They are fine birds, as large as any white Homers in existence, but are not so large as our Extra colored Homers and do not breed so large a squab. They cost more because they are scarcer; we sell a lot of them for pets, for their handsome plumage, and for undertakers. PROLIFIC PLYMOUTH ROCKS HAVE BRED MORE SQUABS THAN ANY PIGEONS HE HAS. I came down to see you quite awhile ago and bought a pair of your Plymouth Rock Homers. Those Homers have bred more squabs than any other pigeons I have, and I have a good many, Will you please send me your catalogue of prices —T. C., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 220 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 FIVE MONTHS’ WORK. SMALL FLOCK CUS DRUPLED, ONE OLD BIRD AND TWO UABS ONLY LOST BY DEATH, BREED- ERS OF COMMON PIGEONS MYSTIFIED. I write you a sort of detailed statement of how my four pairs of pigeons have done, that I bought from you about the middle of May, 1907. One of my birds laid in about two weeks after her arrival, but the eggs did not hatch, and she laid again in about ten days after I found her eggs were not good, and that time she hatched all right. Two other pairs commenced work soon after the first, and both of them hatched all right and the first three pairs of squabs did well. I have lost one of the hens that I bought from you. She died after raising a fine pair of squabs. I have lost two squabs. I now have 18 birds in all, after deducting the three that I lost. All of my birds are now (October) at work, some making nests and some sitting. Mine are the only Homers in this part of the country that I know of, and every one who sees them is charmed with them. There are one or two parties here who are trying to raise the common pigeons on the same plan, that is by confining them, but are not doing much, and cannot understand why my birds do so much better than theirs. They say that if I make a success of the business they will then try Homers. I am very fond of the business and find it a great recreation, and very little trouble. I attend to my birds before breakfast in the morning and give them plenty of water, and then at dinner time I feed them again, and that does them until next morning _ They are less trouble than anything of the kind that I ever had anything to do with, and I believe will be more profitable according to the amount of capital invested.—C. A. F., Mississippi. SECOND ORDER, BIRDS DOING WELL, ANOTHER ORDER IN PROSPECT. I here- with enclose you $1 in currency, for which please send me 50 open legbands for grown pigeons, numbered one to fifty. The last shipment of pigeons came to hand on the second in good shape, and are a nice lot of birds. I am well pleased with them. My birds are all doing well. I think that 1 shall give you another order soon.—F. R., Missis- sippi. (The first shipment to this customer was made in April, 1907, the second in October of the same year). GREAT DEMAND FOR PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUABS IN NEW JERSEY. I received on May 27, 1904, one dozen pairs of your birds and I have 200 birds at the present time. There is a great demand for Plymouth Rock squabs in New Jersey. Please send me your price on 50 pairs of your best Extra mated birds.—N, L., New Jersey. FAST START IN TWO WEEKS IN NEW JERSEY. On April 22 I wrote you informin you of the arrival of the birds. Now (April 29) there are two nests complete and six others being built, which I should think was pretty good work for birds not vet two weeks in a strange place. The birds have been highly praised for their fine appearance by a number of friends and acquaintances of mine, and of course the natural question was, where did I get them? And as lama pretty good advertiser for any one that I consider to be worthy of such advertising, I have recommended your company as the right one to ge to if they have any idea of investing.— J. H., New Jersey. IN THE SNOW. Let them out on sunny winter days. In cold, stormy weather they are better off inside. FINEST BIRDS THAT HE EVER SAW IN LOUISIANA, RESULT, MANY MORE ORDERS. I received my birds Saturday evening, November 2, at 7 p.m. Found them all in A 1 shape and are the finest birds I ever saw. Please accept my most sincere thanks for the extra pair and for your nice selection. I will return your basket one day this week, will take bill of lading for same from express agent and forward to you date I return same. I will send you an order for 12 pairs more about the 25th of this month. I want to order a small shipment each month until I get about 100 pairs of breeders. — G. W. T., Louisiana. PERFECTLY MATED IN WEST VIRGINIA. I write to tell you how well my pigeons are doing. I am very well pleased with them as I believe they were perfectly mated and went right to work after they were in the loft not more than a week.—J. N. M., West Virginia. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 221 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 EVERY PAIR AT WORK IN DOUBLE- QUICK TIME. BUILDING UP A PLANT. I think a few lines to you is my duty. I expected to be at your office and plant before now. My young son got struck by a trolley car about the time 1 was going to go to Boston, and just escaped very serious results, so I have stayed pretty close at home, but hove a vacation in July and will call on you then. About the birds, they are doing fine. They went to work at once and some of them are now on their third lot of eggs. They held their matings, every pair. I feel very much encouraged and appreciate your fair and honest business principles. You will receive orders from us in the future as we are going to build up quite a plant.—H. I. L., Massa- chusetts. SQUABS THREE WEEKS OLD. BRANCHING OUT FROM A_ SMALL BEGINNING AFTER SUCCESSFUL EXPERI- ENCE WITH PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS IN UTAH. I have decided to go into the squab business on a large scale and when my business interests are cared for will move to Salt Lake City where I hope to work up a good business The birds purchased from you have been very satisfactory in every particular and my business in the future will be done direct with your good company. My health is poor through confinement and I am determined to try squab raising for the Burpose of making a success and money.— .B., Utah. SQUABS AS A SIDE LINE. Please send me two dozen wood-fibre nestbowls by express. The birds I received from you April 1 are all working satisfactorily (May 18, 1907). I do this as a side issue. IJ work in the factory all day and take care of my pigeons nights and mornings, and find it very pleasant work.—E. D. D., Massachusetts. TEN PAIRS OF SQUABS A YEAR FROM ONE PAIR. MARKET BROADENING AND DEMAND INCREASING. The pigeons that I bought from you are doing nicely. Most of them seem to be in good condition and keep steadily at work. One pair raised ten pairs of squabs a year and there are others that aimost equal them. I began last fall to save those from the best breedeis. I had to kezp them in the house with the older birds because I had nowhere else for them tostay, They disturbed the pigeons through the winter, but they are mating and getting to work now. I sell all the squabs I can raise to one of the local marketmen. At first there was no sale for them except in summer when wealthy people from the larger cities are sojourning here, but he bought all I had last winter. (See note below.) When ready for market they weigh from two pounds to two and one-half pounds a pair. They are white and fat and the dealer has complimented me a number of times about them, I find the business very interesting and would like to engage in it more extensively if I could get more time to devote to the birds, but it is impossible to do so at present. —NMiss M, 1D., Connecticut. Note. The squab market has broadened tremendously since we first began advertising in the high class periodicals advising people to eat squabs as well as raise them. This habit of eating squabs has a steady hold all the year round on thousands of families who ten years ago did not know what a squab was. This demand is increasing every year. In spite of the steady growth in production of squabs, the prices are as high, and in many cases, higher than ten years ago. DELAWARE MAN FINDS IN OCTOBER, 1907, THAT NEW YORK MARKETS ARE HOLDING GOOD. _PRICES ARE LIKELY TO GO HIGHER. I received your Manual yesterday and am very much pleased with it and stayed up until 1.20 last night reading it. I believe that if I follow your instructions and make up my mind to make a success of it, I will be able to do it. I knew a little about pigeons before, as my brother and I kept a flock of common pigeons when we lived in Long Island City, but had to move tp New York City and had to do away with them, I have a few mongrels on hand now and am experimenting a little, but as soon as able will send you an order. It will not be very large, but if your stock is as good as repre- sented (like your Manual) it will be all right. I have written to New York markets for prices and find they are still holding up good and I believe next year they will go higher. Hoping you the best of success —N. H Delaware. ” LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 222 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 OTHER HOMERS HAVE NOT THE UALITY OF PLYMOUTH ROCK. SQUABS EIGH FIFTEEN OUNCES, FEATHERS OFF. On December 22, 1906, I bought three pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers from you, and since then have had considerable luck with them. They are the best pigeons for breeding as well as for fancy I have v-t seen, I’ve seen other Homers similar 1 those I have but they have not the queu/ of the Plymouth Rock, They weigh at ‘2 age of four weeks on an average 15 oui. -s, dressed, and are the finest pigeons for eating purposes that can be had. hen I received the pigeons I knew but very little about them; but after following your Manual carefully I found results as stated, and will say it is worth double the amount I paid for it. I also made a feeder as shown in your Manual and think it is the proper thing for pigeons as there is but very little waste in feed. Out of the three old pairs I raised 28 squabs, losing but very few during the winter. I now have six pairs left which I am going to keep for breeders. The others I have been selling to friends here right along. I get from 50 to 75 cents a pair at the age of two months. I now (September, 1907) have a larger and better place for them and find they are breed- ing a little better. They require but little care and are a great pleasure for pastime. E, W., Missouri. NINE HATCHES IN TEN MONTHS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. WOMAN HAS NOT LOST A BIRD, OR HAD ONE SICK. Please find enclosed the sum of $2.90 postal note for which send me three dozen of your wood- fibre nestbowls by Dominion Express Co. Also if you would send me your price list I should be greatly obliged. I am quite well satisfied that your pigeons are all that you claim for them as to breeding qualities, have one pair of the eight you sent me last May which have had nine hatches in ten months, and the others were never far behind them, and now I have quite a number of the young ones mated up and raising young. For a fine appearance I do not think there is anything in pigeons could beat them. Have followed the directions in your book and I have not lost one bird or had one sick. I quite expected to have sent you an order for more breeders before now, but I have had my husband sick a great deal this winter and funds would not permit of it, but I hope to send you one before long.—Mrs. A. O., British Columbia. EVERY PAIR HAS EITHER EGGS OR SQUABS IN CALIFORNIA. I am more than pleased with the way my birds are turning out the squabs and intend placing an order for more breeding stock soon, Every pair has either eggs or squabs and some have both, —I. L. T., California. EARNING POWER OF SMALL FLOCK INCREASING AT NO EXPENSE. We re- ceived our birds March 24, 1907. We had 25 pairs. They started to work in about three weeks and we had the first squabs about the 10th of May. We have now (November 7, 1907) 120 young birds, and of these young birds we have five pairs that are working. Two pairs have already had young ones, Our entire expense for feed to date has been $36.52. Our expense for fitting up has been $140, not including price of birds. We figure that we have not made any money this year, and still we have not lost any, and think with more birds and a better knowledge of the business there would be good money in it.— F. E. B., Connecticut. SQUABS TWELVE DAYS OLD. POSTMASTER’S GOOD PROGRESS IN TWELVE MONTHS. I felt like it was my duty to write you a few lines. Just one year ago to day since I received my birds from you, seven pairs Plymouth Rock Homers. I now have 18 squabs, and 40 birds that can fly around in the pen. That makes 58 in all. I think that is doing remarkably weil for 12 months’ time. I am also trying to raise poultry. I have a fine place here for that purpose and thought that I could attend to that between times. I am postmaster here. After I get started and there is good money in it, I will sell out my store and do nothing ce but raise squabs and poultry.—F. L. Ais 1no1s. USED GRAPE-VINE STICKS FOR NEST- ING MATERIAL. The pigeons bought are doing well. The flying pen is covered with grape vines. I neglected to put in any nesting material, All the pigeons have squabs, so they used great grapevine sticks, some as large as my finger—W. E., Massa- chusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 223 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 STRONG MATINGS LAST TO THE STATE OF WASHINGTON AND SEVEN PAIRS OUT OF FOURTEEN HAVE EGGS WITHIN TWO WEEKS, REST DRIVING. Received your shipment of 14 pairs of Homers about two weeks ago. There are seven pairs of them on eggs today and the rest are all driving. They were all in first-class condition except one cock, which seemed to have had his neck hurt, as he could not hold his head up nor eat anything, and‘he died. Thank you for our promptness and the two pairs free.— aa G. M., State of Washington. VERY SUCCESSFUL WISHES TO BUY MORE. Could you tell us of a place where we could sell our pigeon manure? We have some four or five bushels. We have been very successful with our Homers. Starting with 12, we now have about 60 or 70. We want to buy some more breeders—G. P., Missouri. SQUABS A FEW DAYS OLD. KENTUCKY WOMAN’S SUCCESS WITH FAST-BREEDING PLYMOUTH’ ROCKS. About 18 months ago we purchased from you six pairs of your Extra mated Homers, each pair a different color. These birds have done extra ¢ood work for us and have been more than satisfactory in every way. We have on hand now about 50 mated birds and about 100 youngsters; some of which ought soon to mate, The birds are all in good condition, moulting, but in spite of that some are still at work—Mrs. C. P. M., Kentucky. ALL MATED, QUICK IN GETTING TO WORK IN DISTANT TEXAS. The pigcons that I got from you last Thursday are getting along just fine. Two pairs have nests and as far as I can see they are all mated. The Extra hens, it took them just about a week, which is fine. The Wells Fargo would not ship the crate collect on delivery, so I paid them ten cents for shipping. am well vleased with the birds.—G. J. W., Texas. SQUABS TWICE AS LARGE AS THOSE FROM HOMERS FROM ORDINARY SOURCES. My birds purchased of you have been doing splendidly, under rather adverse circumstances because of the lack of care occasioned by my constant absence from home, Since centering into the business, I have taken special note of different pens in veewccs parts of the State, of pigeons pur- cha: elsewhere, and find to my entire catistaction that mone are as fine or finer than my birds. I have been unable to keep an exact tab on the rate at which they breed but I notice that certain pairs exceed others in this capacity and have been exceedingly satisfactory. As to size of squabs, I can best tell you in the words of one of my customers upon her first purchase: ‘ Why, Mr. Cantey, I never saw such large, fat things in my life. I had to stuff and bake them, instead of broiling. They are twice as large as any I have been getting elsewhere. I wouldn’t mind if they were smaller.” This is her unvarnished statement. I will send you a photograph of my pen in a few days.—H. C., South Carolina. OUR MATED PAIRS GO RIGHT TO WORK IN KANSAS. I have delayed writing in order to see how the birds were going to turn out. Can say_that I am very much pleased with them. They were delayed in Junction City from Saturday until Monday, but arrived in goud shape. One male had its eyes pecked until it couldn’t sec, but I took it out and bathed the swelling and it was all O.K. in a few days. I have four eggs and three more nests are being built, so you see they are going right to work. I have them so tame that I can hardly keep from stepping on them when I go into the house. I will probably want more the first of the year and if I do I will certainly order from you.— C. E, T., Kansas. VIRGINIA CUSTOMER A _ STEADY BUYER. I enclose check for ten pairs blue and blue checker breeding pigeons. Ship per dams Express to me. intend to order in fots until I have 300 pairs. My old birds are doing well. I now have 18 pairs including squabs.—H. T.1., Virginia. (This customer’s first purchase was eight pairs, shipped in June, 1907. At this writing, November, 1907, he has sent in four more orders. His wife gave him a birthday surprise by ordering 20 pairs which we shipped so that they reached him on his anniversary.) NO SUBSTITUTES WANTED, BUT SOME- THING JUST AS GOOD. I want to make another order by the 25th of this month (October, 1907). The last pigeons you shipped me were beauties and I would like to have some more just as good.—C. O Alabama. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMORS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK souas COMPANY 224 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 BIRDS WELL-MATED, WENT TO WORK AT ONCE, ONE OF HER SQUABS WEIGHED ONE AND ONE-HALF POUNDS. HER HOUSE WAS ON THE GROUND AND RATS GOT AT THE SQUABS. I bought my first pigeons of you and put them in my house on March 21, 1907. They were in fine shape and eyery one thought them the handsomest birds they had ever seen. I had 25 pairs. I think my first squab hatched April 21, and about all the birds were at work then, I think, I’ had my first two pi el on my own table and one of them when all dressed ready for baking weighed one pound and a half. Can any one beat that? I have not kept account of the number I have sold, but could have made a good thing of it if the rats had not got in. I sell them here in Scituate to the butcher for 20 cents apiece. While I was away this summer the one that took care of my birds for me sold a number of pairs of squabs to breed from for 50 cents a pair. I shall sell no more at that price. I have followed your Manual as nearly as I could in regard to feeding the birds and find my birds are big and fat and I have not had one sick one among them all. Neither have been troubled with lice. When I came home this September I took account of stock and found that I had iust 16 pairs of birds left. You see the rats did us great harm, but we had the house raised and now I am sending for ten pairs more of the Extra Homers and hope to make a good thing of the squab business after this. I shall keep an exact account of all my birds. There are a number of people around here that keep pigeons, but I think mine are the best birds of them all. Those that see mine want to have birds of the same kind. I think you will have some orders soon if you have not done so already from ‘some that have seen mine and want birds like them. I got my birds to make money with and I am going to do it if it is to be done. And I am sure it is. I think your Manual is a fine ues to have if one is going to do any- thing in the squab business. hen I want to know anything about the business I always look in the Manual and I can most always find my answer. I should not want to get along without the book. Enclosed please find post-office money order for the ten pairs of Extra Homers and other goods I sent for. I wish to thank you for the extra pair of birds you so kindly offer to send, I hope to send for more birds before many months if these do well. I took a picture of my pen with some of the birds in it to-day, and if good will send you one.— Mrs. J. H. H., Massachusetts. Note. Rats burrow in the dirt and raise their families in these holes. When the floor of the squab-house is on the ground, the rats breed out of sight and out of reach, then they get into the squab-house quickly. As we say in the Manual, the floor of the squab- house must be elevated two feet, then there will be no rats, for they will not start breeding in the open air under such a house. LOST ONLY ONE OLD BIRD AND ONE SQUAB IN FIVE MONTHS’ BREEDING IN MISSISSIPPI. Please let me know what you will let me have about four pairs of first- class pigeons for. My pigeons are doing finely. I have 16 now (September, 1907), just twice the number I bought of you in April. Ihave lost one of the old ones and one of the squabs, I have enlarged my quarters and want to enlarge my flock somewhat. I have one pair setting and two pairs have just raised_a pair cach and are ready for business —C. A, Mississippi. NEST OF TOBACCO STEMS. Some birds build a neat, compact nest like the above, and like tobacco stems to work with. GENEROUS AND HONORABLE DEAL- INGS. I received to-day by mail a leg-band outfit complete, with which I am very much pleased, and wish to thank you very much for same. If at any time I can do anything for you, don’t hesitate to acquaint me of it, as J would like to show my appreciation for your generous and honorable dealings with me. My pigeons are al! doing finely and I have quite a bunch of fine young birds. Thanking you again for your kindness and extraordinary promptness.—W, G., New Jersey. SICK BIRD REPLACED. I received your postal today and was agreeably surprised to hear that you are willing to replace our sick bird. I hardly expected to receive such honest treatment. It is a relief to find an honest man these days. That bird we wish to replace is a hen. All the other birds are getting along finely.—F.A., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 225 1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 RAPID BREEDING, CONTENTED MIND AND A CLEAR RECOMMENDATION FOR PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS, This is the first time I have had occasion to write you a for a year, so here it is briefly. Being a business man myself, I know the value of time. I put 21 pairs Plymouth Rock Homers in loft August 6, 1906. Have sold and eaten ten and one-half dozen squabs. Have on hand to-day, October 8, 1907, 80 pairs mated breeders and near the end of the moulting season. I have about a dozen not ready for market and about a dozen pairs of eggs, divided between two lofts, 40 pairs in each and outside of fear of rats. I have a contented mind and a clear recommend for Plymouth Rock Homers.—W. T. P., Ohio. RAISED FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRAS. In sending the above picture he writes: ‘The parents I got from you. I refused ten dollars a pair for one pair this winter. I have seen several large squab ranches in Delaware but on all of them I never saw any birds that could throw such birds as those sold by you.” MONTANA MAN LIKES OUR STYLE OF DOING BUSINESS. Received vour notice of shipment of birds yesterday (Sunday 29) and received the four pairs of fine Extra Homers to-day (30th) all in good shape. They are all fine birds and we are much pleased with them, It was very kind and enerous of you people to send an extra pair Fee of charge, and also drinker and bowls as we did not expect either. If this our first venture proves successful, you can rest assured you shall hear from us again, I like yaue style of doing business —H. S. C., ontana. A TREAT TO BE TREATED WELL. The eleven pairs of birds (second order) arrived here yesterday and ail in first-class condition. I shall place another orde1 shortly, as I have to complete the buildings, and J am highly pleased at the manner your firm does business. It is a treat to know that one’s order is filled satisfactorily —J. N., Virginia. SQUABS SOLD TO HOTEL FOR FIFTY CENTS A PAIR IN KENTUCKY. I received your shipment of six pairs of Extra Homers, all in good condition; thank you for the Extra hen. This was the finest lot of Homers I ever saw in size and plumage, which is so uniform that it is hard to tell one from the other. I will send for another order some time next month. I sold three pairs of squabs this morning at 50 cents per pair to the hotel, and they say that my squabs are fine. (Later.) Find enclosed money order for which send me six pairs of your Extra nest-mated Homers, checkered and uniform in plumage. Every pair I have are working and some have two nests; one has three young squabs, which I think is unvsual.—A. H., Kentucky. FIVE YEARS OF SUCCESS BY A NEW YORK STATE WOMAN. In October of 1902 1 sent you a check for $102.75 for pigeons. My pigeons have done very well, I ship to New York each week. I have just been reading your new squab book of 1907 and would very much like the address of the firm you quote in appendix on page 141 and top first column page 143. Kindly send it to me thereby helping an old customer. Also kindly send me price of the new drinking fountain spoken of in your Manual. I need three new ones and if satisfactory as to price will buy of you.—-Miss O. W., New York. STOCK DOUBLED IN MOULTING SEA- SON. We have sent you to-day an order for grain for which we hope you will send as soon as possible. We bought stock from you several times, the first order sent in about June 1. Since that time (three months) the stock has doubled. We expect to place a large order in the spring along about March. We have about 75 birds in stock at present and started with a stock of 32. We shall have to have a few white birds in our next order. What is the price of the white stock at present? Hoping you will send us the grain soon.—C. & F., Massachusetts. FAST NESTING BY MATED PAIRS IN TEXAS. My birds received August 10 and turned into pen; the 17th they were building their nests, making sever. days from arrival— all the birds in good shape. One did not fly on perch for about two minutes, but after this time have nothing wrong with them. They have certainly proven all that you have recom- mended of them and as to nesting have beaten your figures quite a bit. Thanking you for your extra favor, will do more business as soon as I locate where I will make my squab farm,—G. R., Texas. MANUAL WORTH TEN DOLLARS. I am very much pleased with your Manual and think it worth $10. I shall’ send you an order for breeding stock some time this month, and grain and supplies, just as quick as I can get my house built.—T. H., Massachusetts. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 226 APPENDIX E (Copyright, 1908, by Elmer C. Rice.) (Above pictures copyright, 1907, by Elmer C. Rice.) CARNEAUX. BIG, RED PIGEONS. The Carneau (pronounced car-no; plural Carneaux, pronounced the same) breed is new to this country. These pigeons are larger than the Homers and breed squabs weighing over a pound apiece. Plumage almost invariably copper red (rare specimens yellow) splashed a little with white; long body; broad breast; shape of head and body, and poise of body, different from other varieties; quiet disposition, not so timid as other breeds; meat of squabs uncommonly white; have no homing qualities; they may be allowed to fly, if desired, after a fortnight’s con- finement, will stay around the place where they are fed, will not try to fly back to place where bred; feed their young steadily and well; breed nine to ten pairs of squabs per year; are housed, fed and handled same as Homers; strong, rugged build. The above pictures give a very good idea of this variety. A customer in Greensburg, Penn., writes: | ‘‘ This is the first time in my life to receive a circular picturing anything which gave a true picture; your picture is true to life in every detail. Everybody who sees my Carneaux is greatly taken with them. In every way they are doing splendidly.” I spent several months in Europe in 1906, partly to study in their home the Carneaux pigeons, which then were just becoming known in America and were recommended in sensational terms. It was my purpose to see the evidence at first hand and find out if the claims were founded on fact. My investigations were favorable to this breed but I have waited two years to see how the birds would breed in our own lofts and in the lofts of customers. At this writing we have sold about a thousand pairs of Carneaux and orders for more are coming infast. Previous to our importing this breed, there were about 600 pairs of Carneaux in America. In our long experience with pigeons, we have never known such a demand 227 228 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUASB BOOK as there is for Carneaux. Six dollars a pair may be obtained by anybody who has the breeders for sale. Youngsters weaned and able to stand shipment sell for three dollars a pair. The squabs sell alive for ten dollars to twelve dollars a dozen. It costs no more to feed and raise these birds than other pigeons. The selling price both for squabs and breeders being so much larger, that is why the profitis larger. Onaccount of the tremendous demand for these birds for breeders, nobody is selling the squabs from them killed, but uf they ever get so numerous that squabs are marketed from them, the price will be the very top notch. This breed has been developed by the pigeon breeders of Belgium. There are some Carneaux in France and Germany, but they are inferior in size and beauty to the Belgian birds, and few in number. They are not very plentiful in Belgium. We have made arrangements for the output of all the adult, perfect pairs-of Carneaux the breeders of Belgium can furnish, fit for breeding, but so far they have not been able to furnish us more than 200 pairs a month, so scarce are the birds. We hope to get more from them. We have saved out 500 pairs Carneaux and are breeding them at our farm. We can supply Carneaux imported by us, or (in limited number) bred by us from birds of our importation. Why is the demand for Carneaux so much greater than the supply? Just this: They eat no more than Homers, but breed faster, and breed bigger squabs. In other words, they not only produce more squabs than the Homers, but the squabs bring at least one-third more money. The breeder making a profit from Homers will make more than double his profits with Carneaux. For years, the study has been to produce a pigeon larger than the Homer which would breed faster than the Homer. This has been accomplished in the Carneaux. We know it by our own investigation and actual breeding of this variety, and we know it by the experiences of our customers. The big breeds, all of which we have tried, such as Runts, Maltese, Italians (personally selected in Italy), breed big squabs, but they breed with exasperat- ing slowness. Crossed with Homers, the rate of breeding is improved, but the squabs are no larger than from our Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, so it is far better to breed the straight Extra Homers. The Carneaux breed squabs weighing a pound or more apiece and they breed nine pairs to ten pairs of squabs a year. For these two reasons, we believe that the Carneaux will displace the Homers in time. It will take many years because the Homers have a strong hold now and the Carneaux are scarce. Nevertheless, the cash returns from squabs weighing 12 pounds and 14 pounds to the dozen give a great profit to the breeder, and profits are what all squib breeders are after. Any one who has both Homers and Carneaux can get in a year from each pair of Carneaux 15 or more pairs of squabs. Theoretically this is impossible for any pigeons. However, the Carneaux have help from the Homers. Just how this done is fully explained by us at the end of this article in Le graph headed, “ How to Breed Fifteen Pairs of Squabs from One Pair of Car- neaux in Une Year.” One of our customers, a Southern gentleman, visited our farm in the fall of 1906. He liked the looks of the Carneaux and on returning home later sent for three pairs. which we shipped him December 26, 1906. On February 13, 1907, he wrote us asking how many pairs we could give him. He took all we could then supply at $6.00 a pair, giving the following endorsement of his first APPENDIX E 229 purchase: ‘‘ The three pairs I got December 28 have raised six squabs and are setting again (February 20), and I have not had them 60 days yet. So far they beat the Homers.” Under date of April 29, he wrote us. ‘‘ I have now, in my lofts, between 800 and 900 birds. Have Maltese, Mondaines, Carneaux and Homers, but the Carneau is the favorite bird with every- body that sees them. Have nearly 100 of these now and they are very rapid breeders, raising squabs that weigh from one to one and one-half pounds each. Have not sold any yet, but have enough orders on hand for them, at $6.00 a pair, to take all that I can raise for some time tocome. Think at the present rate I can get eight to ten pairs a year from them.” Under date of December 13, 1907, he wrote us as follows: ‘‘ I have now something over 100 pairs of Carneaux. Have sold a few pairs and could have sold many more, but wanted my stock to accumulate and get as many breeders on hand as pos- sible. They are the best birds for squab raising that I have ever seen, and I believe I have seen them all. They breed faster, eat less, are hardier, better setters and feeders, and gentler than any of the other breeds, and for beauty they are unsurpassed. I have all told now about 3000 birds in my lofts. Have been very successful with my plant so far. May want some more Carneaux from you later on,” A customer in Missouri bought four pairs of Carneaux and liked them well enough to buy six more pairs three months later, saying: ‘‘ I am keeping an accurate record, which promises to be something startling for the year. Two pairs went to work (laid eggs) within 10 days. The third pair went to work in 26 days. The fourth hen was not so well along in the moult and did not lay until November 8. The average weight of squabs at four weeks old has been 17.6 ounces, weighed without crops filled with feed. The four pairs have made nine nests in less than 90 days, or a total average production of better than nine pairsa year. The actual average production is better than this, of course, as it wouldn’t be fair to count an average until all birds are at work. I have found them to be all that is desirable in a pigeon. They are yood feeders and do not use more feed than the Homers.” In November, 1907, we shipped 21 pairs of our Carneaux to a Philadelphia breeder, who replied: ‘‘ To say I am pleased, these words do not express it. They are the finest lot of birds I have seen anywhere. My friend, who imported 25 pairs of Carneaux some time ago from Belgium, is very much disappointed with his Carneaux since he has seen the shipment you sent me. I shall endeavor to do all I can for the interest of your house in the way of orders. I received the 21 pairs of Carneaux Saturday, 8.30 p.m. On Mon- day, at 10 o’clock in the morning, nine pairs of the birds sent had almost completed nine nests in their new home (ina little over one day). This seems remarkable to me and I write you these few lines to get your opinion of the work they have done.” Other breeders, not our customers, who have bred the Carneaux, praise them as follows: “They will easily average three squabs a year in excess of select Homers. A conservative estimate of squab weight under favorable conditions is 18 ounces.” “They average nearly a pair of squabs per month. For fancy and squab producing qualities, the Carneaux easily lead all.” ‘No question about Carneaux. They are it.” ““T have only two pairs. Results are so satisfactory that I am clearing lofts to devote exclusively to Carneaux.” 230 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK ‘‘ The Carneaux boom has struck this country for fair.” ““ The Carneaux exceed all others in point of squab producing, not only in numbers and weight, but also in the clarity of the skin, the palatableness of the flesh, and prolific nature.” ‘“ The consensus of opinion seems to be that the Carneaux will produce 10 pairs, or 20 pounds of squabs per pair to the year, while some place the average higher. Few place it lower.” ‘All I have read has been substantiated by my own personal experience. Their yearly yield is from 10 to 11 pairs of squabs.”’ “My experience with Carneaux is limited to two years. They are great. The Carneaux will occupy the place of honor in loft and showroom. Ten pairs of squabs is the yield per year.”’ ‘““T have bred them two years. Carneaux are as superior to the Homer as the Homer is to the common pigeon. It is the rule rather than the exception for the Carneaux to produce nine pairs of white-meated squabs a year which will average one pound each. My experience proves conclusively that they will produce twice as many pounds of squabs in a year as the ordinary birds now generally used as squab breeders, and one of the most conspicuous points in their favor is the fact that the cost of keeping them is no more,” A few advertisers of pigeons who live inland, not in a seaport city, may ‘‘run down” imported pigeons, saying they are no good, culls, not acclimated, poor breeders, and so forth, ad nauseam. The reason why these soreheads fret so is, that it is impossible for them to import pigeons success- fully. To do this successfully, steadily, profitably, one must live on the sea- board, close to where the Antwerp steamers come, and must have a personal acquaintance with the officers of the steamships, and see them at every sail- ing, and pay them for their work in caring for the birds. The reason why those who decry imported pigeons do not sell them is simply that they cannot get them, or, if they think they can get them, they wish to sell something in which there is a greater profit. We have seen not much talk of this kind, in opposition to imported pigeons, but it will be indulged in more or less as the traffic in Carneaux increases. The trade calling for Carneaux in America must be supplied with imported birds or go without them, for nobody can ship day by day, steadily, Carneaux of his own raising. You should be sure and get Carneaux which have been in this country at least one or two months, and have got their sea-legs off, for it is our experience that the long voyage results in a goodly percentage of dead and injured birds, depending on the weather and the caretakers. That imported Carneaux go to work quickly is indicated by the letter of the Philadelphia gentleman above quoted, nine pairs out of 21 pairs having built nests within two days after delivery to him. Our trade in Carneaux is increasing every month and we expect to sell many thousand pairs in 1908 and 1909. We recommend them to our cus- tomers. We do not wish anybody to take our word for their excellence. Try them alongside of your Homers and form your own opinion. Anybody who buys Carneaux of us and is not perfectly satisfied with them, and that ail we say here is true, after six months’ trial, may exchange them for our Extra Pymoutl Rock Homers at the rate of three pairs of Homers for one pair of arneaux, APPENDIX E 231 HOW TO BREED FIFTEEN PAIRS OF SQUABS FROM ONE PAIR OF CARNEAUX IN ONE YEAR. (Copyright, 1908, by Elmer C. Rice). During the first eight months of the year, January to August, the Carneaux may be robbed of their eggs twice a month and they wil’ lay again about 10 days later. A pair of Carneaux build a nest, and the two eggs are laid. Ou the day they are laid (or the second or third day, if the first day is not convenient for you) you take away the two eggs from the Carneaux nest and carry them in your hands to the pen where you have Homers breeding. You look around in the pen until you find a nest with Homer eggs. You throw these Homer eggs away, putting in their place the two Carneaux eggs. The Homers keep right on sit- ting and hatch out, not their own eggs, but the two Carneaux eggs, and raise the two Carneaux squabs. Meantime, the pair of Carneaux from which you took the eggs wish more eggs, and within 10 days to 14 days the hen lays again. Now, as you did at first, you take away these two eggs from the Carneaux and put them under Homers. Do not take away the third setting of eggs from the Carneaux. Let the eggs stay in the Carneaux nest and the Carneaux will hatch and raise them. For example, a Carneau hen lays two eggs June 1. Take them away and substitute them for the eggs in a Homer nest. The Carneau hen will lay again June 10 to June 15. Take the two eggs away and substitute them for the eggs in a Homer nest. The Car- neau hen will lay again June 25 to July 1. This will give you three settings of eggs from one pair in 30 days. Let the Carneaux raise the third setting and then repeat the process. During the last four months of the year, take away the eggs only once and let the female Carneau set on the second pair of eggs. From 15 pairs to 18 pairs of squabs from one pair of Carneaux may be produced in one year by the above method. With Carneaux selling for six dollars a pair, of course it pays to use Homers to increase the supply of Carneaux. With ordinary success, in follow- ing this method, the capacity of a pair of Carneaux may be doubled. COMMENT ON ABOVE. We do not think this forcing method would have the slightest effect on the health of the Carneaux, Hens and ducks lay a great many more egys than 232 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK pigeons. It is not much strain on the female pigeon to lay four or six eggs a month instead of two. The strain of production comes from setting on the eggs day after day, not in laying the eggs, we should guess. Why not take away all the Carneaux eggs and hatch them under Homers, some may ask. We do not believe in this, as far too unnatural. The Car- neaux should be given an opportunity to raise the third setting, for that is what they are striving for. This method has been tested thoroughly with birds purchased from us and it works all right. There is nothing far-fetched about it. You simply take the eggs away and let Homers hatch them out. At the same time, simple as this plan is, it has never been published before, to our knowledge, nor has it ever been tried except by a few breeders of our acquaintance. It is not uncommon for breeders of fancy pigeons of poor feeding and raising qualities to put their eggs under Homers, but no motive for doubling the squab pro- duction from certain pigeons has ever existed until today, when it is money in the breeder’s pocket to turn out all the six-dollar pairs of Carneaux he can in the shortest space of time. In following the above directions the breeder should realize that the Carneaux eggs must replace Homer eggs laid within two days of the same time, otherwise the bird milk of the Homers will be too old and thick, and the young Carneaux cannot assimilate it and may die. (Later. January 1, 1909.) Another year of breeding and shipping the Carneaux has substantiated our opinion of them, and the orders from customers have been added proof. On page 229 we mention a Western customer who started with four pairs of our Carneaux, then added six pairs. He was so pleased with results that in 1908 he ordered 30 pairs more, then again 35 pairs, and finally in November, 1908, an order for 150 pairs amounting to $900. No more comment con- cerning his opinion of our Carneaux is needed—his money tells an eloquent story. This customer is an experienced pigeon breeder. From the letters of other customers to whom we sold Carneaux in 1908, we make the following extracts. The full letters are on file at our Boston office, where they will be produced at any time to satisfy anybody as to their genuineness: Enclosed find check for 30 for which please send me five pairs of your Carneaux birds. I bought one pair of you sume time ago and am much pleased with them. Please ship me two more pairs of Carneaux as soon as possible. The other two pairs you shipped are doing nicely. The eight pairs of Carneaux received from you April 25 have behaved beautifully with the exception of one pair. Nine days frum date of arrival one pair had a nest andtwoeggs. Today (May 26) I have four pairs of squabs and expect three more pairs the last of this week. They surely have followed President Roosevelt’s prolific policy. Iam greatly pleased and am be- coming interested in the possibilities of squab raising with the Carneaux. Regarding the pair that have net turned out right, J will ask your advice. The female (the smallest bird of all) laid two eggs in a bowl without any nesting material and left them to spend her time with her male partner in the flying pen. I will thank you in advance four any advice you can give regarding this neglivent pair. I thought it might interest you to know how the Carneaux have done that I bought of you in 1907, In June, 1907, I bought of you two pairs, in September one pair, in December, 1907, one pair, and I now (December 17, 1908) have 21 pairs mated and working. I have 114 birds not yut mated, and have sold $44 worth of mated pairs and young not mated. Do you not think I have done well? I find the Carneaux a most charming bird, very tame, and they never leave the APPENDIX E 233 nest when setting when you approach them. They feed their young fine, and raise squabs that weigh from 12 to 18 and 20 ounces at one month old. I have one pair of young mated last Jan- uary that I have been offered $10 for. 1 find much pleasure in mating up these birds, and I think I have got as good foundation stock as I could get anywhere. The Carneaux judge at the show told me that one of the hens purchased from you was as good a Carneau hen as he had ever seen, I have one young pair that have been breeding several months and they are averaging a pair of squabs a month, and have never lost a single squab. Their hatches are usually one or two days inside of a month, My Carneaux are very fast breeders, and I find by mating rightly I can increase their speed in breeding. They are everlastingly at it. I have got so much at- tached to the Carneaux that if there was no money in raising them I still would want a good flock of them. What could you sell me 100 pairs for, and how soon could you deliver them to me ? The birds which you sent me on Monday arrived here Wednesday at 10 o’clock in good condition. The Carneaux are great and ] wish to thank you for the extra Homer hen. It is a dandy. My other two pairs of mated Homers have eggs now and my first pair of Carneaux have young ones. I am delighted as your birds and dealings are first class, You can bet that I'll be writing for more as soon as possible. i I have now over 150 pairs of Carneaux. Your birds (Carneaux) have done well. I am now shipping 20 dozen per week and getting $4 per dozen. If it would keep up that way all the year here (Florida) I would ask for no better business. I shall be in Boston later on in the year and will call on you. I much want to see your Carneaux. The Carneaux birds arrived in noble condition. We are very much pleased with them, and every one here that has seen them cannot get through talking about them. We certainly appreciate your promptness and methods in doing business and must say that you do more than you promise to. Will in a few days write you for more supplies that we will be in need of, Again thanking you for the way you have treated our order, we can give you our hearty support in any way that the buying public may demand of you, and you are at liberty to use this letter wherever it is of any value to you. We received the three pairs of Carneaux April 27. They were in good condition, only one seems a little dull, but I think it will be all right. They are the largest pigeons I ever saw and are all that you claim them to be. When we have room we want to get more from you. One of our neighbors is going to start raising pigeons and wants me to sell him my squabs. I had to refuse and told him I thought Mr. Rice would furnish him with all the birds he wants, so I give you his name. My Carneaux birds are doing fine, in fact, I am more than pleased with them. I have had ten settings and have just weighed a squab at one week old and it weighed a pound. We could hardly believe our eyes, but itis true. I am delighted with them. Any time I can help you in any way in regard to using my name you are welcome in regard to your Carneaux, as we think oes are the only kind of pigeons to raise and we will get rid of all our Homers and raise only arneaux. I have been so very busy with Carneaux, chickens, hens, etc., that I have found no time to write before. I think the birds are very handsome and on May 8, every pair (16) had nests and eggs. I expect they will begin to hatch the first young ones about May 14, tomorrow. I would like to ask you whether you have three pairs of Carneaux mated, as I am very much pleased with my first pair. They are all you claim them to be in size and have just finished building their nest. The Carneaux arrived all O.K, on the 12th, Yesterday four of them built nests and laid one eggeach. I call this fast work. Accept my thanks for quality of birds. Some months ago I wrote you in regard to the pair of solid red Carneaux which I purchased of you last December to show at the Rochester Pigeon Show last January. [he cock took first prize and the hen second prize. My Carneaux are doing fine and I find much in them that is very interesting. I have raised a fine lot of young Carneaux this year and they are all from your stock. My squab Homers are doing fine and I still have every one of the original 12 pairs I purchased of you November 9, 1904, and they are all working right along. I have received your Carneaux in fine shape, and they are as fine birds as 1 have. I am very much pleased with them. I wish to say that the four pairs of Carneaux my brother got of you last November have raised 16 fine birds. 234 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Iam more than pleased with the pair of Carneaux which I got from you and send another order for two more pairs. I have the finest Homers I have ever seen but they look very small beside the Carneaux and if the Carneaux breed well I will send for more orders. Iam very much pleased with my Carneaux and will be glad to send you photographs as s. as I get some. I had the address of a man in this State who claims to be annie and breeder of Carneaux and Homer pigeons. I wrote him for a price on red, and red and white birds, just in those words, and he said, yes, he had just what I wanted at $2.50 each, three for $6, and he would make a personal selection of the birds, which were second prize winners, But you ought to have seen the birds he sent me, not near as good as my own. I returned them to him, but he said they were just what I ordered and that 1 expected to get show birds under the pretence of ordering breeding birds, also he did not ship birds on approval at this time of year, He had the advantage as he held my money. He said show birds demanded a big price. He refused a price of $150 for one bird in his exhibit at State Fair. Now, I saw those Carneaux and they were no better than some of mine. One of the pans I bought from you last Spring throw some elegant birds. As I] am an amateur I suppose I must learn that all pigeon dealers are not white. I had no idea of showing my birds, but as this dealer seemed to be afraid I would, I think it would be a good idea to go in and show him that “ there are others.” If I have as good luck next season as | have this year, I think Ican doit. Three of the females are from this best pair I mentioned. All three pairs hatched seven pairs young, working right through the moult. . The shipment of Carneaux arrived just a month ago and is very satisfactory. Nine of the ten pairs are mated, and seven have squabs. The birds arrived several days before the nappies, but they adapted themselves to circumstances. One pair nested in a grit box, another pair in the oyster-shell box and three pairs on the floor. The nest bowls arrived just in time to save the drinking fountain. The pair of Carneaux received in good shape, and am well pleased with them. Think they will soon be at work, have commenced to drive. Will want another pairin a few weeks. Every one that has seen them says they beat everything they have ever seen. The three pairs of Carneaux and seven pairs of Homers arrived here March 25, The Carneaux are very large, fine birds. There are several squab raisers here (California), One man has 8000 birds and another has 5000, mostly Homers, but when they saw my Carneaux they nearly went wild. I am going to order more Carneaux in a few days but not until I see what they will do. I will clear my lofts of Homers as fast as I can and stock up with Carneaux if they prove to be even as good a breeder as the Homer. The Carneaux are doing fine. One pair went to setting within 24 hours after arrival. The other pair laid two eggs without building a nest so of course are not setting, but I believe they are building now as they stay indours a great deal of the time. Am writing you this as I thought it might be of interest to you to know how your birds are doing that you sold. I brought the doctor with whom you have been corresponding in regard to the Carneaux, around to see my birds and told him of the very good work the have dene and he seemed very much pleased with them. What are 100 of these birds worth? I believe in time they will take the place of the Homers. The three pairs of Extra Homers and three pairs Carneaux arrived this morning in fine condi- tion, and are a fine lot of birds. Iam well pleased with them. They seem to be in a hurry to get to work, as one of the Carneaux laid this afternoon. I think all of them will be on eggs in afew days. Will want more breeders later, when you will hear from me. Thank you for send- ing me such good birds. As I have promised you, this lady has ordered me to get more Carneaux for her. She is very proud of the five pairs you sold her, She has got the Carneaux fever for fair. So here you are, kindly have ready for next Saturday afternoon, we will call fur them, five pairs of your best Carneaux. Kindly note, she will want more in about two weeks. She has given me the money already, so it is up to you to do your best. In hernameI thank you, I will call next Saturday about 1 p.m, for them if you can get them ready. Please advise me if the Carneaux pigeons purchased from you November 23 are imported birds, or are they bred by you from the imported stock. The birds are doing excellent work. I purchased 20 pairs and at this writing have 20 nests. Every bird in the loft has eggs or squabs, of the lot purchased, 20 pairs. I am well pleased with the pair of Carneaux which, arrived Saturday in good condition. Please send me three more pairs of same on the same conditiuns, for which I enclose herewith $18. APPENDIX E 235 I thank you for your compliments regarding my success at recent leading shows with my Carneaux. Three years ago in one of my consignments of pigeons from abroad, I received a few pairs of Carneaux., I kept them and bred several fine specimens. I am not a regular pigeon dealer. 1am a fancier more. I work every day at my trade. Pigeons with me are a side issue. I have bought of you since December last over $148 of Carneaux, all for a few customers. _Now,these exhibitions in different cities I made have created a furore and everybody is after me for Carneaux. One party says, ‘‘ A man like you that exhibits such fine Carneaux must have some fine ones at your lofts. I want your Carneaux,” etc. 1 will send you an order for five pairs and I can guarantee you more orders next week. I received my last order of pigeons two or three days ago; which was my_ third order from you. The Homers were very fine and the Carneaux were the finest pigeons I have ever seen. They are simply grand and if I could not get any more like them I would not take one hundred dollars for them. They were driving the hens and feeding in one minute after I turned them out. They all have nests now. You have treated me very nicely and I like to do business with you. You have always treated me right. I had a letter from a pigeon man yesterday, about 150 miles from here, but I did not know how they would use me and so I give my order to you. Enclosed find check for $50 for which please send me three pairs of your very best in poe and the rest, a nice assortment of best Homers. (This is the fourth order from this customer, The eight pairs of Carneaux which you sent me last Friday arrived Saturday morning at 9.30, making seven and one-half hours better time than the shipment of Homers you made me on November 1 last. They are certainly beautiful birds. I tried putting each pair in mating coops immediately on their arrival, having previously removed the partitions, and by four o'clock that afternoon six pairs had mated. The other two pairs mated the following morning. I was going to go to see you last Saturday but it was so cold I postponed it. Kindly fill my. order for five pairs of Carneaux. All Carneaux bought of you are entirely satisfactory. It is a pleasure to deal with you. I will have the money ready when I call for them. Kindly advise when you can fill my order. The Carneaux were in fine shape and I am well pleased with them. I am enclosing money order for $12 for which please ship, at once as per my other order, two pairs more of mated Carneaux. Please give the filling of this order careful attention, as it means a great deal to me. dh these Hinds do as well as I hope they will, I shall place an order for about 50 or 75 pairs in e near future. I am in receipt of the four pairs of Carneaux which were shipped on June 1, The birds are doing nicely, all four pairs having nested and laid. The Carneaux came to hand last Tuesday and to say I am pleased with them is putting it entirely too mild. They are the prettiest, biggest things in the pigeon line Il eversaw. Every one that sees them says that they are stunners, they are the talk of the town. Will do as you suggest about the plan and photo of the house I built for less than $20, and it is a dandy for this climate, too. If you wish to refer any one to me or have me show any one the Carneaux, just say so and I will be only too glad to doit. Thank you for the prompt and careful attention given my order. Our two crates of birds arrived two weeks ago. We thank you for the fine lot you sent. They are certainly as fine as any one can hope to possess. We have the room now for 700 or 800 pairs and we intend to fill this up with Plymouth Rock Extra Homers and Carneaux. We are ‘‘stuck’’ on the Carneaux but they are nearly out of our reach. Please give us all the information you can about selling squabs. Can we reach New York? We understand that wecan, We raise more squabs in the winter than we can easily handle in this city. We note the markets in the Packer but they are always just_as you say, below the actual market prices. Our birds will win all the prizes at the County Fair again this year. The Carneaux arrived Monday snoring and were O.K. and to say I am pleased with them does not express it, as I think the pair of yellows are the best I ever saw. I was surprised to find the extra hen, as I did not expect you to make good the loss of the other one. I thank you very much for the nice way you have treated me in our dealings, and hope to do more business with you later, In regard to our conversation of last week about the Carneaux, will state that I like the birds much better than the Homers, as both squab raisers and show birds. Every one who has seen my birds says they are the largest and finest birds they ever saw. From the one pair of Carneaux I purchased of you in March, 1908, I have raised five and lost three. They laid in 236 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK CARNEAU SQUAB COMPARED WITH HOMER SQUAB. The Plymouth Rock Carneau squab at the left of the above photograph weighs 17/4 ounces, The Homer squab alongside at the right weighs twelve ounces, about three weeks after arriving here, so you see they have been at work nearly all the time and are now setting. I have entered five of them at our County Fair, New York, and expect to capture all the prizes as I have no competition and had to enter them in a special class. I have a pair of yellow birds which I prize highly. The Carneaux should make a great showing in the squab industry. I received your special offer on your Plymouth Rock Homers, but I don't see any reference to your Carneaux. I have made up my mind to discard all birds except the Carneaux. I have had one pair from you and I am well satisfied. Now what are your lowest terms, say for five or ten pairs, express paid to my address? Mr. Rice, I want them in time so I ean show them at our fair in September. So far Lam the only one in Colorado who has a pair of Carneaux, and I believe I could get quite a few orders for you if I put good birds on exhibition. The three pairs of Carneaux are doing well. The squabs are very large. One pairof squabs especially, I feel sure, will weigh a pound and a quarter each at about a month old. We purchased from you Homers about six months ago and Carneaux about three months ago. Both are satisfactory and we like the work very much, We are going to build a house for them this fall so as to make room for more stuck. The pigeons you shipped me last week arrived this morning in fairly good condition, con- sidering the long distance they travelled. The Carneaux were extra lively. They mated in less than an hour after being taken from the crate. 1 am more than pleased with the Carneaux and think they are the finest birds I ever saw and shall take great pride in showing them to my friends. T have 50 pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers which we bought of you. _They are doing all right but I like the Carneaux better. The worst thing about the business is the killing part. If I APPENDIX E 237 could get around that part I would enjoy it better. That is the reason I would like to get started with the Carneaux, The Carneaux are beyond my expectations. I have bred all kinds of pigeons, but have never seen such breeders in my life. I have bred youngsters from them weighing 193, ounces at 20 days old. Can you beat that? Enclosed please find order for six dozen nest bowls. I suppose you may be interested to hear about the breeders you sent me last spring. The two pairs of Carneaux are doing fine. They have hatched five pairs of squabs since. The Carneaux I bought from you are coming along finely now. I have had luck with two or three settings and now have ten young pigeons from two pairs. I bought four pairs of Carneaux of you last November and now (October) have 37 birds. I am going to order some more Carneaux sure. As far as I have seen they are the bird. My neighbors here say that mine look more like turkeys than pigeons. Some time ago I ordered of you five pairs of Plymouth Rock Carneaux at $6 per pair and am very much pleased with same. I am particularly interested in the building up in point of weight in this particular bird. Hence I beg to be advised whether you would select shipment of extraordinary size at increased price and if so, extent of increased size or weight as compared with the general run of this bird, and at what cost? (Later we received an order from this customer for five pairs more.) The Carneaux were purchased of you some time in December last, I think, first three pairs. Then later my partner went over and purchased of you three pairs more, making six pairs of imported birds purchased of you. The balance are the offspring of the original six pairs. I shall have no hesitancy in recommending the Carneaux to any who may inquire. They have proved more prolific than the Homers and much heavier birds. The Carneaux proved well. Enclosed find $6 for another pair. We are slowly selling off our Homers. (This customer has bred Homers for many years.) We started with six pairs of your Carneaux shipped March 26, 1908. We have divided our loft into two pens, one for the breeders and one for the young. At this time, October 23, we have forty birds altogether, which we considera good increase. The young birds are begin- ning to mate. Our flock worked right through the moulting season. We enjoy the birds and the work among them very much. (Later—November 23.) We now have forty-five Carneaux all told and eight pairs at work. The above letters from customers give a clear idea of how our CarneAaux are getting along in the United States and Canada. Our trade in them increased in 1908 steadily and we are going to ship thousands of pairs in 1909. PLYMOUTH ROCK CARHOMES. The crossing of a Plymouth Rock Carneau cock to a Plymouth Rock Extra Red Checker Homer female produces a splendid squab and we recommend this cross if you wish to save a little money on your first purchase. If you have some of our Extra Plymouth Rock Homer females now in your flock, red checkers, we will ship you our Carneaux males to mate with them at $2.50 each. Or, if you so instruct us, we will mate a Carneau male to a red checker Homer Extra female and sell the pair to you for $3.50—as many pairs as you wish at $3.50 a pair. The price of our Carneaux is $6 a pair, one price only. (No special offers made on this breed.) So in buying the Carneau-Homer combination of us instead of the pure Carneaux you will save $2.50 on every pair you buy. We call this combination Carhomes, taking enough of each word to make the desired meaning. We advocate red-checker Plymouth Rock Extra Homer females instead of the other colors because the color combination 238 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK is the prettiest and also because the resulting squabs have red plumage closely resembling the pure Carneaux squabs. Of course they cannot be sold for breeders as pure stock Carneaux but these Carhome squabs can be put on the market in competition with pure . :rneaux squabs and will sell up to them surprisingly strong. One of our customers who is pro- ducing these Carhome squabs writes the following emphatic words: “The results of my breeding one of your Carneau cocks to a red-checker Extra Homer female are more than satisfactory. First, it is impossible to tell the difference in color and size. Second good result, it makes the young ones very hardy. I made other experiments by crossing a Carneau cock with an English hen Homer (carrier). The results are not so good because you can al ay English blood in the squabs and it destroys the beauty of the Carneau ead.”’ We do not breed Carhomes at our farm because our reputation has been built up and will be continued on pure stock. But if you wish to breed squabs for market, then you can go ahead with confidence on this cross. We sell them at the price formerly charged by some for Homer pairs, and they are superior to any Homers for producing big squabs and breeding fast. Understand, there is nothing to prevent you from building up a business in the Carhomes for breeders but you cannot sell them representing them as pure Carneaux. The blood of the young will be half Carneaux and half Homer. You sell them on their merits as squab-breeders. For our customers of many years’ standing who are shipping steadily in to the markets of all the cities on this continent not only the best Homer squabs, but three-fourths of all the squabs sold, we recommend our Carneaux cocks to be crossed with their red-checker Homer females as the best means of increasing the weight per dozen of their output and the quantity of squabs produced; and bettering both the appearance of the squabs and the quality of the meat. We do not advocate the crossing of a Homer red-checker cock to a Carneau hen (or, to coin a word, Homecarnes) because (1) the cock should be master in fact as well as name, (2) the female likes a large male better than a small male, (3) the female is not so likely to break her mating to secure a more vigorous helpmate, (4) the male is better able to defend his mate and family from othcr -nales or females, (5) the male Carneau, the best of his kind, is larger and better than the male Homer, the best of his kind. (The female Carneau is inferior to the male Carneau.) CARNEAUX AND HOMERS NOT IN THE SAME PEN. As a rule, each breed of pigeons should be kept in a pen separate from other breeds. If different breeds are kept in the same pen, the breeds may mux, no maiter how carefully the pairs are mated, and of course the young are liable te mix. There is nothing about a Homer pigeon which keeps it true to its own species. If Fantails or any other fancy breeds of pigeons are kept in the same pen with Homers, there is nothing about the Homer which would lead it to be true to its own species. He or she is just as liable to seek a different breed for a mate. As to the two kinds we sell, the Homers and the Carneaux, if they were kept in the same pen, it is quite possible that an attachment for a Carneau cock or hen might form with a Homer of the opposite sex. So if you are breeding both the Carneaux and the Homers for the pure stock you should keep them separate. APPENDIX F (Copyright, 1909, by Elmer C Rice.) Letters from customers which we print on the following pages are a few of those received lately. From a pile of manuscript some three feet high we have selected enough letters to make a proper setting for the pictures. Many customers have sent in letters which ought to be printed for the news in them, but in this book, now grown to quite bulky proportions, we have run up against the limit of space. A MONTHLY SQUAB MAGAZINE. The best outlet for suggestions, experiences, market reports from all over the country, etc., constantly being sent in, would be a monthly squab maga- zine, printed and illustrated in the best style, capably edited and written by experienced and industrious men and women who have ability as well as good intentions, who know what they are doing, and who know squabs. Such a magazine, creditably gotten up, with money behind it, and money com- ing in from subscribers really pleased because they would be getting full value, would be a power in the squab industry. Properly managed, it would not only be a clearing house for ideas and a monthly entertainment, but of assistance in actually making market prices for squabs, bettering them. Breeders of squabs should be organized for better prices and other ends. A first-class monthly squab magazine would be cheap at a subscription price of $1 a year, issued on time each month, and containing nothing but original matter at first-hand (no politics or cheap wrangling, but plain and thorough business all the time.) There is a demand for such a national squab magazine and thousands of breeders would subscribe for it. MORE ABOUT HOW TO TELL SEX. A good proportion of our letters, month after month and year after year, inquire how to tell the sex of pigeons. People ask us this question before they have read this Manual and after they have read the Manual. We should like to write this down to the remotest detail so that even a child could tell the sex of a pigeon by looking at it, but this is impossible. There is no language which can convey the secret of telling absolutely the sex of pigeons. You can tell only by watching them and by experience gained by this watching. You become more expert in determining the sex as you go along. There are no marks on either male or female by which you can distinguish them at any age. Some large male pigeons act the same as roosters do and can be told almost at a glance. On the other hand, some female pigeons are large and coarse, like a male bird, and the secret of their sex is disclosed only by their actions in conjunction with birds of the opposite , sex. The birds we ship are banded cocks on right leg and hens on left leg. You must watch these birds and see how they act. By the location of the band you will know the sex and by their actions you will learn to connect what you see with the specified sex. Sometimes customers will write to us and state that they have raised birds and are puzzled about the sex of them. In that case you must watch their actions or you can turn such birds in with 239 240 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK some of our birds and watch their behavior in connection with our birds. You will know the sex of our birds by the bands on their legs, and when you have determined by the actions of your birds what the sex of them is, catch them and band them, putting a band on the right leg of the cock and a band on the left leg of the hen. It is impossible to band a squab four or five days old with a seamless band so as to designate the sex. You cannot tell the sex of a squab or young pigeon until it discloses by its actions at mating age, four or five months, what it is. If you put a seamless band on a young squab, the object is to show the age, not the sex. The best way for the business squab breeder is to put an open band on the leg of the squab, showing its age, by its date, and bearing a distinguishing number which you refer to in your records. You can put this band on either the right leg or the left leg of the squab. When the young bird grows up to mating age and you find out its sex, then change the band to either the right or left leg to suit the case. It is not a difficult matter to determine the sex of a pigeon by watching, for sooner or later you will see actions that will tell you. You must not be guided much by a little quarrelling which you sometimes see going on. Two hens will quarrel the same as two cocks. If two or three pigeons are ex- tremely puzzling to you, handle them in this manner: Take them out of the breeding pen and put each pigeon in a small coop or box in the dark and keep them there for two or three days, each pigeon in a separate box or coop. Feed and water them regularly, then take them out of their little coops and put them into mating coops with other birds. They will generally disclose their sex as they are anxious for companionship after being shut in so long. Another way to do this is to take two birds and put them into a mating coop, one on each side of the partition, and put a bag or other covering over the coop so that the place will be darkened for two or three days. Feed and water daily. Then take off the covering and take out the partition in the middle of the mating coop and watch the two birds as they come together. The beginner should familiarize himself with the billing, treading and driving as he sees the birds. We have had customers write us and declare that we had shipped them squabs because they had seen what they thought young birds taking nourishment from the older birds. What they really had seen was a male bird kissing or billing with a female bird, a matter entirely different. The male and female mates not only bill, tread and drive, but they nestle close at times, each running his or her bill through the feathers on the neck and head of the other. Pigeon breeding is an ancient hobby and pastime in England. An English writer, Dixon, years ago described their love affairs in choice words. It is a pretty sight, said Dixon, to see pigeons at liberty when “ courting.” They begin to go together in pairs, except while associated with the flock at feeding- «times; and when they are resting on the roofs, or basking in the sun, they retire apart to a short distance for the purpose of courtship, and pay each other little kind attentions, such as nestling close, and mutually tickling the heads one of another. At last comes what is called ‘ billing,’ which is in fact a kiss, a hearty and intense kiss. As soon as this takes place, the marriage is complete, and is forthwith consummated. The pair are now united, not necessarily for life, though usually so, but rather durante bene placito, so long as they continue to be satisfied with each other. If they are APPENDIX F 241 Tumblers, they mount aloft and try which can tumble best; if they are Pouters, they emulate one the other's puffings, tail-sweepings, circlets in the air, and wing-clappings; while the Fantails and Runts, and all those kinds which the French call pigeons mondains, walk the ground with conscious importance and grace. But this is their honeymoon—the time for the frolics of giddy young people. The male is the first to become serious. He foresees that ‘‘ the Campbells are coming” better than his bride, and therefore takes possession of some locker or box that seems an eligible tenement. If it is quite empty and bare, he carries to it a few straws or light sticks; but if the apartment has been already furnished for him, he does not at present take much further trouble in that line. Here he settles himself, and begins complaining. His appeal is sometimes answered by the lady affording him her presence, sometimes not; in which case he does not pine in solitude very long, but goes and searches out his careless helpmate, and with close pursuit and a few sharp pecks if necessary, insists upon her attending to her business athome. Like the good husband described in Fuller's Holy State, ‘‘ his love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her, and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her.”” And so the hen obeys, occasionally, however, giving some trouble; but at last she feels that she must discontinue general visiting and long excursions, and enters the modest establishment that has been prepared for her performance of her maternal duties. A day or two after she has signified her acceptance of the new home, an egg may be expected to be found there. Over this she (mostly) stands sentinel till, after an intervening day, a second egg is laid, and incubation really commences, not hotly and energetically at first, as with hens, turkeys, and many other birds, but gently and with increasing assiduity. And now the merits of her mate grow apparent. He does not leave his lady to beara solitary burden of matrimonial care. He takes a share, though a minor one, of the task of incubating; and he more than performs his half-share of the labor of rearing the young. At about noon, sometimes earlier, the hens leave their nests for air and exercise as well as food, and the cocks take their place upon the eggs. If you enter a pigeon-loft at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, you will find all the cock-birds sitting—a family arrangement that affords an easy method of discovering which birds are paired with which. The ladies are to be seen taking their respective turns in the same locations early in the morning, in the evening, and all the night. The older a cock-pigeon grows, the more fatherly does he become. So great is.his fondness for having a rising family, that an experienced unmated cock-bird, if he can but induce some flighty young hen to lay him a couple of eggs as a great favor, will almost entirely take the charge of hatching and rearing them himself. We are possessed of an old Blue Antwerp Carrier which by following this line was, with but little assistance from any female, an excellent provider of pie materials, till he succeeded in educating a hen Barb to be a steady wife and mother. There was a good deal of observation put into pigeons by Mr. Dixon before he expressed the above sentiments and what he saw you will see when you watch your flock. HOW TO KEEP DOWN AN EXCESS OF COCKS. One of our customers in Connecticut of considerable experience and original thought has tried out our Homers with birds from other sources, and 242 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK has found them superior to all he has tried. He had no culls among the squabs. He has bought largely of our Homers and Carneaux. He had been trying on some white Homers our plan for getting 15 pairs from one pair of breeders in a year and thought the plan was original with him. This is an indication of the careful attention he has given to the details of the business. Here is another plan he has been working. An excess of cocks seems to be one of the troubles of some in raising young.birds and for that reason we have requests for single hens. This customer proceeds on the theory that the second egg is said to hatch a hen, so he goes among the nests every day and marks all single eggs 1 with a pencil. Then in a couple of days when the second egg has come he marks it 2. Then he puts both the 2 eggs in one nest and both the 1 eggs in the other nest, making a memorandum of the nests and what he has done. When killing day arrives for these nests he saves the 2 squab and kills the 1 squab, thereby hoping to raise two hens. How this will work out in actual practice he does not know, because he has not been doing it long enough. We speak of it here so that our customers may try it if they wish and see how they come out. While in some lofts there may be an excess of male birds caused by con- tinuous breeding, it is truc chat the law of the species is to hatch out equally. Otherwise in time, and a comparatively short time too, the entire species would be extinct. Itis absolutely not true that more cocks than hens hatch out. The law is that equal numbers hatch out, for this law is necessary to the propagation of the species. We have had thousands of customers start with three pairs or six pairs or twelve pairs and increase from that small beginning to 200 or 300 pairs or more, as our letters from customers show. This is proof that the law of equal sex holds fairly good even in the restricted confines of a small squab house. Squab raising for profit is a new business for the Connecticut customer above mentioned. He is well up on pigeons as a fancy or rather amusement, having kept in Europe at one time or another a few pairs of all breeds. He has been getting $4.50 for his squabs all summer in Connecticut, with some at $3.50 to his local butcher who retails them at $4.50, unassorted, running over eight pounds to the dozen. He says the more he sees of this business the more he is convinced that conducted right there is, big money in it; but conducted wrong it is a poor business. This is certainly correct, and is why we insist upon our birds being used and managed in the way we tell both in this book, and the special instructions which we send out with every shipment. SQUAB HOUSES OF TWO AND THREE STORIES. We have been asked by customers whose ground is limited or who happen to have a certain plot, if a two-story house would not be alt right in which to raise squabs. Some of these customers have figured out carefully and thoroughly that the construction of the two-story house is cheaper than two one-story houses. A two-story house certainly may be built. We print on the opposite page a photograph of a two and one-half story pigeon house. This breeder is a good customer who has bought about $2000 worth of Plymouth Rock birds of us during the past four years, and he understands what he is about. We asked him to describe his plant. He says this house, which is part of his large plant, was not transformed from an old place, but APPENDIX F 243 TWO AND ONE-HALF STORY SQUAB HOUSE. This was built to utilize to best advantage a small plot of ground. For description see this page and the opposite page. was built especially for pigeons. It was almost a case of necessity with him, as all the plots of ground near him were owned by one man who stood out for a stiff price. The customer accordingly built this house and says he has never regretted it. After it was built he was able to purchase all the land he ever should need, and he bought it right. This three-story house is 54 feet long and 20 feet wide, 14 feet to top flat, 14 feet rafter with one foot pro- jection. The third floor is laid on a level with top flat. The third floor does not extend across the entire width of the building, but drops back five feet from each side, giving room for three nests from floor to roof. The four sides of these pens are lined with nests, and the pens are 10x10 feet. Single dormer window on north and two dormer windows on south (this is shown in photograph). No hallway on third floor, but steps from second floor go up near the center of the building, making it unnecessary to pass through all pens to reach the end pens. First and second floors alike have a four-foot hallway on the north side, and each floor has six pens 9x16 feet. The partitions between these pens are formed by the nest boxes. Feed and water from the hallway. The floors are of matched lumber and the first floor is double with paper between. The frame of building was first covered with heavy roofing of a popular brand and sided with ship-top lumber. Under the west end of this building is a basement 20x20 feet, cement floor, used for 244 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK picking and packing squabs. The building has 17 pens, and each pen has its flying pen which reaches the ground. For the first floor, the flying pens are nine feet wide and seven feet high, and extend out 20 feet from the building. Beyond the south end of flying pen for first floor, the flying pen extends another 20 feet. This extended pen is divided into two pens 10x9 feet on the ground. The birds from the second and third floors reach these pens through a fly-way above the flying pen of the first floor, one-half as wide. You will notice a tank (shown in photograph) on the roof. Water is forced from a cistern into this tank. All pens outside are connected with water main, making it easy to give the birds a bath. SQUABS FED ARTIFICIALLY. Sometimes it is desirable or necessary to feed a squab artificially, introduc- ing the right kind of a mixture withthe fingers or with a syringe. These efforts are more or less crude. The best way is as it is done in Italy, but it is doubtful whether our squab raisers would employ it. We first saw this done in Bologna, Italy. The squabs are shipped into Bologna from the outlying country when they are about the same age as our squabs, four weeks. They are always shipped in alive in common slatted coops. It is quite necessary that the squabs be fed before they are re-shipped alive as they always are to Paris or Monte Carlo or Aix-les-Bains. They are fed in the following manner: The workman mixes up a sort of thick gruel with grain and water. All the grain which he uses is quite fine, such as the finest size of cracked corn. Then he fills his mouth with a quantity of this mixture and begins feeding the squabs. He takes up a squab in his two hands and holds the bill of the squab to his mouth. The squab is hungry and naturally open its bill, or if not the operator opens the bill of the squab for him. The operator then with his tongue forces into the mouth of the squab a quantity of the mixture, and the squab fills its crop. Immediately another squab is taken and handled in the same manner. This process is done with great skill and rapidity. We watched one operator feed a coop of 24 squabs in five minutes. This artificial feeding of squabs is very common in Bologna and in other European cities, where it has been going on for years. The operators show no repugnance, but keep at the work as part of their daily round of duties month after month. NESTS ON THE FLOOR. It is impossible to prevent some pairs from building on the floor of the squab house. Squab breeders who have a large bump of system and order are cast down because all of their pairs do not stick to the nest boxes all the time. You cannot force certain pairs to breed in the nest boxes. They will pick out a corner on the floor or alongside of the crate containing the nesting material or under a tier of nest boxes. There they will build their nest and rear their squabs and they are generally left alone. Do not take their nests and eggs and put them in one of the nest boxes, for if you do it is not likely the birds will follow. Squabs from such nests should be carefully watched and should be taken away to be killed before they are strong enough to walk around on the floor, You will have to take away such squabs when they are full and plump at three weeks of age. If you leave them in the nest too long it is quite usual for them to get up and walk around on the floor and as soon as they do this APPENDIN F 245 they are no longer squabs, but have trained off their fat and become young pigeons. Squabs in the nest boxes do not walk around like these because ae realize that they are somewhat weak and will not take the flight to the oor, It is troublesome when cleaning to avoid some nests on the floor. When the young birds leave the nest boxes above they are quite helpless and will rest.on the floor. The old birds which have built their nests on the floor be ae the young birds and give them no rest. The cocks especially will o this. A customer has found out a way which he has had in use for some time to keep pairs off the floor and induce them to build in the nest boxes. When he finds a new nest on the floor, he lets the hen lay both eggs there and sit on them for one or two days. Then he makes anest box about twelve inches square and six inches high and places the nest, eggs and all, into this box and allows the nest box to stand on the floor of the squab house in the same spot where he found the original nest. He reports that nine times out of ten the hen will sit on the nest as before. He lets her sit on the eggs for three or four days more, then he takes the nest box, eggs and all, and screws or nails it to the side wall as near as possible to the spot where the nest was on the floor. Sometimes he raises the nest box from the floor a small distance at a time, one inch one day, another inch the following day. He says that although this is quite a trouble it seems to break the hen of the habit of building on the floor and the next time she is more than likely to build the nest off the floor. A PLAN TO GET RID OF RATS AND MICE. One of our customers gives us the following idea: Make a rough table of matched board with joists for legs, about three and one-half or four feet high and the same shape as the feed box, only have it three feet longer and three feet wider. This will allow for a platform 18 inches wide around the feed box for the birds to stand on and eat the grain; next make a rim, high enough so that when the pigeons are getting grain they will not scatter any on the floor. Do not be afraid of having the rim too high, eight inches will be all right. Have this eight-inch rim all around. The last thing is to buy some smooth, glassy tin plate and wrap a piece around each leg. It is not necessary to cover the whole leg, 12 to 18 inches will be enough. This will make it impossible for rats or mice to climb up over the tin and eat the grain. The legs should be 18 inches or two feet high. Another way to manage instead of using the tin is to put the feed box up on a platform and support this platform with four legs made of iron pipe. Generally there is a joint in the tin, and some mice may run up a joint or seam of this kind, putting their feet into the crack in the seam. If you use iron pipe to support the platform it will be impossible for the rats or mice to climb up this iron pipe to ...2 feed box. You should use four pieces of piping, one at each corner. Ries is another way to clean sut the mice: Take a small tight box, say six inches by six inches in size. Bore an inch or two-inch hole at one side near the bottom, put in a handful of feathers or cotton and lay the box on the floor in a secluded part of the squab house. In about two weeks go to the box quietly in the daytime, put your hand over the hole, and carry the box to a barrel or tub half full of water. The mice will jump ovt faster 246 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK than you can count. One customer got 48 at the first trial, and about ten the next time. This took them all and he was no longer troubled by mice. HOW TO MAKE PERCHES. In making perches, one of our friends has a plan that may be of use to some beginner. Take a square tobacco caddy with dove-tailed corners, such as can be had at any tobacco counter. Remove the bottom and saw the sides in two half way. A small block of wood nailed in the angle furnishes an easy way to fasten the perch to the wall. PITTSBURG MARKET. Our customers repeatedly call our attention to the fine market for squabs in Pittsburg. They are quoted at $4 a dozen in the newspapers there, and we have customers in that city who are getting as high as a dollar apiece, or $12 a dozen, for first-class squabs bred from our birds, weighing a pound apiece. It is quite true that Pittsburg is an excellent squab market, in fact, one of the best in the country, as there are so many rich people there. We have also some good, live, wide-awake customers who are shipping squabs to Pittsburg, and they have shown Pittsburg squab buyers the superiority of well-bred squabs. The result is that they have worked up an insistent demand which must be satisfied. What our customers have done for Pittsburg anybody can do living near a city, or a town. This work of letting your nearest market know what you have, and then showing what you have to the market must be done by you. Nobody can do it for you. The prices you can get for your squabs, and the demand for your squabs, which you can create, rest entirely with you. Nobody can do this from a distance—you are on the ground and such work must be done by you. LOW QUOTATIONS. Beginners may find in the newspapers or in letters from commission men a low quotation for squabs. Some will write to commission men and dealers asking them what they will pay for squabs, etc. In nearly every case the commission man or dealer will write back an absurdly low price. It is to his advantage of course to buy squabs as cheap as he can and sell as dear as he can. The most peculiar feature of such matters to us is that the breeder or prospective breeder of squabs apparently takes the matter for settled and writes us that he can get only $1.50 or $2 a dozen for squabs. Such people seem to be lacking entirely in any business ability. An eight-year- old boy who is accustomed to selling newspapers has enough business judg- ment to prevent him from writing such a letter. Of course the commission men or squab dealers start with a very low price. If the breeder -will sell to him at this very low price, that is so much more to the advantage of the commission man or dealer. He is writing to feel out the breeder. If the breeder writes back to him and says, “You. rrice is too low, you will never get my squabs for this figure,” then the con.mission man or dealer will raise his prices. The dealer who is selling squabs for from $3 to $6 or more a dozen (as they all are) will pay from $2.50 to $4 a dozen, no matter who he is or where he lives, in any part of the United States or Canada. The only way for you to determine the true market price of squabs wher- ever you live is to go into the market or apply by letter and offer to buy squabs and not to sell them. In all the letters you write and all the talk APPENDIX F 247 you make, offer to buy all the time and then the dealer will disclose to you the true prices. Then you will know what to sell your squabs for. If you find that he is selling squabs at $3 a dozen, he should pay you $2.50 a dozen. If he is selling squabs for $4 a dozen, he should pay you $3 a dozen for them and so on. Once more, be on your guard against market quotations. If you see squabs quoted in a newspaper or anywhere else at low prices it does not follow by any means that that price is the true one. Such figures are put in because they are the prices of the commission men or dealers, which they want to pay. No successful squab business can be built up if you allow a middleman to run your plant for you. You are simply buying grain and working for him. He has no trouble or expense to amount to anything but he takes the profits and you do all the work. When grain is high you must get more for your squabs than you do at other times. The trouble with many squab raisers we have found is that they have no actual knowledge of what it costs them to raise a dozen squabs. You must arrive at your cost of product absolutely and when you do it is folly to sell squabs for that figure or less. You must put them out at a profit or else go out of the business. Our best customers are those who have sense enough to sell to a private trade or to first-class wholesalers, and this must be your goal in every case, If you wish to make the most money, get right after your private trade until you secure it, as this is unlimited. People who are accustomed to eating chicken, as they are in every part of the country, will eat squabs. If they do not, it is your fault. You must tell them what a squab is and show them, and induce them to buy and eat them. If they do not know what a squab is, you must demonstrate. HOW TO KILL CATS. A kitten brought up in a squab house will make no trouble. We raise two or three kittens every year at Melrose and give them the run of the pigeon houses, and such cats are intelligent enough not to try to reach the squabs. Of all the cats we have raised we have had only one which we were obliged to shoot because of squab stealing. Cats belonging to the neighbors may cause some trouble in your squab house if you give them a chance to get in. A customer in Ohio has found a way to kill visiting cats. He does not like to have them around the squab house trying to get in so he puts exposed wires on the top of the flying pen and when the cats walk around on the top of the pen, looking for a chance to get at the pigeons inside, he throws a switch in the basement. A strong current of electricity shoots through the wires. The body of the cat makes a short circuit from one wire to the other so the charge of electricity passes through the cat. The result is that the cat tumbles off in double quick time and starts for the tall timber, if alive. He says he has electrocuted two and still has his hand near the switch. BREEDING TRUE TO COLOR. No colored Homers breed true to color. We mean by this that if you start with the blue-barred Homers, for example, and breed them, you will in time get from these blue-barred birds all the other colors, such as blue- checkers, red-checkers, silvers, etc. All these colors are in the blood and 248 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK they will come out in time if you give them time enough. Some pairs are eccentric in their breeding. A certain pair of blue-barred birds may breed blue bars, whereas another pair of blue bars may breed one blue-barred squab and one blue-checkered squab, or any other color, and this variation may be characteristic of this breeding for quite a period. It is impossible to pre- dict absolutely. Our white Homers breed true to color. If you buy white Homers of us and breed them, the squabs will be white-feathered constantly and will not be blue barred or blue checkered, or any other color, except very rarely. SULPHUR OR IRON WATER. Parties write us from different sections of the country stating that the water where they live contains sulphur and others write that the water contains iron. For example, on the East coast of Florida about half-way down, all the water is strongly impregnated with sulphur. Breeders write us to know if this sulphur water is all right for pigeons. To this we reply yes, when they get accustomed to it. If when you get your pigeons you find that this sulphur or iron water is affecting them, stop it and give the birds rain water. Rain water is absolutely pure water containing no mineral substances whatever, except the trifling amount of dust which may get in as the rain water runs down a roof before it gets into a rain-barrel or cistern. It is always safe to give this rain water to pigeons and you can introduce them to your sulphur or iron water as slowly as you please, by adding the sulphur or iron water to the rain water from day to day until the mixture is finally all sulphur or iron water. This will accustom the birds to the new water and before long you will have no need of using the rain water. PIGEONS THAT FLY AWAY. In every day’s mail, two or three letters and often more recount the story that the writers have accidentally left open the doors of their squab houses or the doors of their flying pens; or that some other accident has happened so that some of the pigeons have flown away from the premises. Customers writing from as far as California tell us this and sometimes telegraph us and wish us to catch these birds as soon as they reappear at Melrose and send them back by express. The capacity for flight of a Homer does not seem to be a matter of well-defined knowledge, so we will say here that flights of over 500 miles for a homing pigeon are very rare. We have no cases on record of flights of homing pigeons even from Ohio or Illinois to New York or Massachusetts. It is incredible that a homing pigeon would get back to its native place after a flight of two or three thousand miles. Birds which have been imported would make no attempt to fly back across the ocean or to the shipping point, so if you lose any of your pigeons out of your coop, the best you can do is to hope that they will return, as quite often they do. Recently we recall a case where a customer lost nine birds which flew away but five of them returned and went inside the house. Once again we repeat, hoping it will catch the eyes of so many who write us, that any Homers which you buy you must keep wired in all the time, otherwise they will fly away and leave you. By all the time we mean day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, continually and perpetually, as long as the pigeons live. You cannot feed them for a month or so and then let them out and think that they will stay with you. APPENDIX F 249 They have a yearning and a longing, the homing instinct, to try to get back to the place where they were bred. Any Homers which you breed yourself you can safely let fly because they know no home but yours and will stay with you. If you have a mixed flock of Homers including not only those which you have raised but some you have bought, you cannot let them out with any certainty that those ou have raised will hold on your premises those which you have bought. tis quite possible that those which were raised elsewhere will leave you. NO COAL ASHES. About every household here in the North burns coal and the problem of getting rid of the ashes is considerable to many people who do not live in the city where the city wagons call to take them away. The result is that we have hundreds of letters asking if coal ashes can be put in the flying pen of the squab house. Coal ashes should not be put in the flying pens where the birds can peck at them, because they are irritating to the mouths and other insides of the birds. Itis all right to put down a layer of coal ashes in a pen for the founda- tion if you want to get rid of a lot of coal ashes, but on top of these ashes a layer of gravel should be put down from four to six inches thick and the top of this gravel should be renewed every three or four months. TEMPORARY PEN AND BREEDING PEN. It is very necessary to avoid having odd or unmatched birds at liberty in the loft during the time the other birds are either mating or breeding. If there be but one such bird in the loft, be it male or female, it will be sure to cause disturbance among the mated birds, either by getting mated to some bird you have had great trouble to get mated to your wishes, or. by causing continual fighting, resulting in many broken eggs or dead young ones. All odd birds should therefore be either kept up in pens or in a loft by themselves during the breeding season. For the same reasons, three or four pairs of newly-mated birds should not be turned into the loft together. If they are, there will certainly be quarreling, as two or more pairs will want to take the same nest box, which will often be the cause of pairs getting unmatched, and remated in a manner which is not desirable. To avoid this, each pair as they are mated should be turned into the loft singly, when they will select one of the unoccupied boxes, and go on quietly. It is very rarely necessary, if this plan be pursued, to adopt any measures for inducing a pair to take a proper nest, supposing there be one at disposal; but if any trouble be anticipated, any kind of a cage of lath or wire may be fixed to the front of the breeding box, and the birds then confined for a few days in sight of the rest of the loft, till they have got thoroughly used to their new abode. We can hardly remember an instance, however, where such a plan was necessary, unless the breeding places were so numerous and so much alike as to puzzle the birds. In this case the plan we prefer is to make some distinction at the entrances: thus, a half-brick may be placed at one hole; and passing the next, something else at the next alternate one, by which the birds wil readily learn their proper breeding-places. One more caution must be added in regard tomatingthebirds. It frequently happens that, on account of proved sterling qualities, it is desired to breed from an old pigeon as long as any fertile eggs can be obtained from him; and this can only be done by matching him with PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRA HOMER MALE 250 APPENDIX F 251 a very young hen. Such a pair will frequently breed well; and we have had fine strong young ones from an old Barb over ten years of age, which won many prizes. But it is in such cases particularly needful to avoid having in the same loft any lively young cock with a strong voice, for if this be the case, the young hen will frequently leave her eggs to reach and pair with the young bird, even though he be already mated, and thus all the owner’s plans are liable to be frustrated. For although pigeons as a rule pair with great fidelity, exceptions are by no means rare; and cases have been known in which a cock has mated with two hens, and even assisted both in hatching and rearing their young; while we once possessed a cock which, though he never aided them in family duties, regularly paired with no less than five hens. This case being so very remarkable, we took particular notice of it, and can vouch for the truth of what we state. To the naturalist such instances are particularly interesting; as showing that, under some circumstances, pigeons might possibly become gregarious like poultry. The above paragraph we have taken word for word from the writings of Mr. Fulton, the best English authority, to which our attention was first called in December, 1908. Readers of this Manual will note that his ideas correspond with ours—indeed, such things are not a matter of opinion, they are a matter of fact. What one observer sees, another will see. In the light of the above, how absurd it is for a pigeon tradesman to represent in his advertisements or printed matter that he controls the matings or love affairs of his birds to the extent of assuring the probable purchaser that they are absolutely and irrevocably ‘‘ married for life,”’ ‘‘ mated absolutely-never- to-be-changed.’”’ The object of such representation is to convince the probable purchaser that the pairs will go to work in a new home exactly according to schedule or pre-arrangement, and that all he has to do is to take feed and water to them, and exchange the squabs at intervals for half- dollars. Such claims are made with the intense anxiety of consummating a sale by assertions just a little more plausible, regardless of the habits of the pigeons. TWIGS FOR NESTING MATERIALS. Some pairs will build their nests entirely or partly of twigs, if given the opportunity. A customer in New York read of pine needles in this book, so thought of twigs. He put in half a bushel or so of dry old hemlock twigs. All used them and one pair made their nest wholly of them. Another of our friends states that he has solved the nesting material proposition, as far as his own squab raising is concerned (pleasure and hobby). Instead of providing the birds any tobacco stems, or other nesting material, he does not give them anything, except to fill their nappies (or the little two-inch deep by 15-inch square boxes that he has for them to build in) with sawdust, or fine shavings from the local saw mill. The birds do well in them, and when he takes out a pair of squabs for the nippers, he empties out the sawdust, which nearly cleans the nappies and what does remain is very easily removed with trowel and brush. He then refills them with fresh sawdust or fine shavings, and they are ready for use again. He has found this very successful. New birds have to get used to the change but it does not take them long to take to it. Young birds of course, raised in them, do not know anything else. PLYMOUTH ROCK EXTRA HOMER FEMALE 252 APPENDIX F 253 CLAMORING FOR SQUABS IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. ‘The squab market in the Northwest corner of the United States at this writing (1909) continues to be wonderfully strong. Our attention is called to this from time to time by correspondents in the State of Washington. Apparently there is no limit to the demand there, as in the other great States. We were surprised in oo 1908, to receive the following letter from the president of a hotel company in Seattle, proprietors of one of the best hotels west of the Mississippi river: Kindly send me a half dozen of your pamphlets, covering the growing of squabs. I wish to send these to the small towns contiguous to Seattle—that is to the Chamber of Commerce of each town, to be directed to the right parties who would want to engage in this business. Quite a number have expressed their desire to do so, We are anxious to receive nice squabs and will pay a good price. Thanking you in advance for the pamphlets. We thought it surprising that a hotel man should be inquiring for squabs in such an insistent manner and asked him for details. e replied under date of September 26, 1908, as follows: I am in receipt of your treatise on squabs, likewise the booklets. I have advertised in a number of country papers where the farmers are liable to take up this matter, informing them that they can increase their income and to write me and that I will send them a booklet. I will send you later on a copy of the advertisement. There is no reason that a number of farmers should not take up this work, as I should think the extra grain they would have around for food would practically cost them very little. 7 Under date of October 9, he wrote us again the following letter: Inasmuch as your circulars have all been used, we would ask you to send us about a couple of dozen more. We are advertising in the papers as per enclosed clipping, and have received many responses, which we think should bring you results. The newspaper clipping showing how this hotel man was trying to stimulate the squab production was as follows: WHY DON'T YOU RAISE SQUABS? You have enough waste feed to do so without extra cost, We will tell you how and buy all you have—it will add . largely to your income, In a letter dated October 24, he explained his intentions more fully as follows: In response to your recent favor, I beg to state the only object that we have in securing persons to raise squabs is that we may get sufficient to meet our demands. At the present time we find it difficult, just when we want squabs, to receive as many as we have a demand for. My idea in advertising this in the paper was to not alone derive a personal benefit, but to help the country along in general. We should all be up-builders, particularly in the West. We give this correspondence here the publicity it deserves and hope that our friends, old and new, in the State of Washington, will take hold ener- getically and give this hotel man, and the other squab consumers in Seattle, the Plymouth Rock squabs for which they are so eager. Evidently the State of Seattle is so prosperous with big enterprises that squab raising has to wait its turn and now is a sort of spare time money-maker. We feel confident, however, that there must be a large number of people in the State of Wash- ington who are not too busy to overlook a good thing of such promise, and they will be encouraged to go ahead after reading the above correspondence. 254 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK Our shipments of breeding stock in 1908 to this State were quite large, fully as much volume as to California. . A correspondent in Acosta, Washington, wrote us in November, 1908: I am going into the squab business in Washington (Lewis County). Squabs sell in Seattle and Tacoma markets at $2.50 and $3.50 per dozen, and the market is not supplied ten per cent of the demand. I have 15 acres to devote to this business. OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY. If a stranger to the poultry and squab industry were asked to name a section of the United States where chickens and squabs probably would sell the slowest, he might name Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. In this judgment he would fall into considerable error, for the people there are just as enterprising and just as fond of good things to eat as they are in the East, although there may not be so many of them. Witness the following letter to us dated June 27, 1908, from a prospective customer in a small city in the Indian Territory: Some few weeks ago I wrote you for catalogue, now I want your squab book and you will find enclosed 50 cents in stamps to pay for same. How many pairs would you advise me to start with? The Almeda Hotel says they can handle from four to ten dozen a day. This hotel is the leading hotel of my city. Four to ten dozen squabs daily is going some for one hotel in the Indian Territory. Concerning Oklahoma, one of the leading poultry, butter, eggs, etc., houses in Oklahoma City wrote the following letter to one of our friends under date of March 14, 1908: In regard to squabs, will say, that there are not any handled around here to speak of. There is no reason why it should not be a paying business, if some one would start here who understands it fully, and turned out a good article, just at proper age and of good quality, etc. No reason why a good demand could not be worked up for them here. If at any time you should raise more than you could put out locally, we could undoubtedly find a good market for them, as we are shipping out of here in carload lots weekly to New York City and California. Will be glad to give you any further information and have you write us. In other words, the demand waits on the supply. Get busy, Oklahoma folks. Grain is cheaper for you than for us here in the East and if you may not succeed in getting New York prices for your squabs, you will make as much money as squab farmers here. TWO YEARS’ WORK IN MAINE. From 18 pairs of your Extra stock that I bought a little over two years ago, I now have 300 mated pairs and at least 50 pairs that will be mated very soon.—F. R., Maine. GREAT SATISFACTION. I am pleased to be able to advise you that the pigeons which I purchased from you are giving me great satisfaction, as they have really doubled in number and the squabs have been very heavy, healthy, delicious. I am sure that you will be pleased to hear the above report— F. J., New York. MINNESOTA GROWTH. I have a nice little plant of about 250 pairs from the stock I bought from you some two years ago,— M. H., Minnesota. MOST PRACTICAL BOOK SHE EVER READ. The National Standard Squab Book is a most satisfactory treatment of the subject of squab raising. Jt seems to me to be the most practical book I_have ever read on any subject.—Mrs. E. G. W., Washington. HOW A RETAIL TRADE GROWS. My Plymouth Rock Homers are doing well. I am selling some of the squabs. One customer gets another, so I have orders for all I can spare at present.—G. R., Michigan. TWO YEARS’ BREEDING IN_ IDAHO, We take advantage of the present (February, 1908) to thank you again for the excellent quality of birds sent us in June, ’06.—J. W, aho, MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS THIS CUSTOMER IS A TIN ROOFER AND MAKES GOOD WAGES BUT HAS FOUND OUT THAT HIS TIME IS WORTH MORE RAISING GOOD SQUABS. I will try and give you an account of how my birds are doing in the Scate of West Virginia. About 18 months ago I saw the advertisement of the Plymouth Rock Squab Company in a magazine and I decided to try a small lot of birds. I first wrote for literature, then sent fifty cents for a Manual, which I got by return mail, and would not take $5 for it now. As soon as I got my book I sent for six pairs of Extra Homers, and to say they were fine would not begin to express my opinion of them. They were the finest birds [ever saw and every one says the same. I built a small house 6 by 6 feet for them at first, but soon had to build a larger one. I have a house 10 x 12 with a 12 x 20 foot fly, but this is too small now, Iam trying to get a place in the country near town and will go into the squab business right. I have had my birds about 15 months, have had 180 birds hatched and have about 30 mated pairs now. I have sold all my squabs since March 1 at $3 perdozen. One hotel takes all I have and could handle three or four times as many, I sell about adozenaweek, Feed is very high here, but there certainly is money in them anyhow. I have one pair that I bought of you that I have kept careful account of since they started to work. They went to work the week after I got them, and have laid and set every month since. any have hatched and raised 26 squabs, having lost two eggs, and today are building for the 15t time. If all were like them, I certainly would make the best record ever known. I have lost a few eggs and three or four young birds that were two or three davs old, but 1 think that is a very small loss. I hope to get a location soon for I am convinced that there is good pay in Taising squabs. _I advise any one who is thinking of going into the business to buy their stock of Mr. Rice, for I consider him a perfect gentleman and as for the Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, I cannot say too much for them. They beat anything 1 ever saw. My birds are producing about nine pairs of squabs per pair, per year. The average weight of the squabs is ten pounds per dozen, which I consider very good. I hope to be able to send an order for more breeders before the fall and they certainly will be Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I am a tin roofer b trade and make very good wages, but a squab plant of a thousand pairs I know will pay me muc better, I use the self-feeder and your drinking fountain and find them perfectly satisfactory. I use tobacco stems and straw for nesting material.—W. M. C., West Virginia. FOUND INSTRUCTIONS CLEAR AND CONVINCING, I thank you for your courtesy of September 22, and it is just what I wanted to know. I am so situated in regard to my present occupation that I cannot do anything before this time next year and then I hope to lace my order with you for 300 pairs of your xtra Plymouth Rock breeders and 10 pair of the red Carneaux. I know you must be a busy man, but I wish to tell you I have been looking over every field that I know of for aman with $1000 to $1500. I spent $10 for poultry information which was so contradictory that I threw them all into the Atlantic and vowed never to have one near me. I then got your information, and everything has been so clear and concise that I have no hesitancy in knowing what I will do, The plans enclosed from you were about what I had figured out for myself, only I had given more room and consequently would have made the cost more if I had not spent 50 cents for your Manual and 10 cents for your plans. By so doing I consider I saved, or rather, will save, from $75 to $100 on my pens and buildings. Pardon this long-winded letter, but I feel that apart from your trying to sell your stock to a probable customer I think all the more of you and your business methods, and know you will give me all you represent your stock to be when the time comes. Wish you and the Plymouth Rock Squab Company all the success you deserve, and that squabs will be eaten by a larger number of people.— R. H. W., New York. MARKET FOR SQUABS IS LOW IN HIS PART OF TEXAS BECAUSE BREEDERS DO NOT PUT UP PRICES. “I got my Pigeons from the Plymouth Rock Squab Co.,’’ is the proud answer I give to any one asking me where I got my pigeons. When I tell them that I started with only 12 and have raised about 150, they say have done wonderfully. Some other squab raisers around me have not raised half that many in twice that time. (They have common pigeons, that is the secret of it.) My pigeons have fully repaid me. I think they are 25 i cent better than any Homers around me. y birds raise from seven to nine pairs per year and I can sell all I can raise. I have about 100 breeders and they keep me stocked very well. The market prices down here are very low. They have been used to common squabs and do not know what is good, but I am going to raise the price all I can. It is only $1.25 to $1.50 and I hope to raise it to $2.50. My squabs weigh from 10 to 12 pounds to the dozen. like the one in your Manual. I feed them a mixture of wheat and corn, I have followed your Manual strictly and have not departed from it in any way, and let me say right here that any one (even of those who do not know a thing about squabs) can take your Manual and read it through, follow it care- fully and make a success. They are bound to make a success. I think the squab busi- ness is a great one and is increasing every day. I have not had sickness of any kind. I can sell at home all I raise —W. P. C., Texas. I have _a self-feeder LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 255 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS FLYING PEN OF A BARN. This New Jersey breeder's story is on this page. At the top of the next page one of the ladies of his househuld is shown holding a nest bowl in which are three squabs from one hatch, two days old. LOST ONLY ONE OLD BIRD AND THREE SQUABS IN FIVE MONTHS’ BREEDING. I have had, I think, remarkable success with the birds so far, and thought possibly you would be pleased to hear it. The loss of one bird in the first lot shipped has been my entire mis- fortune, with the exception of three aquete tel I think the parent birds neglected. Ihave in the neighborhood now (August, 1908) of about 200 birds. Kind regards to your Mr. Rice. For breeding my flock, I have used about half my stable and have not been troubled with either mice or rats, as 1 built another floor over the old one, raising the same about 18 inches, and do not think that there is any way for the rats to get at the birds; besides I have three cats that spend part of each day under the floors. You will see from the pictures that I have five units. They measure 10 by 12, with a three-foot passage in the centre. Watering, but not feeding, is done from this passage. You are very welcome indeed to use my name, and you cannot write a letter too strong for me to endorse, referring tv the treatment, etc., received at your hands, also the quality of the birds delivered me and the results obtained from them.—J. W. H., New Jersey. HIGH-PRICED MARKET IN SARATOGA SQUAB BUSINESS IN MONTANA IS ALL SPRINGS, NEW YORK. [I like the National RIGHT. Please find enclosed ten cents in Standard Squab Book very well, as it plainly stamps, for which mail me one copy of your but fully tells everything necessary to know in the sqjuab business and it becomes very useful to the pigeon fancier. There are boarding houses here in Saratoga Springs that pay $6 a dozen for squabs from common pigeons, for I have sold them.—C. N. G., New York. plans and_ specifications for squab house. {I am building new and larger quarters in the country and wish to build right. Seven of the Homers I obtained from you escaped from my pen in town, five returned. I have raised some beauties from my original stock. The squab business is all right.—R. C., Montana. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 256 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS THREE SQUABS HATCHED IN ONE NEST. BUILT HIS OWN HOUSE IN WASHING- TON (D. C.), FOR TWENTY DOLLARS LESS THAN OUR ESTIMATE. I have a _ house constructed of all new material 12x16 and nine feet to peak, seven feet to eaves, divided into two rooms 8x9, a fly 8x16x18 divided down the center (doing all the work myself). Everything, including birds from you, cost me just $47.58 or about $20 less than your estimate, not so bad for a starter? I hada party call at my house, he hearing that I was going to raise squabs, offering me $3 per dozen the year round, He will have to come again, as $3 will not get mine—C. C. B., District of Columbia. CATHOLIC SISTERS RAISING SQUABS FOR THE PATIENTS IN THEIR HOSPITAL IN CHICAGO. We do not sell any of the squabs we raise, we use them all for our patients. We intend to have a photograph of our coop taken in order to let you see it and get your opinion about it.—Sister M., Tllinois. SELLING OUT IN TEXAS TO MAKE ROOM FOR PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. Some time ago I purchased a Manual from you and received a Special Offer on your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. As it was the best thing I heard of, and as I know ycur birds by their reputation, I got busy and began selling my stock off so as to make room for a sample shipment of your birds. I sold one customer in an inland village $10 worth of my birds and when he remitted it was the whole amount in two-cent stamps. What I wish to ask, Mr. Rice, is will you take, say $5 worth of them off my hands’—L. S., Texas. ENLARGING TO A TEN-UNIT HOUSE. Last September I bought some breeders from you and same are doing nicely. As I want to enlarge my house, having bought’a new place, I would kindly request you to send me as soon as possible a set of plans as per your offer in your Manual for a ten-unit house, Also send me some of your grit as per en- closed memorandum.,—C. R., Conn. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 257 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS COMMON PIGEONS A FAILURE. REMARKABLE DEMONSTRATION OF WHAT FOUR PAIRS PLYMOUTH ROCKS WILL DO IN TEXAS. In February, 1907, I purchased 12 pairs of common pigeons from a friend, expecting to clear as large a profit from them as I could trom the Homers. However, we soon found the difference for when we sold out about six months later, I am positive we did not sell more than 15 pairs altogether, that is to say, most of our squabs died or did not hatch. One Homers from the Plymouth Rock Squab Company. I now (May, 1908) have 50 squabs and breeders started and later on the other two started. and all our pairs are setting again. have never seen any birds to equal ours in any respect. weighing not less than eight pounds to the dozen. ( We do not know the price of them, as we have they average eight or nine pairs to the year. never sold any, but a friend of ours sold them at $4.80 a dozen. I have 15 pairs mated. About the end of October, 1907, I received four pairs of Number About November 15 I got two pairs I never saw anything like it. 1 Our squabs are large and healthy, I keep a careful record of the breeders and These were common and Homers mixed and I am sure that if he makes money off of those poor breeders, we ought to make more off your prolific birds. We have fed corn, Kaffir corn, wheat and a little millet. As we have followed your Manual as closely as possible, we have had no trouble with lice. We had two cases of canker, but we did what you advised and had no further trouble. I have not kept account of expenditures, but I know that the birds have well paid for themselves. My ideas of the birds and the business are O. You may be sure they will be Plymouth Rock Homers, as they are the best. no idea of the pigeon business had it not been for your Manual. I will always praise the Plymouth Rock Squab (I forgot to mention above that on account of our house being tight and any one would be lost without it. Company in the highest terms. improperly built some small animal got through a hole and took eggs and squabs. K., and in the future I expect to raise more pigeons. I would have had I can tell you that it is all This hap- pened three times but not any more).—E. G. R., Texas. SMALL FLOCK PAYING A GOOD PROFIT. In April, 1906, I bought six pairs of your Plymouth Rock Homers and in just one year I had raised 85 birds. In May, 1907, 17 months after my first purchase, I had 110 or 55 pairs. I then began selling squabs, and in the eight and one-half months I have sold 228 squabs at 25 cents each, which is $57. I kill them with your killing machine, hang them up as your Manual teaches and bleed them. I do not have time to dress them, or I could get better prices. I have had none that weighed less than eight pounds, and many that weighed 10 pounds to the dozen. The expense of feeding them the eight and one-half months has been $33.15, a profit of $21.35. I think there is big money to be made raising squabs. I keep this small flock in connection with 35 chickens, and only have time outside of business hours to look after them, which is ample. I have seen lots of Homers, nice-looking ones too, but they do not breed as fast as mine. I follow your Manual, in fact, all 1 know about them is what the book says. I have had no sickness nor lice, simply kept them clean and fed red wheat, cracked corn, Kaffir corn, buckwheat, hemp-seed, millet, oyster shells and plenty of good sand. My idea of successful squab raising is cleanliness, pure feed and water, and attention to busi- ness.—C, H., New York. RAISING TOBACCO AND PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUABS. We grow 30,000 pounds of tobacco per year and make fresh stems constantly, bales run about 125 pounds. We have bought our first Homers from you and have done well. I am glad to hear from you on stems.—C. H. W., Connecticut. PERSONAL INQUIRY AND ITS RESULTS. Iam a member of All Souls Unitarian Church of Washington, made up of New England people largely, and many of them Bostonians. Also I go to Greenacre (Eliot,-Maine), occa- sionally in the summer to speak on Emerson and his philosophy, therefore I have a large acquaintance up your way. I mentioned my intention in a social group of going into squab raising and asked incidentally about your place. They offered to get me the re- port and did so, but I do not know the channel. I did not care to know of your financial con- dition, but I was anxious to learn of your character and reputation. The report was very gratifying. In it was stated that you were “gilt-edged as to character and reputa- tion.”” It made me feel good to get such a report, for I knew I could safely go on and enlarge under your counsel and advice. Thank you for your offer to assist me when- ever I may call on you. If you happen down this way, try to see me either at the Bureau of Immigration or at my country home in Maryland, half-way between Washington and Baltimore, where we shall establish our plant. We are looking for a suitable piece of ground, say 10 or 20 acres, where we shall plant a good German and his wife and make it pay in other respects.—J. A. C., District of Columbia. SQUABS WEIGHING OVER ONE POUND WHEN THREE WEEKS OLD. have re- ceived the female Homer in good shape. It was a pretty bird. I just weighed some of my squabs which are not quite three weeks old and they weigh over one pound. I expect to order some more birds some time in spring.—H. S., Pennsylvania. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 258 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS ANY OLD PLACE FIXED OVER. Results which are really surprising may be accomplished in quarters such as these, with good birds, (See the letter from the North Carolina man printed below.) NO BIRDS ON EXHIBITION AT THIS NORTH CAROLINA FAIR COULD TOUCH HIS PLYMOUTH ROCKS. Ireceived from you April 2, 1908, 13 pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I have raised 60 birds, have sold 12 squabs and have lost 23, and I think that is doing well for six months’ work. They have bred at the rate of four pairs per month. Some are slow, others are very fast indeed, and I have lost about 18 eggs on account of not having enough nest bowls, but have since put in more and will soon have to build. My house is of my own con- struction, very rough indeed, but I think answers the purpose very well, but in the future will build according to your plans except without the passageway. The birds I received from you and those I have raised and mated are indeed hard to beat. I have not seen any here that can touch them, in fact, none on exhibition at the fair here held October 13 to 16, could touch mine. The squabs at killing age weigh about three-quarters of a pound each. Have sold only one dozen squabs to people who are sick at $2.50 per dozen. I have fed whole corn, cracked corn, Kaffir corn, Canada peas, a little red wheat and a little green clover, cabbage cut very fine, and some rice and hemp seed about three times a week. Cannot say that I have followed your Manualin every detail. Please ship at once the enclosed order for feed. My birds are doing exceedingly fine and I am in hopes of being able to keep them so. Iam well pleased with the squab business and intend to go into it for a living. —J. A. P., North Carolina, A WOMAN WHO GETS HER PRICE FOR LOST ONLY ONE BREEDING PIGEON IN SQUABS ALL THE YEAR. The people who THREE YEARS. I have had my Plymouth have eaten my squabs say they are delicious, Rock pigeons three years in July and have had plump, and so much better than the market splendid luck, having lost only one banded ones. I am getting $4.80 a dozen for them. pigeon by death, and one flew away. I have That is my price no matter what they are in studied the Manual and got lots of help from the market. They weigh over three-quarters it. I only wish I had more room to keep of a pound each.—Mrs. b. G. A., New Jersey. more birds.—M. H., New Jersey. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 259 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS NINETEEN PRIZES WON ON 21 ENTRIES AT THIS LARGE WORCESTER COUNTY EXHIBITION. I have been breeding your Plymouth Rock homer stock for several years. I have been a breeder of piyzeons for a long time and enjuvy the work very much and I want to tell you that I have never seen better Homers anywhere, nor dv I believe that better stuck exists than the strain you sell. At the Worcester poultry show held in December, 1907, in Mechanics Hall, I entered 21 birds, nearly all your Homers, or bred from Homers sold by you. 1 had a few pigeons of another fancy variety in the show along with your Homer stock, but the Homers did nearly all of the prize winning. On the 21 birds I won 19 prizes, made up of 10 first prizes, five second prizes, three third prizes and one fourth prize. The birds were very much admired by the people in attendance at the exhibition. On one white Homer which came from you and on which | won first prize 1 was offered $5, but declined the offer. For another beautiful red checker Plymouth Rock female Homer which won me a first prize I was offered $5 by another exhibitor, but I declined the offer. The judge of the pigeons told me 1 ought to send these two birds to the Buston show in January. as they were “world beaters.”” Sometime I am going to enter my birds at the Boston show when I get around to it and can spare the time from my regular business, I am confident that I will make them “ sit up and take nutice,”’ Your Homer stuck is distinguished not only by the large size (which I have never seen equalled anywhere) but by their prolific breeding qualities. A good proportion of my birds are the red checkers, and I value them highly. None of the Worcester pizeon men has birds approaching mine. In fact, there are two Englishmen in this city who have been breeders of birds all their lives and they told me that they never saw any that could equal my stock. A professional man of this city is a breeder wf fancy pigeons well known over the United States. He entered some white Homers in competition at the Worcester poultry show mentioned above but my white Homers went way over anything which he had. These large Plymouth Rock Homers of which you have sold so many during the past ten years have completely driven the small native American Homer out of the market, The old breeders of these small native Homers have hated to admit that your Belgium stock was better than theirs, but anybody with half an eye can see that a Homer which is almost half as large again as were the best American Homers is to be preferred, not only for squab raising but for fancy breeding, for anybody who wants the best. The enormous popularity of your business in hand- ling this magnificent strain is well accounted for.—H. M. W., Massachusetts, FIRST AND SECOND PRIZES AT THIS WISCONSIN COUNTY FAIR. It was February 1, 1907, when I got my first lot of Homers. They were the Extras. The pigeons are the largest and the best of their kind I eversaw. I would advise every new beginner to study the Manual before starting. I feed my birds two-thirds cracked corn to one-third red wheat in winter, two-thirds red wheat to one-third cracked corn in summer; dainties such as hemp seed, rice, peas, Kaffir corn and vetches. I have invented a little mill to crack corn. I bought some cracked corn but it was not half cracked. I can adjust my mill to crack any size corn I want it to, Ihave chickens in the same vard with the pigeons and they get along good. Your Manual is the best it could be. I den't think it could be improved much. I haven’t had any trouble with lice or sickness. IJ think we will send another order as soon as we can get a place ready for them. The squab business is QO. K., as well as a paying business. My pigeons took first and second prizes at Ocotno County Fair, September 3, 4, 5.—E. G., Wisconsin. WON FOUR FIRST AND SECOND PRIZES AT TOPEKA, KANSAS, EXHIBITION. My birds that I got from you are doing very nicely At the Topeka show I was awarded four first and second prizes out of 16 birds shown. I would have gotten another first, but I classed the bird wrong. The judge gave her first, but they looked on the judge's card and she was not undet that class. At the show, two of my Homers got out of the cage and also out of the hall. Thev were fine-looking birds and built for flying. They started east and that is the last I have heard of them.--F. L. K., Kansas, FIRST AND SECOND PRIZES WON BY PLYMOUTH ROCKS IN FLYING COMPETITION. I bought several pairs of your Homer stock about_a year ago and am raising, and also flying those which I raised. I have also Belgiums which I fly, but the young of your stock are equal. I can recommend your birds to anybody, and the flying club which I am in also know what they are. The last fly I made was 300 miles, at which I took first and second prizes on your stock. Ithank you for sending me such quality of birds. W.J.K., Michigan. AGAIN A SWEEP OF PRIZES AT ANOTHER NEW YORK COUNTY FAIR BY PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. We had a county fair here and there was quite a large exhibition of fancy pizeons and a few Homers, but not any as nice as the ones that I had on exhibition. I took six pairs of old ones and five pairs of young about eight weeks old to match the old ones. I got first and second premiums on all.—F. S.5., New York. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 260 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS NINETEEN PRIZES WON BY PLYMOUTH ROCK. HOMERS AND CARNEAUX BY ONE CUSTOMER AT THE GREAT ROCHESTER (N. Y.) EXHIBITION IN 1908. I am flat in bed with pleurisy but I want to let you know about the Rochester Show. I got fifteen out of sixteen prizes, and also four specials; losing only one third prize to a cock from the New York Show. l of my prizes were won from adult stock bought of you, and young raised from them last year. As soon as I am able to be up and out I will write you more fully. Excuse looks of letteras I am writing in bed. (Later). ‘There were three old cocks and three old hens which were re- cently bought by a Rochester man in New York. The birds were said to have been in the New York Show and this man made his brag, that he got the birds to turn down the Lyons man, but my birds were cooped first and when he brought in his Carneaux and cooped them near mine, he told the president of the show that he guessed he did not have much chance. He got one third prize. All the rest were thrown out. I got four first, four seconds, three thirds, four fourths and four specials. (One special on best cock in show, a pair of record Homers, one special on besthen and two minor specials.) The last pair you sent me got, cock first, hen aa me a are doing fine and I have quite a number of young mated and at work.— .I,C., New York. PLYMOUTH ROCKS THE’ BEST HOMERS IN THREE STATES AT THIS BIG EXHIBITION. A NOVEL USE FOR PIGEON FEATHERS. I wish to thank you for suggestions offered, which enabled me to win first prize on Homer pigeons at the Tri-State Exposition and Livestock Show held at Chester, West Virginia, just across the Ohio river from our city. This was considered the best poultry and livestock show in this section of the country this season. Our local fanciers came out fairly good considering the opposition we had. Three of the largest breeding farmers in this section sent in a carload of poultry apiece. The second prize in Homers went to an Ohio man, one of the above mentioned breeders. JI also got second on White Leghorn cockerel. My birds were shedding considerable, but I made good use of the long feathers as you will see by some enclosed advertising for the firm by which I am employed as well as for myself. They went like hot cakes after we got them started. Every one wore a feather. I don’t know whether the value of this ever appealed to you or not, but I think that you could find ready sale for the light-colored feathers for this purpose.—S. E. A., Ohio. Note. What he did was to gather un all the good-sized feathers lost in moulting and print them in red ink with a rubber stamp, “ Welcome at Smith’s,” giving the name of the store where he worked. These stamped feathers were treasured as souvenirs. This idea could be used in other ways by squab breeders and the feathers handed out as advertisements. VICTORIOUS AT TWO NEW YORK STATE EXHIBITIONS. When I was in Boston a few months ago, I promised you I would let you know how I made out at our County Fair, but for some unknown reason I did not get at it. I entered at the fair six birds. Four Carneaux took four first prizes, two Homers two second prizes. I entered at Hudson Valley Pigeon and Poultry Association at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., seven birds, and won three firsts on Homers, two seconds on Carneaux. Did not enter my old Car- neaux or would have taken first on them, I have a fine Carneau cock that I think would be hard to beat, but the hen is not up to the mark. I think I will show the Carneaux at the New York Show.—J. R. V., New York. TOOK EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. WON EVERY PRIZE OFFERED FOR HOMERS WITH HIS PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS AT NEW YORK COUNTY FAIR. The Homers that I bought of you last September are doing fine. I would like to visit your plant a little later if it would be convenient for you. I am going for the purpose of looking over your plans and to purchase some more breeders. I have now about 60 pairs and want to get enough to make 125 pairs. I entered those that I got of you at the Clinton County Fair at which I got every prize that was taken on Homers.—E. R. G., New York. ONE PAIR OF PLYMOUTH ROCKS GOOD ENOUGH IN VIRGINIA TO BEAT PROFES- SIONAL SHOW FOLLOWERS. The Plymouth Rock Homers you sent me have all been working. I carried one pair to the Roanoke Fair and received first premium over some Homer dealers from Pennsylvania.—F. E. H., Virginia. TOOK FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD PRIZES IN WEST VIRGINIA. My birds are beauties, and took first, second and third premiums at the Poultry Show here, and I have been selling squabs right along that are fat and nice.—Miss G. E. K., West Virginia. WON THE SILVER CUP AT THIS MICHIGAN SHOW WITH HIS PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. I have had six pairs in the show and won the silver cup. People said they were the best they ever saw. I sold two pairs for $5.—]J. F. F., Michigan. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 261 ampotd Sty? AT TAOYS St ILYA 09 TONTPpe UT asnoy JoqJouT sey aT ‘arom smd Of ‘ROBT ‘FI JaqmeaoN{ uo pur asou smd QQZ Perepso ay patyy Arenagag uQ “ROBT ‘Gg Aavrurp wry paddiys aN YY sKOMOH yoy yYynoudyg waywg ano jo smd QOT Ya payuys gowoysno SUL *sopsuTys Jo psaqsur pasn useq Sutwey Fuyoor mo ‘satsuadxaur pur dus aymb st uorjonsysuoo ayy, ‘spur oy} go xdeoy asnoy siya Jo yuq oy} Fe TY OL ‘ACISTIUH AGT CALOALOUd VINVATASNNGd NI INV Id dvds MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS FIVE PRIZES TAKEN BY PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS AT TENNESSEE POULTRY AND PIGEON SHOW. It would probably be of interest to you to know of my success with your Plymouth Rock Homers in our recent Poultry and Pigeon Show. I entered six of the eleven pairs that you sent me, I won two firsts, two seconds, and one third prize. The fine Homers I purchased from you won one, two, three, while two pairs of colored Homers that I raised from some birds bought of you won one, two. Those grand white Homers you shipped me attracted more attention and were admired by more people than all of the other birds in the show put together. They are superb, I placed the birds in my breeding pen at noon on Monday and on Friday afternoon four pairs had built nests and one pair had laid two eggs. The youngsters raised from some of your birds that I referred to before are only eight months old and have been at work three months. I am enthusiastic over Plymouth Rock Homers.— E. D. R., Tennessee. WON TEN PRIZES, TAKING ALL BUT ONE (A THIRD) WITH TEN PAIRS. At the North Adams Poultry Show I entered ten pairs of ‘‘ exhibition Homers” made up largely from Ply- mouth Rock stock and was awarded five firsts, three seconds, one third, one fourth. I was “headed ”’ but once and that was for a third place. The entries were made up of one pair reds, one pair red checkers, two pairs silvers, three pairs blue checkers and three pairs blue bars.— J. T., Massachusetts, PAIR OF PLYMOUTH ROCKS THE BEST PAIR OF HOMERS INTHE 1908 TORONTO EX- HIBITION. Only one pair of those Plymouth Rock Homers which I purchased from you were exhibited at the fair but they took first prize. The judges in examining them commented on the perfect wings, only one little feather being wrong. _ I know nothing of the standard but you will doubtless know what they meant.—T.S. C., Ontario, Canada. PLYMOUTH ROCKS FIRST AS WELL AS SECOND AT THIS IOWA EXHIBITION. Our blue Plymouth Rock Homers took first and our silvers second at the show here.—C, D., Iowa. HAS BRED THOUSANDS OF SQUABS IN INDIA FROM PIGEONS POORER THAN OURS. About a month ago when staying in Chicago I made an inquiry for your cata- logue and about a week later I sent you 50 cents for your National Standard Squab Book. I read your book with great interest and must say it is the best written instruction to the beginner that I ever saw. I have_ bred thousands of squabs in India, where I was born and came to America to start a squab farm here. Of course, the kind of pigeons we use over there is not as good as what we use here. I have succeeded in getting a fine farm in Missouri, a very dry, healthy climate. Tomorrow I am going to the place and when settled there about a month (this time I want to make the squab houses} I will send you an order.—V. K., Missouri. LONG SHIPMENT OF PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS ACROSS THE CONTINENT TO BRITISH COLUMBIA AND FROM THERE TO AUSTRALIA. I duly received your letter of May 12, and the birds came safely and in good order by the Dominion Express Company to Vancouver, You will be glad to know that they arrived safely at Mel- bourne on June 27, The Carneaux pecked three or four Plymouth Rock Homers, but today they are in splendid condition, having gone through the long, hot voyage very well. We, of course, looked after them on the steamer to see that the cage was kept clean and followed your instructions as to food, grit, etc.—Mrs. A. B., Australia. SQUAB MARKET WAITING TO BE DEVELOPED IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. The National Standard Squab Book has given me much satisfaction, pleas- ure and also a longing to get into the business, I am a poultry plucker, bench-hand, feeder, etc, employed by the largest wholesale live and dead poultry handlers here. I originally sent for your Manual not with the idea of starting to breed squabs, but to add to my knowledge of feathered life. I found the book so interesting I have read it through several times and could answer correctly any question asked me from it. It is the most exhaustive treatise on the subject imaginable and I now consider myself an authority on pigeons. To show you how undeveloped the squab trade is here: I may say we do not receive proportionately one squab to every 100 chickens.—J. E., Ontario, Canada. IMITATION NEST BOWLS. I must say my Plymouth Rocks are the best Homers I ever saw. Are the bowls as seen on page 48 of the Manual what are known as the Rice Wood Fibre Nest Bowls? I must say that I like them very_much better than what are sold here as ‘ Rice Wood Fibre bowls,’ as the ones here are almost flat.—M. R. K.. Tennessee. Note. The genuine wood fibre nest bowls can be obtained only direct of us from Boston. We do not supply stores with them. If bowls are offered you in stores as ours, they are not. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 263 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS A NEW JERSEY PLANT. This picture and the picture on the opposite page are both photographs of the same plant. HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW IS HAVING A PROFITABLE EXPERIENCE WITH PLY- MOUTH ROCK HOMERS. Yours dated November 20 was received this p.m. I shall be very much pleased to have the pair of birds as you suggest and will gladly pay transportation on the same. I do not con- sider you are under any obligation to ‘“‘ make good” under the circumstances, as I ap- preciate accidents will happen in transporta- tion, but since you make this offer I will greatly appreciate the favor. My brother-in-law, Mr. Merritt, has been telling me fabulous things of the squab industry, and I propose starting with the 12 pairs, allowing them to accumulate for two years, and determine positively the per- centage of increase, profit, etc. The birds Mr. Merritt purchased of you have certainly done wonderful work, and this, too, after being shipped to California and then to St. Louis. The birds you shipped me are truly very handsome, and feel sure they will do well. I have been breeding and shipping fancy poultry for the past 15 years.—R. W.B., Missouri. KNOWN BY REPUTATION, I know you by reputation to be the largest and most successful and reliable breeders in America, therefore, I am to buy stock from you and would be glad to have your prices.—H. C. M., Tennessee. MANUAL IS PREPARED EXPERIENCE. The birds I got from you are in every way larger and finer looking than any other Homers I have ever seen around here. Their squabs are larger at the hatch and incom- parably larger at maturity, or four weeks, They seem to be attentive birds and extra good feeders. I love the business and I love my birds. I have followed your Manual as rezards feeding and watering and find that I get the best results. It seems to be just what it is, prepared experience for the begin- ner. My policy was, if you don’t know, refer to the Manual, and I always found that I did the right thing and very seldom if ever went wrong.—W. T., Virginia. PLEASANT BUSINESS RELATIONS. Our business relations have been so pleasant and satisfactory I will leave it entirely to your discretion in making me a present of a pair of Extra Homers. (Copy of your letter attached herewith explains all.) My birds are doing finely and I know your book by heart and will follow it carefully all through. I will give you an order soon for more Extr: breeders.—A. D. W., Kansas. : ONE YEAR’S INCREASE. Your book is the best I have seen and is very satisfactory. Just one year ago J purchased 24 pairs of your Plymouth Rock Homers. Now I have 200 young birds. Iam well pleased with them.— W. A. L., Ohio. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 264 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS ANOTHER VIEW OF NEW JERSEY PLANT. This breeder tells his story in a letter printed on this page over the initials B. F. B., New Jersey. REPEATED ORDERS FROM A NEW JERSEY CUSTOMER PLANNING TO HAVE 5000 PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. On April 6, 1908, I received from you six pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. On April 16, I received 13 pairs, and on May 9, 13 pairs more, the majority of each shipment being at work inside of a week after receiving them. Six pairs were laying on the second day after receipt. At the date of this writing (October 26) I have 100 young birds, as fine as you can find anywhere. The birds received from you and the young hatched by them are not beatable around these parts. I have not as yet weighed any of the squabs, but from handling them, know that they will weigh all that you claim. I have fed as your Manual directs and have not had any trouble from sickness or any sign of lice, as lam looking after my lofts atalltimes and keep perfectly clean. By doing this no lice will linger around. I am more than satisfied with your business dealings, fair and square in all respects. I have just received from you 104 pairs of Extras, and they are beauties, the talk of the town. In the spring I expect to enlarge my plant so I can put in 5000 or 6000 birds, and you will have the order for stock, as I will know what I am getting. Thanking you for square dealing with me. I will send you next week the $150 for the two special offers and also give you shipping date. All the birds received from you in the past have been O. K. in all respects, but if you have some that you think will go ahead of them I wish you would send them, as I think it will be the means of a large order for you.—B. F. B., New Jersey. PLEASED TO RECOMMEND PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS TO OTHERS. Replying to yours of July 31, in regard to our showing this gentleman around our plant, would say, that we will be pleased to do so. We feel sure he will not hesitate buying from you after he sees our birds for they are proof enough, to our minds, of your fair dealing. Permit us to say that it will be more convenient for us to show him around our place on some Sunday for then we are able to give him better attention.—L. O. N., New Jersey. EIGHT TO NINE PAIRS OF SQUABS A YEAR FROM EACH PAIR OF BREEDERS. The 10 pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers purchased from you some time ago are ail working very satisfactorily, averaging eight to nine pairs of ae a year from each pair of breeders.—D,. V. G., New Jersey. THIS IS THE RIGHT TALK. If at any time I can get you any business, you can count on my doing so.—D. D. C., North Carolina. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 265 suOHVAysN]TL sly apisoddo aded ayy uo paqurad 19978Ur aas UONdIIOSep JOT “ANN T ‘ULUT PLUOTSsajoId UMOU-[JaM B JO ‘INVTd AVNAOS VLOSANNIN AAILOVULLY NV Wavy ayy UO st quULTA STITT, 266 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS THIS MINNESOTA CUSTOMER IS A PROMINENT LAWYER WITH A FINE FARM ON WHICH HE RAISES HIS OWN PIGEON FEED. The publication of my place in the Sz. Paul Press came about not upon my solicitation. All said is true enough and I doubt if I could improve it myself. Then I had the ranch and residence halftoned and stamped on envelopes and letter heads as per enclosed. ‘ Of course, I have so much to look after that I am not able to give the pigeons much attention, but find them “ good to eat and nice in appearance. We have no difficulty now in disposing of all the squabs we can produce in St. Pauland at home. We get only $3 per dozen which does very well here as the farms produce wheat, buckwheat, and corn enough for all the birds, ean cows, hogs and chickens I have. This year I tried Canada peas with satisfactory results, Our main house is 58 feet long, 16 feet wide, with seven-foot posts. It rests upon a stone foundation with stone piers in the center supporting the sills, and is about two feet above the surface. Drop siding is used for weather boarding and matched fencing for inside lining. The space between the lining and drop siding is filled with cinders. The floor is of two thickness of inch flooring and brake-jointed, Ten feet of this house is used as a storing room and for filling the drinking fountains. The building is supplied with heat and city water. There are six flying pens each eight feet wide, 10 feet high and 24 feet long, with roosts as shown in the picture and are covered with one-inch mesh wire number 18. The entire framework support- ing the wire rests upon concrete foundations four inches wide and let into the ground about one foot. feet. door opening into each pen. feet and five and one-half feet respectively in height. Each loft contains 140 nests, 70 nests on each side, leaving a space in the center of six An entry way three feet wide extends along the entire north side of the building with a The small building is eight feet by ten feet with shed roof eight This is used as a mating pen, where an equal number of males and females are placed and when mated are banded and placed in larger lofts. . M., Minnesota. ENLARGING AFTER AN EXPERIMENT WITH THREE PAIRS. I am now making preparations to occupy a new building in the spring, and as soon as I can scare up the money, I want to order more breeders and about 20 dozen nest bowls, as I expect to have a two-unit house besides the one now oc- cupied. Ican’t say enough about the breeders I bought of you. My first pair of squabs weighed two pounds, two ounces, the second pair two pounds, and by the looks of the third pair, I believe they will weigh more than any of the first ones. I am going to keep my young ones for breeders, also expect to add more of your stock in the breeding line. If I get my other house up, I can easily accommodate 150 pairs of breeders, and I want them just as fast as I can get them. I feed a little red wheat, Kaffir corn, millet and hemp-seed, buckwheat and barley and Canada peas. I have all told 10 kinds of feed, use the self-feeder for staples and my relishes I feed on a board with raised edges, which I remove from the pen after the birds have finished eating.—R. E. B., Pennsylvania. PLEASED WITH WHAT HE SAW AT MELROSE FARM. I write to let you know I was very much pleased with what I saw at your farm in Melrose and the treatment which I received from your superintendent, and shall send you another order for some more of your birds by spring, as they are all tight. If you have any new literature, would you kindly send me the same, as I want to keep in touch with youin regard to anything that I can learn for my benefit—C. H. H., Massachusetts. The floor of each flying pen is covered with sand from four to eight inches deep.— BETTER HOMERS THAN THIS FANCIER HAD IN HIS COOPS VALUED BY HIM AT TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS A PAIR. Since I wrote you Saturday I had a great pigeon raiser call upon me to ask the privilege of looking at my birds you sent, I asked him to express himself in a candid way as to his opinion of the quality and also if he had any finer birds. He replied, ‘‘ Well, I have several kinds. Some I consider are worth $25 a pair, but I confess I have none that can hold a candle to those birds, They are extremely fine.” He made strict inquiry about you and seemed wonderfully enthusi- astic and, on his leaving me, remarked he certainly would have to send for some of those birds. I just simply mention this to you for your credit. This is one of the igi I mentioned to you in my first letter wrote you, asking you to send me some good birds, as I did not want to be laughed at. I think you will receive some orders from this part of the country, at least I am hoping so.—T. S., Illinois. RICH PEOPLE SURPRISED BY QUALITY OF PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUABS. Two years ago I bought 12 pairs of Plymouth Rock Homer pigeons of you with the intention of raising squabs for market. I have never lost but one of the old birds and now have a flock of 225 or 250. About 100 are just beginning to mate. I sold some of the squabs to alady from New York who comes here for the summer, and her colored servant, who came to buy them, said they were the nicest ones he ever saw. The lady lives in an expensive part of the city —W. R., Vermont. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 267 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Greatest Banquet Ever Given in the West Will Be That at the Coliseum Saturday Night. When hungry Republicans, who haveyhelpers will be bet to work fn an im been, crowded away from the political | mense temporary Kitchen im the base- pie counter in Missouri for 38 years,/ment of the! Coliseum to prepare tet] gather for their banquet at the Coll- great feast. They expect to have; the ai seum, Saturday night, they will facc|ner.ready for serving -when the guests the greatest quantity of food ever ara seated at 6 p../imi. sharp. The 225 Sérved at a single eating fest in the walters will be divided into two squads, West. {and will work from each’ end of the There’ will be seated In the great din- | arena toward the centeY. ing room 2266 Republicans. They will] It is expected that it wil require from occupy 78 tables, And 225 walters have | 90 to 105 mitlutes to serve the meal. Mr. been ‘engaged to serve them. Hey. iechaving the tables made, and will ‘Lyman T, Hay of the Jeffersou and] procure the 2266 chairs needed,’ and have Planters hofels, who hag undertaken to|/them sent to the Coliseum before. the satisfy the appetites of the hungry Re-|dinner béll {a tapped. publicans, has ordered food In the fol-| Mr. Hay 4s assisted) by’. Dy Peli lowing quantities: ‘who “will, be the général superintendent’ 228 gallons of soup. ‘at the bdnquet hall; Max McCurlee, who 1200 pounds of fish. will have chargé of the service, and 1000 pounds filet eef. Fred Laufgatter, chief engineer of the «= 2266 squabs, Planterg Hotel, who will arrange for 2500 large rolls of bread the heating service and gas stove con- 200 loaves of bread. nections, 700 bunches of radishes. West's Biggest Banquet, 200 bunches of celery, Mr. Hay says that the banquet will 65 gallons-of olivas. be the biggest ever elvén in the West. 10 boxes ‘of léttuce, The guegts of honor and the speakers ‘10 boxes of chicory. will be seated at the head table, on 10 boxes of tomatoes, which 62 plates Will be laid. Gov.-elect 30 dozen nine pairs a year and one pair has bred ten pairs per year. The cost of feeding averages five cents per pair per month. I think well of the squab business and expect before long to buy more as it is a profitable business, considering the small capital invested. I use egg crates and orange boxes 'as I have found them best and cheapest. The unit system is best as it is easier to keep track of several small flocks rather than one large one. A person breeding pigeons must study and learn their birds to make a success of it. I have read and re-read your squab book and think for clearness of description, plain explana- tions, and good clear illustrations it is the best live-stock book I have ever seen. hen in doubt, consult the Manual.—J. Y. E., West Virginia. FLOCK INCREASED FROM SIXTY TO THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY IN EIGHT MONTHS, I got my flock of 30 pairs of Extras into their permanent quarters in February. I now (October 5, 1908) have about 360 head of the finest young birds you ever saw. I have just put my flock through the moult and they have be; to work now in good shape. I have squabs now in my house that were raised by my young birds (the ones which I raised myself) and their second pair of squabs weighed over one pound each at four weeks of age. Is not that good work for the sec- ond pair that young birds raise? What do you think of my increase in stock from 60 head to 360 head in eight months; is that good work or not? T can get orders for all squabs I can raise at $3 per dozen f.o.b. cars here, but I have sold only one dozen and I got $4.50 for them. I do not care to sell any until I get a big flock of reeders. I am making some arrangements now to build squab houses and I want to get about 150 or 200 pairs of breeders from you in the spring; as I want to get into shape to fill orders. I had an order the first of this month for ten dozen per week at $3 per dozen. This would have been a standing order for all winter if I could have handled it. I have one pair of young birds that laid four eggs, hatched and raised all of them. Has that ever happened in your flock? Write me what you think of my success and advise what price you will make me on an order for 100 pairs of Extras.—G. W. T., Louisiana. FAMILY TRADE BRINGS HIM AS HIGH AS EIGHT DOLLARS A DOZEN FOR PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUABS. Enclosed you will find check and order for pigeons and supplies for $116.29. Please ship sundries by freight at once and the pigeons on July 23. The birds I got of you in February, 1908, are doing finely. Have raised three and four pairs each, squabs weighing at 25 days from 14 to 19 ounces alive. I have several pairs more, all raised from your Extras, so I have about 155 birds altogether now. I am clearing out the chicken pens and filling them with pigeons, as I am fully convinced they are a much better paying proposition than the chickens. Several other firms have written me for orders, but as you took such pains with my little drib, and the birds have done so well, you people get the rest of the orders. I have the largest birds in the city, and they attract much attention from the hundreds of visitors at my poultry yards. The Manual is a gem. It is plain enough for any one and I really think I have it memorized. Have several other works on pigeons, but have laid them away. They are not in the same class, The market is good here, my birds bringing from $4.50 to $8.00 a dozen, all family orders. I have worked them right into my chicken and egg customers. Could sell 50 pairs a day if I had them.—J. A., Pennsylvania. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 299 EXPERIENCE OF PROMINENT WASHINGTON PUBLIC MAN BREEDING PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS I wish you would send me an outfit of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, mated and banded. I want to see how they will turn out. I have already quite a larse lot of pigeons but they are doing so poorly that I do not expect to keep them. I expect better results from the ones which I order. The letters from customers printed in this book are evidence of the wide- spread interest on the American continent in squab breeding not only for revenue and for one’s table, but also as a pastime and instructive hobby. It will not be forgotten that the master mind of Charles Darwin evolved “The Origin of Species’’ from pigeon breeding. The ideas he conceived and the laws he discovered might have been worked out with other animals, but not within the span of his lifetime, with the thoroughness he accomplished, because pigeons breed rapidly, and in other respects are ideal for experiment. Prominent in political life at Washington are customers who give part of their spare time enthusiastically to this work. One of these ordered of us in January, 1908, as indicated by the letter printed at the top of this page. The next letter was as follows: I am greatly pleased with the birds sent me, and they seem to be all that you have said in regard to them. We wrote him in December, 108, to interest him in our Carneaux, and received the following letter: I have your letter of some days ago in regard to the Homers you sent me. They were very fine, and I was well pleased with them. One disaster after another has followed these birds until now I have none left. First, an owl got in among them and pulled heads off, which was followed by some other misfortune. I shall never experiment here again with them, but when I retire from the field of my labors and go back home, I certainly intend to keep pigeons. I thank you very much for calling my attention to your new Plymouth Rock Carneaux. We are not at liberty to print the writer’s name. We call attention to this to point the moral that scrious-minded men of large affairs turn to squab raising with lively and sustained interest. (Incidentally, another moral is, Beware of owls !) 300 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS WON THE PRIZES IN TEXAS. My pigeons took first, second and third prizes and | credit it much to your good stock that helped me.—I. R., Texas. IMITATION GRITS A FAILURE. Enclosed find money order for which please send me 100 pounds of your health grit and 100 pounds of oyster shells, pigeon size. I have tried other health grits that are sold nearer mv city but find my birds will not touch them.—H E. M., New York. READY MARKET IN MONTANA, I have about 90 young and have sold about 125 squabs. I can get $3.00 a dozen plucked and notrouble aboutselling them. I have paid as high as $2 per hundredweight for wheat but am now getting wheat at $1.15 per hundredweight ; corn $1,90.—L, E, Y., Montana. ORDINARY QUARTERS. The Pennsylvania customer whose letter is printed on this page is doing well here. SEVEN PAIRS QUICKLY AT WORK. ORDERING EVERY MONTH. The seven pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers arrived on April 24 in first-class order. Five nests are finished (May 7), one has two eggs and there are two other nests in the course of construction, which speaks mighty well for your stock, Ithink. I expect to send you an order the latter part of this month and intend buying every month. In that way I will not feel the investment so much. One could not ask for better stock than you sent me. I am well pleased and shall be glad to boost your stock among my friends. My neighbor is more than ever chagrined at the job lot that was shipped him from the southern part of the State and will undoubtedly send you an order before long. hank you for the pains you-must have taken in selecting my birds, (Later. August, 1908.) I write you to give you the address of a gentleman who is going into the squab business. You can use my name or not, just as you desire, but one thing you can use to him ismy recommendation. When I return from my vacation, September 1, I intend placing another order for 10 pairs more of Extra Plymouth Rocks. My birds have done fine and as long as I get such birds from you, you can expect my order and all others I can throw your way. There isall sorts ofrivalry here on account of the show in January.—J. B., Pennsylvania. YEAR’S TRIAL SATISFACTORY, AND GOING AHEAD. I thought you might be at the business, and I am sure as soon as the year is up, we will place another order with interested to know that the birds we pur- chased of you last January have turned out finely, we having lost but two, and this on account of flying against the wire, breaking their necks. We decided to give the birds a thorough trial for a year, being novices you, as your birds have been greatly admired by other raisers here, and they have done what you said they would. We have had no trouble in selling the squabs, which have ranged from ten to thirteen ounces each, receiving in nearly every case from 50 cents to 75 cents per pair.— W.C., Pennsylvania. LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 301 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS TEXAS WOMAN DELIGHTED WITH HER PROJECT. I am enclosing an order for some Homers intended for a Christmas pres- ent to my young nephew, and wish you to ship the birds so as to arrive about the 24th. In March last I bought of you six pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers. My flock now (December) numbers 25 pairs, the first birds hatching the 16th of April, and I have seven hens due to hatch on the 17th of this month. I think my success has been creditable and to me very satisfactory. I have lost less than half a dozen young ones, and believe the loss of these was due to a lack of rock salt in the fly, My aim is to increase the flock to 100 before beginning to market the squabs. Squabs sell in our market for 25 cents each and are scarce and in demand. My pen consists of a house 8x8 feet in which the birds roost, lay and hatch, Connected with the house I have a fly eight feet wide, 20 feet lonz and eight feet high; with which accommoda- tion the birds seem perfectly contented. Many of them seem to know me and are not afraid when I go among them. I feed twice a day, about 8 a.m and 3 p.m., giving them what they will eat of whole and cracked corn, wheat, millet and Kaffir corn, when pro- curable. Occasionally I throw in bits cf cabbage leaves which they seem to relish very much. I have your Manual and have followed instructions as nearly as circum- stances would permit, and with it as a guide and reasonable attention, do not see how any one could fail to succeed in a pleasant and pleasing pursuit. I believe it also profitable, even in my small way. I bought your fibre nest bowls and have them screwea to pieces that slip into the egg crates that you mentioned in your Manual. This makes cleaning the bowls and boxes a very easy matter. I intend in the near future to build another pen, divide my flock and test the question of “‘ pigeons for profit.” Thus far lam delighted with the project, but love for my birds may interfere with selling squabs for slaughter, My squabs weigh on an average of three-quarters of a pound, live weight, at about three weeks of age. I have had neither sickness nor lice, and on the whole am most highly pleased with my birds— - Mrs. R. E. B., Texas. USES A WATER FOUNTAIN WHICH HE MADEFROMA BOTTLE. In February (1908) I became interested in Homers and thinking they would give better results than common pigeons, I sold my flock of common birds and sent you an order for three pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers. Three days later I received them, Some friends of mine had Homer pigeons which they considered excellent birds, but they could not beat mine. My friends have been anxious to get some of my Homers, but I intend to keep all I raise until I have quite a flock. Up to date (October) one pair has raised six pairs of squabs since I received them. The other two pairs have done nearly as well. ‘he common pigeons I had generally stopped breeding during the moulting season, but your Homers kept right on. I feed what is called here ‘‘ scratch feed,” composed of buckwheat, peas, Kaffir corn, sunflower seed, cracked corn, wheat and several other grains. I also give a tonic every Sunday with a little hemp seed. I use a feeder which I made, as shown in your Manual, and a water fountain which I made from a bottle. I have followed your Manual HOME MADE. For this little plant the breeder has utilized what he had; expending hardly a dollar. He has done very well in these rough and ready quarters, however, as his letter here printed shows. (See letter of M. J. H., New York.) in caring for my birds and think it is an excel- lent book. Sometime in the future I intend to give you another order. T send by this mail a picture of my place and birds. The small pen is where I keep my young stock until they mate. The one with the Homer in the window is where my working birds are kept.—M. J. H., New York. vETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS RECEIVED BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 302 APPENDIX G The year 1909 was notable in the squab and pigeon world by reason of two important happenings: the founding of the National Squab Magazine and the organization of the National Squab Breeders’ Association. The maga- zine is a monthly periodical. The first number issued bore the date Febru- ary, 1909. At this writing (January, 1910) twelve numbers have been issued and the second year begun. This periodical was an instant success, taking at once a commanding position. It is the first successful attempt made in this country to print a handsome, up-to-date squab or pigeon periodical with only original articles and illustrations giving instruction by competent writers. FUNNELS TO BLEED SQUABS. One wire nail fastens and then some good live advertising that greater Cleveland may ‘know what squ2bs ae where to get them and how to eat them. About two years ago I purchased three pairs of your Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and two pairs alone have increased to about fifty- five by now (the other pair having flown away when I released them about three months after I received them). I am very enthusiastic about the raising of squabs and in order to have even pairs and also to introduce new blood, I wish to purchase about ten females. My males have increased more than the females so that I need about this many to even up. I desire the Extras. At present IJ am enlarging my unit house and in the near future expect to increase my flock to_at least five hundred pairs.—W. M. James, Ohio. 360 MALE AND FEMALE PIGEON BILLING, OR KISSING. HOW I LEARNED TRUE CALIFORNIA PRICES, by Stefan Schwarz. In the leading San Francisco daily papers, squabs are quoted at $2 and $3 a dozen at present (May 29, 1911). Everybody knows that squabs are numerous at this time of year, and that com- petition is active. Circumstances did not encourage me. Anyway I did not expect a very ready demand, or good prices either. Iam breeding a flock of several hundred pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers. I asked my grain man for the address of a commission house, and he sent me to a big one of first-class reputation. Who can describe my great surprise as one of the members of the firm told me: ‘'I will take all the squabs that you will ship to me and I am ready to make a contract with you for one thousand dozen squabs a year, for which I will pay you $3.50 for Homer squabs weighing ten to twelve pounds, and $4.50 for Carneaux squabs weigh- ing fourteen to sixteen pounds.”’ It is a puzzle to me how my fellow squab raisers in California can afford to go so much below these quotations just mentioned, unless they ship squabs which weigh considerably less, or are fooled by the newspaper quotations, as I nearly was. Squab buyers must buy squabs. Squab breeders alone can furnish squabs. It is the business of the seller and not the buyer to make the price. APPENDIX G HOW I LEARNED TO GET GOOD PRICES, by A. J. McCauley. I sold all of the Plymouth Rock Extra Homer squabs I raised in eleven months to a marketman in St. Louis, Mo., for prices ranging from $3.25 to $4.80 a dozen. I started in to ship to the market people in December, 1909, and until January 21,1910, received $3.60 a dozen; from then until February 25 I succeeded in get- ting $4.20 a dozen. I again wrote them to advance the price as I had been offered more elsewhere. The price was then advanced to $4.80 a dozen. This price lasted until April 10, when they tumbled to $4.50 a dozen, then in the same month they cut them to $4. In May they cut them to $3.60. In June they cut them to $3.50. From July until November, when I quit shipping to them, I was getting only $3.25. At this time I wrote them to know if it wasn't about time for squabs to start to advance in price. The answer I got was quite an eye opener for me, for they said that they had been putting squabs in cold storage all summer and that they had quite a lot of birdson hand that they had bought reasonable and consequently could not pay any more for them just at that time. I at once got busy with other buyers in Chicago where I received $4 for eight-pound squabs and $4.25 for nine-pound birds. At present I am shipping my birds alive for $4 a dozen toa place near Chicago. I am putting forth every effort to be able to gather a lot of squabs through the months of February and March, when I hope to get $4.80 or $5 a dozen; then I expect to be able to ship squabs by the barrel next summer and will either ship East or store them until the prices advance. Some people are dead set against whole corn because it is so big, and claim it chokes the squabs, but I notice when I feed cracked corn and whole corn together, they always pick out the whole corn. The females seem_to like it when they are on eggs especially. One reason I feed whole corn is because the cracked corn gets sour in the least dampness, and soon I see sick birds. A breeder about two miles from my place buys squabs and he told me the other day that he got $4.50 per dozen himself. I went down a few weeks after and he offered to buy fairly good squabs at thirty cents each, or $3.60 per dozen, netting him a profit of ninety cents on every dozen. I take the maga- zine and it certainly is a beauty.—P. E. Foster, Massachusetts. All squabs are good, but some are better, APPENDIX G HUNGRY CALL FOR SQUABS IN MONTANA, by W. M. Safley. We started in |» the squab business in May, 1908, with two hundred of Ply- mouth Rock Extra Homers. We have sold squabs most of the time since, but have saved four hundred, of which about two hundred and fifty are at work. We_ have sold about forty-five dozen squabs since }} June 1, 1909. There is no trouble about the market here in Montana. We have quarters for one thousand birds and ex- |~ pect soon to fill the houses. I] © amin the business tostay. We are at present getting $3.50 per dozen for squabs unsorted, plucked, F.O.B. We ship to Helena, only thirty-three miles, so have never used ice to pack in. Weuse peach crates mostly, packing two dozen in a crate, but will use the corrugated boxes as soon as we can. The young shoots of grease wood are our nest material. HOW THE MARKET RUNS AFTER SQUABS, by John E. Gilbert. About six years ago I began to look into the squab busi- ness from a straight business viewpoint. All I knew about the business was what I read and after reading I got to thinking. I first wondered whether I could sell all the squabs T raised. I often had read about the large hotels using thousands of squabs a week, so I ventured to go to several hotels in Philadel- phia, the Bellevue-Stratford, Bingham and Walton, and each chef in charge told me he could use all the squabs I could bring him, but they had to be prime, large ones. There was an old breeder who served the Bingham Hotel regularly every week, but with hotels you must have quantity as well as quality. As an ordinary person cannot comprehend the demand for squabs I will say that when hotels and other large institutions cannot be supplied by the breeder himself, they turn to the commission men, who have hundreds of shipments daily from all parts of the country within a radius of five hundred miles. Com- mission men take any quantity, small or large, and can be better relied upon by the hotels because of the large army of squab breeding shippers pouring squabs into one firm. If a breeder cared, he could increase his flock large enough to supply the trade direct, and make a good deal nore on his squabs. Every person wivzout doubt has wondered whether he really could sell the squabs ne could raise, and whether there really is a big demand for squabs. It is positively a truthful fact that the demand for squabs is equal in some sections to the demand for eggs, although this may not seem so to many, when you think how many people eat eggs. You never have EFFECT OF MONTANA APRIL SNOW. Four pens after a snow on April 13, 1909. The snow was all melted before noon. Photograph from W. M. Saftey. heard of squabs being seized from dealers by the United States food experts and destroyed as you have very often heard about eggs. The factis, there is at times an over-production of eggs. The demand for squabs everywhere cannot at present be supplied, and will not be supplied for some years to come. In many localities it is not necessary to ship squabs now, as commission men have buyers in all parts of the country to take the squabs right at your place, and pay you cash. There is more competition in buying squabs than one would imagine, as each dealer has his trade to supply and must have the squabs. When commission men will send out their men to visit the squab plants to get the goods direct, and have your assurance that you will let them have your squabs, this should be confidence enough to cause any one to enter the squab business. HOW TO KNIFE A SQUAB WITHOUT PAIN, by F. J. Bunce. In killing squabs, by inserting the knife well back in the throat, the picker will come in contact with a little, hard lump, which is the brain cell. The knife should be drawn sharply through the brain and up toward the point of the bill. It is always possible to tell if the sticking has been done properly. If it has, a con- vulsive shudder will pess over the bird, the wings draw back anc the eyes become set, but if the bird continues to kick and gasp for breath, the sticking has not been done cor- rectly. If the sticking is right, the bird should be perfectly dead in two minutes. If the bird does not die as fast as the picker thinks it should, another quick incision should be made. This as a rule will be sufficient. MR. TROXEL’S SQUAB KILLING CHUTR. I_CAN SELL 100 DOZEN DAILY IN OREGON, by Louis A. Hart. The squab market here is quoted in the papers at $2.50 per dozen, but I just ignore that price and go to Mr. Hotel Man and engage my pound birds at $5.50 and the nine pound to the dozen birds at $4.50. I find the market firm and demand, well, say, I guess I could sell one hundred dozen every day if I only had them Only you who are near New York city can appreciate the position that I am in, for it surely looks good to me. The staple grain is wheat, al- though some corn and barley are raised. I am located close to a broom factory, so for nesting material I use the refuse broom straws, with all the dead twigs I can find. HOW I TEST EGGS THROUGH A STRAW HAT, by H. A. Davis. For an egg tester, I use a straw hat draped with black cloth that draws together with a string at the bottom around my shoulders. This is practically a small dark room for one’s head, except for a small hole opposite the eye through which the egg to be tested is seen when held to the light. The egg is held close to the hole to shut out all light, and it is surprising how easy it is to tell whether the egg is fertile or not. When we pass through the pen to tcst, we glance at the date the egg should hatch, and reckon back ten days. Thus we are testing an egg about eight days old, and we have gained more than ten days more than once, by testing, which only takes a few minutes. We like to record on the sticker the date the egg should hatch rather than the date it was laid. We find our birds will drink from the bathpan but since we have whitewashed the bathpans once a week in summer, their_bowels are in better condition than before. We put a piece of rock lime about the size of a hickory nut in each drinking fountain also. APPENDIX G EXPERT TELLS HOW TO KILL AND PLUCK, by Clinton L. Troxel. Being a poultry dresser long enough to dress more than forty thousand chick- ens, I willgive you a goodidea how to dry-pick squabs. The look better than when scalded. It is also much quicker. One can be killed, dressed and drawn in less than five min- utes. I dress them upon a barrel. (This is fixed in a man- ner known to poultry dressers as a chute.) The way it is made is to take a barrel and place it upon a box one foot high. This makes the barrel the right height. Placeanother box, which may be about two feet square, with the top, bot- tom and end removed, upon the barrel. This leaves the re- maining three sides to form a shield around your squab, which keeps the feathers from drop- ping upon the floor. They will drop into the barrel, where they can be saved, then sold. Over the center of the barrel is a board eight inches wide, which is used to lay the squab upon while dressing. This board is padded so as not to bruise the squab. At far end of the board is a hole two inches round. Below this hole a cup is placed so that the blood cannot drop upon the feathers. At the other side of the hole a sharp hook is set. Place the bill over the hook, hold the feet, and tip the wings in the left hand. Insert a sharp-pointed knife in front of the eye, upward into the brain. Bleed from the side of the throat; sticking in this way causes the squab to give up its feathers more easily, and at same time it also loses its feeling. One would be surprised to see how quickly and easily a squab can be dressed. The tail, wings, entrails and head can be placed in a pail which hangs near. In front right-hand corner, a small shelf is used to support a lamp for night work. In front left-hand corner is another shelf upon which is a cup of water in which to moisten the fingers. After dressing, draw and remove the head, singe and put into pan of cold water for four or five hours. Add pinch of salt to the water. I have no trouble in disposing of my squabs after dressing like above. We find in this locality, with prices high on feed, that it costs $1.25 per pair per year. Our birds average about five pairs squabs per year. We get twenty-five cents each alive for them. This gives us a profit of $1.25 on each pair a year after paying above amount for feed. Did you ever see a drunken pigeon raiser? Rum and squabs don't mix. There is no such thing as a squab plant with a whiskey bottle hid in the grain bin, APPENDIX G HOSPITAL, CLUB, FAMI- LIES, $3.50 DOZEN, by West- ley O’Harra. I have_never pupped any squabs as I have hard work supplying the home market (Ohio». We have a large new private hospital, which takes five dozen a week. The first club of the city takes ten or twelve dozen just as I hap- pen to have them. Then with the family trade I can dispose of all and more than I can sup- ply. I am thinking of enlarg- ing my plant soon. I get $3.53 a dozen the year round without sorting, feather dressed. I do not believe in starting with a small number and breed ing up your own flock. I tried that for a year without selling any squabs, then bought a large flock of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers and began to get re- sults. Onething I accomplished that first year was proper feeding, which I wish to say is the most essential point to the best results in this business. Do not be afraid to give them plenty to eat. I use the self-feeders, which T keep filled with plenty of cracked corn and red wheat. I have always had good results with these boxes. If any feedbox is not successful, it generally is due to the fact that it is not kept free of the dust which accumulates in the slit where the grain falls through, I sift all of my corn and wheat and clean my feed boxes once a week, give my birds plenty of good, fresh drinking water, with bath water twice a week. I have found that straw is a good lice producer and that the only way to stop the lice is to use tobacco stems for nest material. HOW TO HANDLE TWO KINDS OF BUYERS, by Arthur S. Burlingame. Selling squabs direct to consumers no doubt will bring in the most money, but all people cannot look after a retail trade, as it takes considerably more time. One can get good prices, however, by grading his squabs according to weight. A breeder of squabs ought to have a price for his birds in proportion to their weight by the dozen, A squab that weighs a pound surely ought to be worth more than one weighing twelve ounces. I have about forty pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers and very often get squabs that weigh sixteen to twenty ounces each, and never have had any less than twelve ounces at four weeks old. When I started to sell my squabs, I sold them to a large market and received twenty-five cents each, and sometimes thirty cents, according to their supply and demand. I tried to get more for the larger ones, but they would not pay any more. They told me a squab was a squab, and that they sold them all for the same price. They had them marked on the poultry counter at forty-five cents each. Not satisfied with these prices, I looked around and found a MR. O'HARRA’S SQUAB FARM. 3 uF smaller market that sold to a more particular trade, and this one wanted squabs that weighed twelve or thirteen pounds to the dozen. For the first Jot I took there I received thirty-five cents each, and have worked the price up to forty cents. I think they sell them to their trade at about fifty-five or sixty cents each. This still left me the ten and eleven-pounds- to-the-dozen birds, which are very good sizes. I went to a good hotel and acked if they used squabs, and they said they used them all the year and would like any that I might bring in, provided they weighed from ten to eleven pounds to the dozen, just the ones I wanted to sell. I quoted thirty-five cents each, and they were willing to pay that. They list on their menu, “ Native Squab 75c.” I simply have to kill the birds. I made a machine according to instructions in Rice’s Manual and it is all right. I catch the squabs after dark and kill them in the morning and let them hang in a cool place and take them to market the next morning. I would rather kill a dozen or more squabs than to kill one chicken. It is much more simple and very much cleaner. My squabs weighing from nine to ten pounds I turn into the first market at $3 to $3.60 a dozen. They seem satisfied and I am. Don't sell vcur largest birds in the same lot with the smallest sizes, unless they pay you more. You can find several places where the trade calls for the smaller sizes, and others who want the'better birds. You can keep all satisfied and hold their trade. I would not put in the large birds (in case your pur- chaser of that size was overstocked) with the smaller ones. If you do, they will expect to get them all the time. Eat them yourself. I have not found much of a demand for squabs weighing from one and a half to two pounds. Always make your deals with the owner of the place; he is the man. Show him what you have and he will appreciate quality. RED CARNEAU. SPLASHED CARNEAU. HOW TO PATCH AND HATCH BROKEN EGGS, by M. C. Martin. One who deals in high-priced pigeons can by hatching out the broken eggs save many dollars. Infertile eggs should be saved for patching the cracked or broken eggs. In warm weather place these inasmall boxinthesquabhouse. Inthe winter keep some ‘‘fresh"’ infertile eggs where they will not freeze, and whenever you find a “ good” egg that is cracked or broken, select an infertile egg of similar size. If the egg is broken on an end, take an end half of the infertile egg and place it over the egg to be patched, and if the fit is a good one put the egg back in the nest and as soon as the shell lining is dry, it will fit like glue to the ‘‘good”’ egg. If an egg is broken on the side, break the shell of the infertile egg lengthwise and patch the egg as above directed. Unless a good round, sound shell covers the egg, the two will roll together in the nest and the broken or ‘‘dented"’ shell will soon be broken in by the other egg, hence the reason for patching the egg. Of course if the mem- brane of the egg is broken, there is no remedy, but this is very seldom the case, and the patching can be done very quickly as this is a very simple method. I have a flock of 175 Homers and am getting $4 a dozen for my squabs. I ship them to Charlotte.—J. Paul Leonard, North Carolina. APPENDIX. G | HOW A PRACTICAL IOWA PLANT IS_ RUN, by P. P. | French, M.D. From what ex- ' perience I have had with a number of different varieties of pigeons, it is my opinion that a good Homer is hard to beat for squab purposes. By keeping our birdsin large pens, it reduces the labor of taking care of them toaminimum. We try to keep the flock as nearly mated ‘as possible. We know they were mated in the first place, and when an old bird dies it is an easy matter to break it open and see whether it is a male or female and then replace it from our small pen with one of the same sex. That method comes the nearest to keeping a flock mated of any I know, keeping the birds in large pens as we do, and while it isnot a perfect method, I consider it good enough for all practical pur- poses, and does away with a lot of time spent in banding, num- bering and recording. I tried that method when I first started in the business, but soon gave it up and adopted the other method, and have been just as well satisfied with the results. Again by keeping a large num- ber of birds in a pen it is pos- sible for one man to take care of ten thousand birds, except picking the squabs, and I believe in having the same man take care of the birds all the time if possible, because they very much object to having strangers around. : Regarding prices I can say that we ship our squabs to Chicago, and last year (1910) they averaged us thirty-two cents apiece net the year round, leaving us a profit of over a dollar a pair for our flock, and by that I mean all expenses for feed, etc., except the work. I go to Chicago in the spring and fall and sell our entire oucput of squabs for the suc- ceeding six months at a contract price, and by so doing we know just where we are at all the time, and do not have to feel that we are getting stung by sharp buyers, as the element of doubt is removed. I am getting for squabs dressed: 1 pound, $6.00 per dozen; 14 ounces, $5.50 per dozen; 12 ounces, $5.00 per dozen; 10 ounces, $4.50 per dozen. I sell nothing less than ten ounces and have fair luck with my birds, my prices and squabs. My squabs advertise themselves.— Albert H. Gerling, Illinois. Question: Do you believe in pulling out the tail feathers of young pigeons, to help them grow? Answer: No, it is unsightly, and unnecessary. Let Nature attend to this mat- ter in her own way. APPENDIX G GOOD SQUABS SHOULD BE SHIPPED RIGHT, by B. F. Babcock. Shipment of Sep- tember 23, 1909. | ee 10-pound squabs. . $2.13 dozen 9-pound squabs.. 7.00 4 dozen 8-pound squabs.. 1.40 $10.53 The above is a statement of a shipment of Plymouth Rock Homer squabs that I have made lately to a New York commis- sion merchant and shows the actual cash received by me. The following is a copy of part of the letter received from the commission merchant, under shipment of October 14: We received from you this week a shipment of squabs for which we are enclosing check and account sales. Your birds were very fine and hope that you will continue to send us your output.” In making the above two ship- ments no pick of birds was made, taking the birds of killable age fromeach pen. But in the fol- lowing matters I was particular (and it is the only way to be a successful shipper): A clean box, clean paper, clean ice, clean birds, clean mouths, and clean feet, and to make the shipment more at- tractive when the box is opened, is to wrap the heads in tissue aper. No one will ever regret following the above particulars. Ihave a nice printed card which is tacked on the lid of the box. ENORMOUS DEMAND NOW IN CALIFORNIA, by William J. Reid. I have made a canvass of the local market conditions and find the following state of affairs: Several commis- sion men inform me that they cannot supply the demand, par- ticularly during the last year; _ i that small, common squabs, “‘ rejects,’’ weigh- ing six and seven pounds, find ready sale at $3.50 and $4.00 a dozen; that Homers are very scarce, those that can be obtained being easily disposed of at $4.50 and $5.50 a dozen, alive. From these figures the commission men deduct eight per cent for handling. In Oakland, I bought a pair of dressed Homer squabs, medium sized, for which I paid $1.30. Broiled, they were enjoyed very much by Mrs. Reid and myself. The marketman stated that he can handle all the choice Homers brought to him, at good prices, according to weight; would pay $4.50 and $5.50 a dozen. At the California Market (retail) the poultryman told me he would pay $4.50 a dozen for all the A PIGEON AND TWO BUNCHES OF SQUABS. Homer squabs I could bring him, regardless of weight. All the dealers agree that this is not a temporary condition, but that the demand is increasing faster than the supply, and it seems to me that the forthcoming World's Fair will not hurt the business. A year and a half ago I purchased from the Plymouth Rock Squab Co, eight pairs of Carneaux. I now (June, 1911) have over three hundred of all ages, of which some eighty pairs are mated.—Percy A. Bath, Ontario. The difference between success and failure in the squab business is the difference between work and hot air. APPENDIX G 366 “41048 91} WOT] S890ONS B SEA PUT ABMOUI PEMOLod OOTS YPM poswnys soa qued syY ‘NODGUO NI ASQOH AvNOS GNV N@YOIHD NOLLYNIGNOO V APPENDIX G e HOW TO PUSH AND HOW TO COOK SQUABS, by Fred M.Parkeson. I have seen peo- ple pay seventy-five and eighty cents for a chicken in the mar- kets here that could not begin to furnish as much meat as a pair of my four-weeks-old Ply- mouth Rock Homers, not men- tioning the difference in the quality of the meat. Yetif you or I asked them why they did not try the squabs instead of the chicken they would say: “Well, I don’t know how to cook them.’’ I dare say that every eight out of ten house- keepers in this State have never cookedasquab. Now the ques- tion arises, why? I can answer it. Every morning excepting Sundays there are pedlars going from house to house here in San Francisco selling fruits, vege- tables, rabbits, eggs, butter and evenlivechickens. But I have yet to see for the first time any one going to the homes to sell squabs. There seems to be a mistaken idea that the working class of people cannot afford to buy squabs, and that squabs are for the rich only, but such is not the case, as can easily be proven by the way that the working class buys other high- iced articles of food in general. t wish that I were so situated that I could put in a stock of five hundred pairsof Plymouth Rock Homers, I would not hesitate so far as paying me a nice profit is concerned. I wish to offer a recipe for cooking squabs. This recipe has been prepared exclu- sively by Mr. Victor Hirtzler, chef of the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California: ove] SSS Squab en Casserole Squab, or a small bird of any kind, is very good cooked in a casserole. Have the squab cleaned, then dust ever so lightly with flour and put into the casserole with a piece of butter the size of an egg. Cook for twenty minutes, then add one small tender onion, cut fine, three or four mushrooms and a little chopped celery which has been parboiled in salted water. Let this bake together for ten minutes then add half a cup of strained brown gravy and two spoonfuls of sherry. Let simmer for ten minutes until the squab is tender. It should be very tender when done. Place a napkin neatly about your baking dish and serve hot. Brown gravy is made by browning two spoon- fuls of butter in an iron pan until it is at an even color. Stir all the time. Then add two cups of hot water and a spoonful of beet extract and simmer for half an hour. Salt and strain, You will find this to be one of the most delicious dishes you ever tasted. PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS IN TEXAS. 2 The two marked with an X are a prize puir of silvers. TRY ROASTED SQUABS LIKE THIS. Prepare much the same as you would chickens. Scald, pluck and clean, tie their wings against the body, place in baking pan on backs, put cqaartersnch hot water in pan, place on bottom of hot oven and cook slowly thirty minutes, then baste and put another baking pan over them and put on grate in oven for one hour, basting occasionally while cooking. Remem- ber a slow fire is better than a hot one, and the oftener basted the better, but do not cool oven opening too frequently. Cooked in this way, you have a dish fit for kings. None of the thin parts are burned and bitter. The flesh leaves the bones freely. The wings, legs and small muscles on the back are all good, delicious. After trying them this way, you will find you can afford them much oftener than you thought you could, as there is more meat on the legs, wings and thin parts than you ever thought there was, when served broiled. Avoid squabs of the common pigeon. Secure good, fat, genuine Plymouth Rock squabs and prepare as above, and you. will always want more and consider them cheap at any price. I started three years ago with thirty-six Ply- mouth Rock Homers. I have now nineteen units on Mr. Rice's plan, and have between 1200 and 1500 birds.—W. C. Hyer, South Carolina. 368 APPENDIX G BACK YARD SQUAB BREEDING. ~ Showing that syuabhouses in the rear of a city home may be A very satisfactory business of For particulars, see made attractive and interesting. considerable magnitude has been built up here. the accompanying article. WHAT WE HAVE DONE WITH SIX PAIRS, by Columbus Nelson. We started here in the State of Washington two years ago with six pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers. From these we now have over two hundred mated pairs of breeders. We sell the squabs in Anacortes at a good figure. Besides saving a number of pairs of breeders during March, over $20 worth of squabs were sold to local fanciers and eager consumers. Ours is the only plant of the kind, so far as we know, in Skagit County. In connection with squabs, my wife and I make a specialty of thorough- bred buff and white Orpingtons and Pekin ducks. We expect to enlarge our plant to two thousand mated pairs of Homers, and then will devote our entire time and our five-acre tract to the raising of squabs for the city markets. We declare, after much work, careful study and experiment, that the business will be a complete success. To break up floor nesting, first let the male and female build the nest and as soon as she has laid the first egg, take her and her egg and nest and put her in a nestbox. Put on a wire door so she cannot get out. The door must be taken away at night, so she will not see you. You will not have any more trouble with them. I have been raising pigeons since September, 1908, and have one hundred pairs of Homers and Carneaux. I send my squabs to New York, where I receive the top price.— Walter Hudson, Connecticut. HOW I PUSH SQUABS ALONG IN TACOMA, by Adam Sossong. I started with one dozen common pigeons about two years ago to see how it would pay raising squabs for market. I raised one dozen squabs from the commons, took them to the Tacoma Hotel. The first question asked was, are they Homer squabs? IJhad to tell him,no. The answer he gave me was to get Homers and he would buy the squabs at all times. So I came to think that T would sell the commons and buy Homers. I bought two dozen. As soon as I glanced over Mr. Rice’s Manual, I saw some mistakes on my coops and. nests. I took the book, read it over carefully and followed his directions up to the mark. I did not have any more trouble selling my squabs, and got more customers in a short time. At present I have four hundred pairs of Homer squab breeders, which are doing their best and raising fine squabs. Ido allmy selling to hotéls and high-class fraternity clubs. My squab- houses arein my back yard. (See photograph.) I praise soaked wheat bread which I give to my birds twice a week, all that they will eat, and green vegetables such as lettuce, clover and cabbage. I will give you the prices on all the feed. Wheat is $2.35, peas $4, kaffir corn $3.50, millet $3, scratch food $2.35, hemp $7, flaxseed $+, buckwheat $6. The prices for squabs are from $3.75 to $4.50; if you supply good squabs, you get top prices, for there is always a big demand. There are lots of markets here that would buy squabs if they could get them and enough of them to keep the trade. I don't bother with any markets. I have my steady weekly cus- tomers. I dress all my squabs and get top prices. I get letters from Seattle for squabs so I am not worried about not having a sale. I am going to get a few acres next fall and then I will put in a large stock of breeders, The more Tacoma is growing the better squab sales there will be. Take my advice and get interested in raising squabs. I was troubled by three and four weeks old squabs leaving the nests, especially those close to floor. I have begun to wire each in with two-inch poultry wire, tacking a six-inch piece of lath on to the front for a perch, so that par- ents may alight there and feed them through the wire. Most parents feed them O. K. I have had a few that seemed to be allowed to starve to death.—E. S. Riggs, Missouri. Keep your squabhouses clean, and neat looking; that is, if you wish to interest visitors. APPENDIX G FROM AFLAT TO SQUABS IN THE COUNTRY, by Laura A. Pierson. A year ago I be- came interested in the subject of squab raising through a mag- |/® azine article,and determined to |? inform myself with a view to engaging in the business. I accordingly sent for the '‘ Na- tional Standard Squab Book” and read it through. At that time we were living in a sub- urban flat, but contemplated moving to our present location, bo we did in the spring of There is a barn on the lot, the loft of which we fixed for pigeons, the lower floor for chickens. We built flies to the south and have a nice chicken- run to the east. The chickens are simply to supply our own table, although we have a sur- plus of eggs, and have enjoyed the sale of some at the extremely high prices the past winter. The Alock of pigeons we intend to increase as rapidly as possible and concentrate on as a busi- ness. Last August we received thir- teen pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers. The birds set- tled down very promptly and have worked well. We now feel that we are sufficiently experi- enced to handle a larger flock and are fixing our quarters for more birds. We have ordered one hundred pairs more. WHAT I AM DOING WITH A SMALL FLOCK, by Walter Sieverling. Six months ago I ordered three pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers. They ar- rived in good condition and in a week they had eggs. I fed them the best that could be bought and they repaid me with fine, big, fat squabs. It was very funny to see them claim theirnests. I had other Homers in the house at the time but in the end the new Homers were the winners. They were larger and could handle my birds like babies. I have nine pairs working now and in May I had nine pairs of eggs in the nests. The day the first pair hatched out the last par laid their eggs. They all hatched and IJ had eigh- teen squabs all of good size. The largest I had was a pair of red checks which weighed, one twenty ounces, and the other twenty-two. In order to raise good-sized birds, cull your squabs when they leave the nest and after they develop. sbi ns NOTE SIZE OF THESE EXTRA PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. One of the Chicago houses has contracts with a squab raiser paying $2.50 for six-pound squabs, $3.00 for seven-pound squabs, $3.50 for eight-pound squabs and $4.00 for nine- pound squabs. One man in Iowa has six thousand old birds and has a yearly contract with this house.—H. Huecker, Illinois. Don’t ship to a wholesaler unless you are wholesaling. If you want retail prices, go and get them according to the directions given in the Squab Magazine. APPENDIX G ae PORTLET ce 3 5 ta 3 I USE STEMS OF LEAVES .| FOR NESTING, by Dutch Cropper. I fully believe pig- eons prefer dark-colored ma- terial for their nests. Just give | them a chance at the stems of different kinds of leaves, such as are easily gathered from under the black walnut, butternut or 4) locust tree; also, the inner bark ‘| torn from cedar posts or logs, and the bark of the grape-vine. I have known instances where salt-marsh hay was bought for the purpose, when, with very little effort, material far more desirable could have been pro- cured right on the owner’s place. I have made beautiful jack- straws out of rye and oat stalks which were absolutely refused. Tangled oat straw they will use, but give them a chance at one or the other of the above, and note the difference in the archi- tecture of their nests. The Fulton Market Company are now buying squabs at thirty cents a pound and sell them at forty cents a pound. They say PLYMOUTH ROCK CARNEAU SQUAB. Weight one pound, age three weeks. Two views of the same In the upper picture the squab is compared with an ordinary squab. glass tumbler, to show size. HOW MY BIRDS GET NESTING MA- TERIAL, by Harvey Drake. The usual way is to use crates to hold the material, but what the birds pull out and do not want they throw or drop down until they find what they do want. I have found a way to overcome this. Take a box about one and one-half feet deep, one foor wide and three or four feet Jong and put it under the window. Then take a board a little larger than the box you use and fasten it to the window for a sill inside like a shelf. This protects the nesting material from being soiled by birds sitting on the window sill, also if a shower of rain comes up in summer when the windows are up, the material is protected. I put the nesting material I use in the box and do not fill it more than one-third full. The birds fly down in this and pick it over until they find what they want, and then fly to their nesting place. A year ago in May I bought five hundred pigeons of the Homer variety and lately I have bought two hundred and fifty pairs more. I am greatly interested and have been greatly encouraged the past three months, as I have been getting $4.00 net for all of my nine-pound squabs, and $3.25 for those weighing less, and never have been able to fill the orders I get.— D. G. Barstow, Missouri. they rather quote them by pound, because the size varies so much. The demand is dull just now (August), and they are placing squabs in cold storage. Geis & Waelde will pay $2 a dozen for squabs and sell them at $2.75 and $3. I visited the farm of the O’Harra Squab Company. The proprietor, Wesley O’Harra, has Plymouth Rock Homers. Mr. O’Harra sells his squabs direct to the consumers and gets from thirty- three and one-third cents to forty cents each dressed. Thisis at the rate of $4 to $4.80 a dozen.—R. D. Hiatt, Ohio. VASELINE FOR CANKER, by L. T. Dunn. Please publish this for the good of those who raise pigeons as it is the most valuable thing I have ever discovered for the pigeon raiser. Just common vaseline is a marvel for canker. Take some on the end of the finger, a good lum: of it, and poke it down the squab’s throat. It will loosen the lumps in the throat and you can pull them out easily with a hairpin. Put some more vaseline in the throat after you do this. You will not lose two squabs in a hundred. Question: How shall I whitewash a loft filled with working pigeons? Answer: Drive your pigeons out into the flying pen on a sunny day and shut the windows, then paint the interior with cold water white paint, which will dry before night, then you can let your pigeons back into the house. Begin with the very best pigeons that money can buy; then breed for better ones. APPENDIX G FRESH SQUABS DISPLAC- ING COLD STORAGE, by | Harry U. Bell. Despite the |B fact that Washington City may be classed as a poor squab mar- ket, the demand for fresh-killed squabs is far in excess of the |p supply. i The bulk of the squabs han- |} dled during the winter season is the product of the cold-storage plant. These are bought up during the summer, wherever they can be obtained, the source of supply being from persons with smalllofts of birds, or they |:# are shipped from_ surrounding country places. The supply of cold-storage squabs has to be very short before they will pay as much as $3.50 or $4 a dozen. The recent investigation of the cold storage has done a great deal towards helping squab breeding in this vicinity. The squab-eating public is now clamoring for a better class of goods, and is willing to take them from breeders, knowing that they are the fresh-killed product. Having had to pay a goodly little sum for cold-stor- age squabs they are equally willing to pay for the fresh product. No one starting into the squab breeding business in this vicinity need fear for his mar- ket. Itis waiting for him. If he produces good squabs and lets a few people know it, it will be but a very short while before he will have as much trade as he can handle. GRAIN WEIGHTS, by W. H. Cunningham. Below are given the weights of various products in their raw state, the figures indicating pounds per bushel: Wheat, 60; corn (shelled), 56; corn ‘on the cob), 70; rye, 56; barley, 48; buckwheat in Pennsylvania), 50; buckwheat (in Ken- tucky), 52; buckwheat (in Massachusetts), 48; oats Gin Illinois and Massachusetts), 32; oats (in Ohio), 33; oats (in Kentucky), 33 1-3; oats (in Maine and Pennsylvania), 30; flaxseed, 56; hempseed, 48; broomcorn s 2d, 52; sorghum seed, When a pigeon gets out of fix, it fasts some- times three or four days and later comes around O.K. Don’t worry about a bird’s not eating. It knows its own business and is taking its only treatment, fasting. I have noticed this so much among the birds, especially with young- sters, I am earnestly entreating all pigeon friends to let the pigeons do the ‘‘ doctoring '’ and let the owners of the birds give attention to feed, water and care of squabhouse, and Nature, the great doctor of all animal life, wih take care of the pigeon's ailments—M. C. Martin, Kansas. WHITE HOMER AND PEN OF COLORED HOMERS. GROWTH OF AN IDEA. Ten years ago the word ‘‘ squab "’ was practically unknown. Today it is on the lips of every one not only as an article of food, but in slang, which is a true test of popularity. For example, at the great American preparatory schools, the freshmen are now dubbed ‘‘ squabs,’’ meaning the soft, tender, inexperienced youth, of both sexes. In the West, a ‘“‘ squab " is a tenderfoot. In the theatres, a ‘‘ squab '’ is a young chorus girl of eighteen years or under. A “broiler’’ is a chorus girl between nineteen and twenty-one. ‘“Squab parties ’’ are gatherings of children. Fried spring chicken, roast turkey, duck, or beef are all good eating, but not as good as roast squab for my taste. It is the choice of all other meat for me. One of my customers, who is a hunter, just recently told me: ‘If I were served with young roast quail one meal and squab another I could not tell which was which.’’"—W. B. Glotfelty, Pennsylvania. I am very much impressed with the squab business here in St. Louis, and think there is no better market to be had. I get $4 per dozen for nine pounds and $4.50 for ten pounds. I pay no attention to markets.—F. L. Mc- Donald, Missouri. 372 ei TEN PAIRS OF SQUABS A YEAR. What do you think of these Homers? The ones with the crosses on them are the two best breeding Homers in my flock. squabs weighing sixteen ounces apiece at the rate of ten pairs a I get twenty-five cents apiece for all my squabs alive and cannot raise one-third enough. — year. They are |the largest birds I have. A. F. Ayers, California. HOW TO GET AIR INTO SQUAB HOUSES, by W. P. Jencks. When you see frost on the nails of your roof inside, make up your mind your house is damp. To venti- late a house ten by twelve feet make a box about five or six feet long and about one foot wide. Have doors on the north and south side on hinges that swing in from the top. Close the one on the side where the wind is blowing and open the other one. A small ventilator one foot square open all around will let in more fresh air than one six feet long that is open only on the side opposite from the wind. A ventilator that is not over one foot square in a house ten by twelve with seventy-five or one hundred birds in it is not much use. The average squabhouse ventilators are too small. Make them larger. Try one as an experiment and find out as | did. I have sold all my squabs to a hotel right in the town. They have taken all I could raise and wanted more. They paid twenty-five cents each and took them alive. I did not have to kill them. I now sell my squabs by the ounce. I get two cents an ounce just killed and_ three cents an ounce dressed.—W. P. Jencks, Rhode Island. We are starting in the squab business on a small scale but with the idea of success and of a large plant. Our enthusiasm is strengthened by the remarkable success of a friend during the past two years. He has fully demonstrated to our satisfaction at least that the squab business is O. K.—H. C. Voss, Ohio. APPENDIX G HOW TO IMPROVE A FLOCK BY REMATING, by George F.Lunn. I have about three hundred pairs of Ply- mouth Rock Homers and Car- neaux. If I finda pair that do not breed well, I remate them. I find that it is better to try that than it is to sell them, if they are good birds. If I find two pairs which I do not think are doing what they ought, and mate them over, then they do as a rule very much better. I take them out of the pen and use a mating coop for one week, then I put them in a small pen which I have built for that purpose, and I keep them there until they lay one set of eggs and have hatched them out, then I give the squabs to another pair and put them backinto the en from which I took them. have not had any trouble of their going back to their old mates if they are kept apart for one or two months. Iam getting for squabs that dress eight pounds to the dozen $4 a dozen at this date (May 5, 1911) and think that is very good. January, February and March, I recieve five and six dollars for them in the market. They sold well last winter and the birds have been doing very well. My birds averaged six and one-half pairs of squabs for each pair of breeders for the year 1909, and I think that they will do better than that this year, as they have worked at a more rapid rate so far. RAT TRAPS IN A BOX, by James Y. Egbert. When a breeder is troubled with mice in the squabhouse, he can get rid of them by using one or more traps in boxes. I take a box 13 x 7 x 3 inches, or a tobacco caddy may be used. With a one-inch auger bore eight holes, four in each side. Bait your traps and set them inside, then put a cover over the top so the pigeons will not spring the traps. Traps in a squabhouse should always be protected as pigeons or squabs may be injured if they are not. In this way I cleaned out all the mice around my pen. They raise I am going to buy more Homers soon, and will then have an output of twenty dozen squabs a month. I have standing orders for private trade for squahs. I get seventy cents a pair for the smallest squabs, or $4 a dozen. For the largest squabs I get $1 a pair, or $5.50 a dozen.—R. C. Boyd, Pennsylvania. I have a printed postal card to keep my cus- tomers informed and jog their memory as to the desirability of a course of squabs. They have the habit now and require no reminder.— Frank R. Tucker, Rhode Island. APPENDIX G HOW A HOTEL MANA- GER PUSHES SQUABS, by John Hill. We pay seven doi- lars a dozen for the kind of squabs we serve. Just at pres- ent we have enough, but I would be very glad to know the names and addresses of some breeders of fine squabs. We cook them in any way our patrons want them, but put them on the bill of fare merely as squabs. [rather prefer them roasted, to any other way of cooking them. I ran the advertisements of our hotel in the New York Times and Brooklyn Eagle to stimulate the night-dinner trade. The night following my pub- lished talk about squabs, the sale was forty-two orders. Our average number of orders per night for squabs had been six or seven. That advertisement was read and it brought the business. _ I have been engaged in rais- ing pigeons for eight years, and am employed in the city, the only time I have to attend to my birds is in the morning and afternoon, after returning home. During my experience I have bred various pigeons, but_have finally settled dewn to Homers for first choice and Carneaux for second choice. My Homer squabs weigh from twelve to fourteen ounces each, and Carneaux squabs from fif- teen to seventeen ounces each, and I have also crossed the Carneau and the Homer, and squabs from this cross weigh from fourteen to sixteen ounces each. I recently purchased ten acres of ground near the city and it is my intention to convert this entire place into a squab plant early next spring.—T. P. Meyer, Texas. I am getting from $2.75 to $4.50 per dozen for live squabs from the commission men in Cincinnati. I have not started to sell to the hotels yet. My best squabs weigh over ten pounds to the dozen. We grow wheat, corn, sunflower, kaffir corn on our farm. We save much money on feed bills. Corn and wheat are the staple articles of feed and every other day I mix corn, wheat, kaffir corn, sunflower seed, Canada peas, hempseed. Most of the time I feed mixed corn, wheat and Canada peas, the rest every other day. I think the first thing a beginner should learn is to ventilate the pigeon house. They must have pure air to breathe. Don’t ventilate so that the wind will strike on birds. I store grain in barrels covered with tin, so rats can’t eat.—George S. Beyer, Indiana, 373 WHITE AND COLORED HOMERS. One thing I have learned about the care of pigeons: first and most important is plenty of clean, fresh drinking water, one fountain in the fly and onein the loft so when the old birds feed the squabs they can get water without flying outside for it. Second, that all grain or seed should be free from dust of any kind, and musty grain should not be fed under any circum- stances. I think most of the pigeon men here feed a little different than in most places. My main feed is wild brown mustard seed. I have fed it with good results for three years. I will give my way of feeding: One and one-half quarts wheat in morning. From three to four quarts mustard seed at noon. One and one- half to two quarts Egyptian corn at night, with a feed of peas and rice once a week each. In each loft is a feeder containing grit, charcoal and sea-shells, in each fly a piece of mineral salt. One reason I feed more mustard seed is that it is a cheaper feed than anything else. It costs here $1.25 per one hundred pounds; white wheat is about $1.60 and Egyptian com $1.75 to $2 per hundred.—Riley C. Clark, California. 374 HOW I FEED SO AS TO LOSE NO SQUABS, by Fred C. Schrein. I started to raise squabs in 1904 with six pairs of Homers, the Extras from the Plymouth Rock Squab Company. They cost me fifteen dollars, and my coops five dollars, total twenty dollars. I did not know a thing about pigeons, and so you see I had to start at the bottom and climb up, and now I am on the top rung of the ladder. When my squabs came, where was my mar- ket? I had to look for one. I took some down to the leading hotels and the managers startled me by remarking that they were not squabs. I asked in some perplexity, ‘‘ Why are they not squabs? '’ ‘‘ Because they are too large for squabs.’’ It was up to me to make good. I replied that for every one of the birds that was not a squab I would give them a dollar. Then they said they had no calls for squabs, but I finally persuaded one of them to try mine, telling him that I would let him have them for three dollars a dozen. It did not take long before he found out that it pays to have first-class goods to do business, and so it was. I had to educate the people first as to what a squab was, and now I have them pretty well educated, and I cannot raise enough for my trade. I am now catering mostly to private custom and get fifty cents apiece for all my squabs. It makes no difference who it is; every oné is treated alike. I have’ at present about one thousand birds, and if I-had room I would have five thousand more. I éxpect in the near future to go out _n the suburbs and build a large squab plant. I use a mixed feed, and everything but corn. The only time that my birds get corn is in the winter months, then in the afternoon I feed it to keep them warm through the night. Do not feed cracked corn_at any time unless you can crack it yourself, and know it is fresh. Follow these instructions and I bet you will not have any more squabs die with canker unless your grain should happen to be musty. I know what I-am talking about, as I have gone through the mill. HOW I MADE ROAST SQUABS POPU- LAR, by Clara M. Hodson. I have hatched eight hundred birds, kept one hundred pairs and sold the others at a fair profit. I have sold the squabs from twenty-five cents to fifty cents each according to size. They average ten pounds to the dozen, but many of them weigh one pound after removing feathers. I selected the birds I wished to keep, built a small addition to my first house and mated them up as I wished according to the colors, blue, white, black, brown or Carneau red. This is easily done if the youngsters are confined together in a mating coop for a couple of weeks, then are allowed to go into the fly where the young pairs are kept. They will bill and coo, build a nest and go to work. I have quite a number nesting at five months. My pigeon cote isin the rear of a lot 80 x 180 feet on one of the main streets of this Maryland town of eight thousand people. It is the only APPENDIX G pigeon plant in this section, and I have created an interest in my birds and a taste for ‘“‘ roast squab with peas ’’ that make a sale here for all. I cannot always supply the demand. I had pure healthy stock to begin, studied Mr. Rice’s valuable book and the magazine and without any experience have had exceptional luck. No disease of any kind. I feed them a special pigeon feed (which stood first under a recent examination by the Maryland Agricultural College). It has about twelve different kinds of seed and cracked corn in it. I pay $2 per 100 pounds for it. It costs me two cents apiece e week for my old birds and their_squabs. ometimes if the number is larger, I feed a little higher. They are fond of hemp. [ watch them and feed them what they like. They are very little trouble. I feed and water regularly twice a day in troughs and fountains, and have the house cleaned every week, some- times oftener, as nests may require. This work is done by a boy twelve years old who loves the birds. My birds are the admiration of all who pass and see them sunning themselves. They know me and many of them know their names, I think. They are far more easily reared than chickens. I have fifteen White Leghorns and fifteen Rhode Island Red hens in a lot adjoin- ing my pigeons, but they are not so profitable. I find great pleasure showing my guests my birds, and all are enthused with them. I recently took a prize serving them roasted whole, stuffed with celery and served with pelit pois and crab apple jelly. Let every woman who loves pets try a few pigeons. Question: In what cases do you believe in selling squabs to middlemen, and in what direct to private trade? Answer: I believe in knowing the cost of production and selling to somebody at a profit. The average pigeon or poultry raiser doesn’t know either costs or selling prices. The product of a large squab plant in the hands of an average business man is best sold to middlemen because the cost of finding retail customers for a large output is something requiring bother, skill, time, money and equipment, all of which the middlemen have, as well as the educated habits of people who are trading with them. The product of a small squab plant is best sold at retail because it costs nothing to find the customer if you follow directions. Producers are much more common than salesmen, in all lines. The salesmen have the equipment, the know-how. The producers should try to get it. It must be remembered that it takes training to lead a business life, although few seem to ap- preciate it. The man or woman who raises beautiful squabs but doesn't know how to sell them is very much of the habit of mind of the professional man, a physician, for example, who can write a book on how to cure a cold but can't cure one. Many of the misunder- standings in the pigeon business have arisen from the inability of the writers, who never do, to comprehend what the doers were doing. APPENDIX G HOW ONE WOMAN WORKS AND WINs, by Nellie C. Wellman. The business of squab raising had always appealed to me as most fascinating, but living in a city I could not very well engage in such an occupation. But a few years ago, a very pleasant home- stead in the country, my husband’s boyhood home, came into our possession. In the spring as soon as the weather per- mitted, our squabhouse of two units was started, and May 4, 1909, we installed thirty- one pairs of birds in unit No. 1. We were fortunate in securing fine Homers. I began to save the young birds for future breeders and by the last of August had about one hundred youngsters in unit No. 2. We sold no squabs until the first of Septem- ber of that year, and have been most succes- ful in raising fine birds, and also in disposing of them to the very best markets and private customers. I live about twenty-five miles from New Haven, Conn., which was my birthplace and also home for many years, and having an extensive circle of acquaintances, I found no difficulty in selling my squabs. Then, too, being personally acquainted with the proprietors of the best markets, I found them very ready and willing to buy good birds. Another means of our getting customers was through a private chef, who goes to the houses of the wealthy class to cook for private dinners. This chef (a woman) has done much to recommend our squabs, telling people they are the best that come under her notice. Two of the markets take the birds with feathers. Another market wishes the feathers off, but birds are not drawn. For our private trade, we dress the squabs completely, wrapping each one in wax paper and packing nicely in pasteboard boxes. As the birds are all sold in New Haven, this way of packing seems all that is necessary and we have never been obliged to use ice. In the spring of 1910 three more units were added to the house, which now consists of five units besides a grain and killing room at one end. I believe in absolute cleanliness, pure, fresh water, and plenty of it, good health grit, char- coal, salt and oyster shells. My birds have all of these, and I have never had a case of canker in my loft. I hire a man for cleaning and other heavy work, but attend personally to the birds, being familiar with each individually. Several of my breeders have raised nine and one-half pairs of squabs, and few less than eight pairs during the year. If possible I am more enthusiastic as regards squab breeding than ever. The pleasure I derive from being with the birds more than repays me for the labor connected with their care. As a rule, those who offer any class of pig- eons for half price, either have failed to figure out what it cost to raise and mate, or they are selling a poor class of birds. 375 HOW A POSTAL CARD FOUND MY BUYERS, by Frank English. I purchased some Homers and Carneaux of the Plymouth Rock Squab Company. I started in to raise my own breeding stock, and my birds proved to be excellent workers. I began to advertise in the local press and by the following post card: SQUABS Rich, juicy, fat squabs are not only a dainty food, but also very nutritious and far superior to chickens. They are especially valuable to the sick and convalescent who cannot assimilate coarse meats. If you have never enjoyed the pleasure of eating squabs, try them. We have them on sale either killed and dressed, or alive as desired by some. We have nothing but the very best, and raise all we offer. No cold storage nor common pigeons. We sell by the single pair and upwards in half dozens, or any number required. - FRANK ENGLISH, Squab and Pigeon ‘arm, Within forty-eight hours my telephone kept me busy with people inquiring about squabs. I need not say that in a small Northern Con- necticut section many of the inquiries were both original and provincial. Some wanted to know if I raised squabs for Gloucester fisher- men. Some wanted to know if it was right to skin them. Others desired information con- cerning the nature and purposes of squabs, while a few wanted to learn how to hunt and trap them. Of course, among the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills this simplicity was pardon- able, but out of one hundred postal cards sent out and a small advertisement in a local paper, I received orders for more squabs than I could furnish and the prices ranged from four to six dollars per dozen, according to size. To say that I was agreeably surprised goes without saying. I feel that many oF the squab breeders unfavorably situated for expressing squabs long distances at great expense may take heart by my experience and cultivate a local trade to their advantage and profit. Later (April 25) Here’s a how-de-do! My post cards and the advertisement one of our local hotels has given me have created a furor. I cannot supply squabs enough and have had to refuse orders. I did not dream when I sent out the post cards that I would have such a deluge of orders. The hotel man informs me that he never had such fine squabs before. There are squab breeders as far West as Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas who are shipping steadily to the Eastern city markets. Your success with squabs does not depend upon the markets, but it does depend upon your intelligence in dealing with the markets. The pigeon business is like any other busi- ness; that is, you must talk pigeons if you sell pigeons. 376 APPENDIX G FOUR PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. HOW I EXPERIMENTED WITH COW PEAS, by William P. Gray. Although I have always found that it paid me well to feed Canada peas liberally, their price was so high through the summer and fall that in October I decided to try cow peas as a substitute, and accordingly mixed four bushels of cow peas with about eight hundred pounds of other grains. Shortly after beginning to use this mixture, I noticed that about all my squabs were affected with a looscness of the bowels that made my nests the filthiest that I had ever seen them. Several squabs died and those that I have marketed the past two months have been about the poorest I have ever had to dispose of. Ten days ago I made up another grain mixture, this time using instead of the cow peas four bushels of Canada peas and other grains, the same amount as before except for an extra one hundred pounds of cracked corn. Here is the result in ten days after substituting the Canada peas for the cow peas: The loose- ness of the bowels in the squabs has disap- peared. My scales have shown that the squabs taken out of the loft today were the heaviest that I have produced this fall. The old birds act as though they had taken on a new lease of life. Out of sixty-four pairs, sixty-one pairs are working, and seventy-four eggs have been laid the past week. To any wishing to know what my birds are being fed now, I wish to state that my grain mixture for cold weather is as follows: four bushels peas, five hundred pounds cracked corn, four bushels wheat, one hundred pounds kaffr corn, fifty pounds millet, twenty-five pounds hempseed. I never place a pair of pigeons in a pen unless they are banded. lalso limit the number of birds placed in a pen to conform to the size of the pen, and under no conditions whatever do I allow another bird to be added to this pen. In my case the number is twenty-five pairs, as I have built my pens with this idea in view, for I believe this number is the most_practical for all purposes, and I am con- vinced that a greater number than this will fail to produce the results shown by this num- ber of birds. I then make out a chart with the numbers one to twenty-five in a row, and allow twelve spaces for the twelve months of the year. hen I make a note in the space opposite the pair number in the corresponding month when robbing the pair of its young, showing just how many were taken. By referring to this record I am able to know exactly what this pair has ac- complished in a certain period, and if it does not show a stand- ard result I make arrangements to dispcse of one or both birds at once, and in this way I save the feed the pair would consume and also avoid any possibility of either bird causing any trouble inidleness. This takes practically no time and is a big money saver.—F, L. Stock, Missouri. A year ago I moved my drug store about a mile from its former location, and about that time I had about one hundred old and young pigeons to move with squabs and eggs. I caught all the pigeons, old and young, put them in boxes with a sack over the tops, and lost only one young pigeon from suffocation. lost all the eggs, and strange to say did not lose one squab, which were of all ages from one or two days to a couple of weeks old. I just put them in the squabhouse, and the old pigeons went on feeding them as before. By using a little common sense, pigeons are the easiest thing in the world to raise, and beat poultry all over.—C. Montz, Louisiana. In June, 1910, I purchased a dozen pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers, and now (October, 1911) have eighty pairs of breeders and 140 youngsters. I have just started to sell my squabs and find a ready market. Can get $4.25 per dozen for eight to nine-pound squabs. I am on a rented place, but expect to move in the spring and_build more lofts and increase my breeders. I can dispose of ten to fifteen dozen more squabs a week than I can supply. There are a great many breeders here who have what are called American Homers which breed a squab only a little larger than the com- mon pigeon.—H. W. Moore, Ohio. APPENDIX G DRY GRAIN HEALTHFUL, by Hugh Donlon. Having had trouble and sickness in my birds, especially in the ‘big fellows,’ I was at a loss for some time to know where the trouble came from. I had grain from different sources to see if that would help, but no better luck. Lately I have taken each day's feed and left it on the back of the stove all night, or put it in a warm oven for a short time, and I find a wonderful difference. The birds picked up at once and seem to relish the crisp grain. There is very little grain, after it has stood in damp storehouses for a year or more, that will not draw dampness. I have been feeding dry bread for some time, and see it spoken of but how to feed it is the puzzle that will bother a great many, as it should not be wet. Run the bread through a coarse food chopper and it will come out in the form of pills that will be devoured greedily. It makes great stuffing for squabs. Of course it must be used in connection with grain rations. HOW I MADE A RAT-PROOF GRAIN BIN, by J. E. Maccabe. My feed room is down stairs, and the lofts are up stairs. The rats used to eat about half of the feed. I went to a tin shop and ordered a box of galvanized iron, twenty-four inches wide, thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches high, eight com- partments, four of the compartments six inches wide, and the full width of the box, the other four compartments six inches wide, but only half the width of the box, or twelve inches. Each compartment the full width of the box will hold a bushel, so the whole box carries six bushels of grain. Inside of two months the box had paid for its cost, five dollars. . Between the rat-proof feed box and the lime in the lofts I have no more rats or mice. What Lime Did I couldn’t go into the loft but what there was a rat or mouse, although I didn’t keep the feed in the loft. The floor was of boards. The rats would go up the side of the building, then they would make their way into the loft. This spring, to make some whitewash, I bought too much lime, so I put some of it around the wall on the floor of the lofts. It extended out from the wall for six inches, an inch in thickness. From that day I have never been bothered with rats. I was in Seattle last week looking for a mar- ket. I went to all the high-class cafes and res- taurants. Here are a few: The Butler, Mancas, the Rathskeller, Olympus and Gerald’s. All offered three dollars a dozen (feathers on) de- livered. In one I had rather an amusing ex- perience. I went to the chef and asked if he bought squabs. He said, “‘ Yes.” I asked how much he paid. ‘‘ Ten cents apiece,’’ he an- swered. turned and started out. ‘ Hey, vait,” he called. ‘Gif you fifteen cents.”” “Nothing doing.” ‘‘ Gif you twenty cents. “Come again.” Well, he “ came’’ to twenty- five cents each delivered in Seattle.—Wallace Todd, Washington. 377 SQUABS AT GOOD PRICES IN CALI- FORNIA, by Walter E. Hiller. I have moved to California from Massachusetts, where I bred squabs, and am all ready to have my Extra Plymouth Rock Homers shipped on_ here. They have fine pigeons around here. Squabs weigh twelve pounds to the dozen. They get $3.50 to $4 a dozen alive, and don’t even have to twist their necks. Grain costs about the same asin the East: peas $4 per one hundred pounds, hempseed $6 per one hundred pounds. This is a fine climate to raise squabs. I have bought a nice home, one acre of land, all kinds of fruit, large stable, hot and cold water, electric light, bath room and a line of cars, eight miles to the city. I have built two coops, fifty feet long, and am building more. Things are all different here. The house is fifty feet long, four feet wide, ten feet fly, seven feet high; cement floor; everything all open, no windows, very easy to clean out. One coop holds fifty pairs. FOUR PAIRS HOMERS STARTED ME IN 1903, by E. W. Lewis. I purchased six pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers in 1903. I did not purchase a bird in the seven years, but selected the best from these four pairs and their increase for breeders. The inbreed- ing did not seem to hurt them in the least, as the seventy-five pairs I have now are never sick, and the squabs at four weeks weigh eleven to fourteen ounces. I put my squabs in a separate coop for twenty-four hours before killing, and then their crops are entirely empty. Then kill and dry pick. In that condition they weigh eleven to fourteen ounces each. I am getting $3.75 a dozen the year round. A few days ago I had a large squab which dressed sixteen ounces. The chef at the hotel I sell to looked me up next day and said, ‘‘ If you can furnish me squabs like that, I will give you $4.25 per dozen the year round.” That decided me to get Carneaux, which I am doing, and I hope they prove all that has been written of them. I have not been in a position to expand as fast as would like. Of the seventy-five pairs of breeders I have now, here is the record for last year: January 1 to December 31, 1910, 748 squabs for which I received $224.90. Feed for the year was $106.75, leaving a profit of $118.15, and the work attending them was a recreation and pleasure. I feed whole corn, macaroni, wheat and kaffir corn as main feed, and hemp, peas and millet as luxuries. (Mr. Lewis, the writer of the foregoing, livesin Colorado. It is often asked by residents of that state whether pigeons will breed well there, on account of the high altitude. His story is proof that they do. We are acquainted with a number of squab breeders in Colorado who never have complained that the altitude had any effect, and we do not believe that it has, either one way or the other. Pigeons seem to breed there as well as anywhere.) The demand for first-class pigeons is greater than the supply. 378 APPENDIX G fy 2s NOVEL FLYING PEN. Squabs in the loft of a wagon house. Any fancier can find enough desirable char- acteristics in the Homer and Carneaux utility pigeons to fully satisfy his fancy and at the same time be breeding something that is of some use to the world. I get just as much pleasure in breeding something that’s useful, as any fancier does in breeding useless fancy varieties. If a person wants to breed pigeons for pleasure or fancy, utility pigeons are more desirable, in that by selling or eating the squabs that are not your ideal, you can pay the feed bill. If you have a squab which is off color or has some- thing about it you do not like, you get just as much for it as squab, as if it were just what you desired and you sent it to market. I believe in fancy utility pigeons, and as long as I breed pigeons I will consider the fancy points, even in squab breeding pigeons.— J. W. Williams, Texas. The most essential point in buying utility pigeons is to get the kind or class that will breed the most and the best squabs. However, the kind that’s in demand must be considered. The kinds most in demand in the South are the Homer and Carneaux squabs. The reason for this is that there are a great many more Homers and Carneaux than all other varieties combined. In fact, all dealers know what Homer and Carneaux squabs are—J. W. Williams, Texas. For several years I had been trying to get a flock of well-bred chickens. I had paid good prices for eggs and hatched a mongrel lot of chicks. So few were at all what would be called good lookers that I became thor- oughly disgusted with the whole business. Tco many casualties and fatalities of the chicks, to be profitable. Too much bother to run out in the storm and pick up the half-drowned chicks. Too many mites to keep off the roosts. Too much of a job for the financial returns. So I de- cided to look to squab raising. Some of my friends have gotten past the point where they smile as they ask me hew the pigeons are getting along. They for- merly acted as if they thought that pigeons were good enough for a boy to have, but for a big strong man with a good pro- fession to bother with pigeons was too much like child’s play. The person that is looking for a pleasant and profitable busi- ness would do well to take up squabs.—C. F. Wilson, Illinois. I will tell you of a little ex- periment I had with a pair of pigeons. I didnot like thelooks of the place where they had their nest so one noon I changed it into another nestbox. During the afternoon while I was away at work a white cock chased the cock off the nest. In the evening when I came home I found the eggs very cold, and I put them back where they were in the first place, caught the hen, put her on the nest, and she stayed. I didn’t expect them to hatch after being chilled, but to my surprise they did, but the young ones were two days behind time in getting out. They are getting along nicely,—Edward Knapp, Indiana. Some one gave me an old copy of Rice's Manual five or six years old. I began to study that and soon decided to send for the last issue. It came in due time and along with it a sample copy of the National Squab Magazine. After considerable deliberation and delay I sent in my one dollar subscription for the paper and from that time on I began to see what squab raising meant. For the first few months the magazine was worth: more than the subscription price each month. I could not do without it now.—R. C. Clark, California. About a year ago I bought of you thirteen pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I now have about two hundred pigeons, and they are beauties. I have killed but few, as I wish to get a large stock on hand and then offer squabs only for sale.—William C. Davis, Georgia. APPENDIX G MINE EAT LOCUST LEAVES, PEPPER- GRASS, by George Jackson. I bought thirteen pairs of the best Plymouth Rock Homers in May, 1909, and now, eleven months later, I have two hundred birds. Every one that comes along admires them. I have a friend who gives me boxes, which I break u and make use of in building. So in this way do not have to buy much lumber. We have an offer here (Kentucky) for squabs weighing eight ounces at $3 per dozen, and as ours weigh from twelve to sixteen ounces I think I could get at least $5 for my squabs. I feed seven different kinds of grain, but my young birds do not like the Canada peas. I feed rice and locust leaves sometimes, and as soon as peppergrass grows I will give them that. RICH SQUAB OPENINGS IN CALI- FORNIA, by M. W. Donaldson. Nowhere outside the city of New York is the demand for squabs so strong as in the cities of Oakland and San Francisco, California, with their combined population of approximately 700,000 (census just completed). While Oakland boasts of her hotels, grills, clubs and sanitariums, where squabs find a ready market, San Fran- cisco’s three leading hotels alone could con- sume all the squabs produced in California today, and then run short on orders for this delicious luxury. One dollar per pound can be obtained for the right kind of squabs in the Oakland or San Francisco markets when offered to the right kind of trade. As the game laws of our state are becoming more stringent each year, and prices correspondingly higher for the inadequate supply of wild game brought in, also likewise for young poultry, the only substitute for the squab, there must soon be found by the caterer a means of taking care of his menu along the lines of wild game, and the only logical solution appears solely in the squab. There certainly is a field here for many who might care to invest in this lucrative industry. San Francisco is a most_cosmopoli- tan city and right up to date. Californians are not afraid to spend their money, They want the best money will buy and they get it, regardless of what it may cost. If they should call for squab on toast, they would not hesitate at $2.50 to ask for it. It’s the same in all other lines of trade in California. The people here demand the best and they certainly have it. Squabs will soon be in- cluded, and the best that can be produced, both in size as well as in flavor. The man that gets in first on this market with a modern squab plant will have the easiest and the surest sailing, but nevertheless, sure. Such are the possibilities for the producer of squabs (for the rich man’s stomach) near the Oakland and San Francisco markets of California. About October of last year I bought from your firm nine pairs No. 1 Plymouth Rock Homers. At the present time (June 12), T have about eighty-five birds all in first-class shape, besides about twenty killed for the table.—A. E. Buchanan, British Columbia. _total of 146 birds. 379 NEW ORLEANS WAITING FOR GOOD SQUABS, by K. J. Braud. I am raising squabs for pleasure and for my own table use. I received my birds exactly nine months ago, twelve pairs of Plymouth Rock Extra Homers, for which I paid $30. I have raised in that time twenty-four pairs of breeders, some of them larger than the parents, and have used for our table seven dozen squabs, and now have ten pairs of young ones in the nests, making a Thisis not remarkable, but in view of the fact that I had never had any experience in the business I consider it highly satisfactory, at least to me. I have never lost a single large bird, having all the original birds, and a finer lot I think it impossible to find. have six pairs of my young ones working, three of which have hatched young squabs, and the other three are setting. Taking things generally, I am highly pleased so far. I derive a great deal of pleasure, and besides quite a delicacy for our table. I have no doubt in my mind that squab-raising can be made profitable here in Louisiana as well as anywhere else. I feed my birds along the lines set in the National Standard Squab Book, and I feel that any one following those direc- tions can hardly fail if they give them the proper attention. It appears to me that a good market could be created in New Orleans for squabs if the oe energy and push were behind the usiness, MUST SAY I PREFER SQUABS TO CHICKENS, by Albert F. Neblung. I will tell you why I am going to raise squabs and not chickens. I have been raising both for some time and have wanted to sell my chickens, and have found a buyer at last, and have sold out all I had, also sold all my pigeons, because they were not what I wanted. Now to get a start with the best there is in the line of squab breeders. I could clean my squab coop in two hours, then they would be all right for one week without need of cleaning, but the chickens needed about two hours’ work each morning to keep away lice, then it was never right. The chickens were always wild and would fly as if I were going to kill them all, but the pigeons wonld mind their business, be tame, sit on my hand, and eat out of it. I'd like to see a chicken do that. Then I set an incubator with 108 eggs and hatched fifty-four chickens. The first week I lost fifteen, the second week, fourteen, the next two weeks eleven. Out of the fifty-four I had fourteen left. That is the way chickens do with you. But when pigeons lay, you will have two squabs. You don’t have to feed them or watch the heat in the incubator or brooder. Well, to cut a long story short, chickens eat about twice as much as pigeons. About the same with work, if not more. Me for pigeons! I will have some good Carneaux or Homers. I have room for about one hundred pairs, but will not start with that number. APPENDIX G Vays CELLERE. Ysa PLYMOUTH ROCK CARNEAUX IN NEBRASKA. I used oat straw for nest material. The birds leave all other kinds for it. It’s soft, pliable, holds shape, is superior to anything for both hens’ nests and birds’ nests, of any- thing procurable. They build of it large nests which protect the eggs from cold. Having the nest shelves on cleats of iron keeps lice or mites away. With a keg of good, strong whitewash with carbolic acid in it, a man can clean nests in a jiffy. Dip in keg and save lots of time. His lofts look neat at all times. A man could clean many hundred in an hour. I use plenty of salt in all whitewash. The birds peck at it, and get plenty of lime and salt. In buying birds I always put on an extra fifty cents a pair. This gets the best at all times for foun- dation stock.—William B. Thomas, Texas. A great many children come into this world every year with a decided deficiency of the liquor protoplasm in their little bodies, and continue to suffer for want of the supply of it, until some bright physician ad- vises that they be given squabs to eat, as it is practically the only known way of supplying this life-giving fluid. It is a well demonstrated fact that nothing is so beneficial in the treatment of children’s diseases, such as dyspepsia, stomach and intestinal, where the pancreatic and gastric juices have vanished and the ptyalin of the saliva has disappeared. This squab elicir is alnost instantly ab- sorbed into the veins and is the most nourishing, invigorating and vitalizing juice the medical profession has ever discovered, especially in the case before mentioned, and also in all other “wasting away" diseases due to malnutrition, It must not be understood that squabs as a life-building food are necessarily confined to the children — far fromit. Any one suffering from dyspepsia, indigestion, chlorosis or any of these system-deplet- ing stomach diseases is equally benefited.—Franklin Smith, California. MY SALT CAT, by P. Earl Kolb. Take one part charcoal, one part sifted sand (using the coarse part), one part salt, and add a little lime, enough to make it stick, and add a little water. Mix well. Make one or more wood moulds and fill them with this mixture, then let them dry (I put mine near the stove, for the bottom part is hard to get dried without heat). When the mass is hard it will come out of the mould like a brick. Place a brick on a board in the cage and the pigeons will peck at it. To retain the peculiar delicate flavor of the squab the favored method of preparing them for the table is as follows: If possible make use of a regular covered roaster; in any event use a pan that can be covered. if you care to stuff them, and oysters are not objectionable, use bread crumbs and fresh oysters, though many claim this method is no improvement. Roast them rather slowly for an hour and a half or two hours, basting with melted butter every fifteen minutes. In frying or broiling them the greatcr portion of the delicious delicate flavor of this superior dish is lost and you are the loser thereby.—F. B. Shepard, Pennsylvania. APPENDIX G FOUR-WEEKS SQUABS BEAT EIGHT- WEEKS CHICKS, by A. J. Alexander. Six eae of Plymouth Rock Homers arrived here arch 13, Three weeks later I sent an order for ten pairs, so I have a stock of seventeen pairs and have had them about two months. I now have thirty-six squabs, about twenty of them off the nest, and they weigh at from three to four weeks old from three-quarters to one pound each, I am writing this to show you and others how much easier it is to raise squabs than chicks. I hatched twenty-four barred Rock chickens in February and March and now have only eight of them. They have disappeared by night from rats, and some were drowned by being led out in grass by old Biddy. Each day finds me looking them up to see if the eight remaining are all there. My little Rocks are now nice broilers while the oldest squabs can’t be told from the old birds. In fact my squabs are larger at four weeks old than the Rocks are at eight weeks old. After I have time to raise pigeons enough to have a reasonable stock there will be no more chicken raising in mine. I put an extra pick-up pigeon egg into a nest with one egg and three more were laid. The hen hatched four squabs but one died. One nest with two squabs in it was deserted and I lost them, making three squabs lost out of thirty-nine, which is much better than I did with chickens running at large or in a barnyard. Doubling my stock in two months’ time I think pretty good for a new breeder. I FEED WILD SEEDS PICKED ON THE STALK, by Vivian E. Dawley. I saw in the April issue of the magazine an article by J. W. Arthurs, saying that Homers were real money- makers, and I am convinced beyond all doubt that they are as good as the best, and better than the rest. I have eighteen pairs in one pen and since the first of May have sold $20.73 worth of squabs, and on July 24 there were twenty-two squabs and twelve eggs in the coop. All my feed since April 1 has con- sisted of yellow corn, whole and cracked, and Canada peas. Com is going up in price every week here. It is now (uly) $1.50 per bag, and Canada peas $2.40 per bushel. My wild seed I feed at this time of the year, green. I pick it on the stalk and place it on the wire in the flying pen, and the birds get plenty of exercise clinging to the wire and pecking it to pieces. I keep grit by them at all times, as I think it the most essential of anything we give them, except water, which should be given at least three times a day, and the best. of spring water should always be used, as river or pond water is softer and creates a slime in the drinking fountains quicker than the spring water. My three hundred birds (Homers) purchased in May, 1910, have given me squabs for sale every month since, except December, paying from five to seven per are per pon on cost of flock and equipment. am planning to en- large my plant.—D. N. Carrington, New York. 381 HOW I LEARNED NOT TO LOSE A SQUAB, by Mrs. E. C. Monahan. One year as a pigeon breeder hardly seems long enough for advice-giving, but I am so sure that I have the solution why young stock are lost in the first few weeks after leaving the nests that [ can't keep it to myself. Advice need not.be taken, anyway. I lose not one bird. When the squabs first leave their nests, I arrange re- treats to give the frightened little things plenty of opportunity for rest from the hazing even the gentle Carneaux give. Next I transfer them to the youngster pen at night and slip them into a roomy corner. For several days after this, I scatter food handy before the callow brood when the older birds are inter- ested in fresh bath water or a little hempseed. The last thing at night, before the newcomers have mustered courage to go above to roost where the older birds already are, I scatter grain as long asit is picked up. As I am raising birds which at eight months outweigh their parents, who are eighteen to twenty-two-ounce Carneaux, my plan seems a good one. I also keep the same bone and muscle-making dry mash before them in hoppers that poultrymen say is indispensable. It is dry bran mixed with charcoal, grit, oyster shell, salt, and a very little cayenne pepper and commercial beef scraps. This hopper is liberally patronized by the birds. The squabs in the nests nearly always weigh sixteen ounces at three weeks, and where the nests are low many of them tun about at this age. The parents feed them for eight to ten days longer. At five weeks, when the young are no longer tolerated near their former home, I do the transferring. At first any work that required handling the pigeons made me about sick, for fear I would fail or would hurt the birds. I use no net or other device, simply do all the catching at early roosting time. Mated stock is especially easy to handle that way. The pigeons were bought to keep me out of doors, for reason of health, but have developed into a fine pin- money investment, so the plant is to be en- larged soon. I often give the Squab Magazine to persons buying stock of me, and recommend it to all who show the faintest interest in pigeons. I notice some writers suggesting that the first egg be taken from the hen pigeon as soon as laid, and another be substituted, until the second is laid, then both eggs again be re- placed, so that the two eggs will hatch the same day. Child play. Again I wish to say that the birds with Nature as the teacher can run their own business. As a matter of fact, as all experienced breeders know, the birds do not hover the first egg closely in any season; in winter, just enough to keep it from freezing. You can examine the one egg and you will find almost invariably the first egg cold until the hen goes on the nest for laying the second egg, which is about 2 p.m. the third day. Then she hovers the eggs closely, and the hatching process begins with the two eggs in the nest.—M. C. Martin, Kansas. 382 APPENDIX G FIRST-CLASS HOMERS IN THEIR KANSAS HOME. SIXTY CENTS A PAIR, by Charles S. Eby. I have_a standing order for_all the Plymouth Rock Extra Homer squabs I can rais se from a large firm in Detroit (Michigan), and they pay me sixty cents a pair, just as they are off the nest. They told me they were the largest squabs they had ever seen. They weigh from one pound to nineteen ounces apiec I think I have the largest or rather the heaviest Homer squa in the country. Don’t you think The smallest squab I ever weighed at four weeks of age weighed fifteen ounces. I have lost but three old birds since I started, en that was with sour crop, caused by poor feec a Question: I am going to start squab raising in a carriage house which is now overrun with rats and mice. How should I arrange the place to keep them out? Answer: ladvise you to lay one-half inch mesh wire netting on the whole floor, also the walls and ceiling, so as to make it physically impossible for rats or mice to get into the squab room from the outside. If you have a double floor you can lay the wire netting between the floors. You must be careful to screen the ventilators, and in the management of the window, especially when closing for the night. gx Question: Here in Illinois we have cow peas in plenty. Are they good feed for guabs, and are they as good as Cc anada peas? I can buy them for from $1.25 to $1.75 per bushel, accord- ing to the season. Answer: Cow peas are not favored so much as Canada peas and are gen- erally more expens They are all right to feed to pigeons. Question: I am a woman and kill and pluck the squabs. mend my shipping the young squabs alive from ) ippi to the northern markets? Answer: If you don’t like to kill them, why don’t you Taise up your pigeons for breed- ers and sell them alive in pairs, as so many are now doing? dislike to Would you recom- WHAT AN EASTERNER SEES IN CALI- FORNIA, by B. F. Babcock. Having been in Southern California and Los Angeles for over a year, it has given me a good opportunity to look around and give to the readers of this magazine an idea of the possibilities of squab business in Southern California. The climate is par excellence (except occasional fog and dampness in the morning, which may cause sickness among the breeders, but this is easily overcome) having none of the extreme Eastern winters and no bad storms. I have not so far seen any squabs in the markets that compare with the ones that I raised in New Jersey from Plymouth Rock Extra Homers and sent to the New York markets. I have been raising pigeons for the last few years, but never paid any attention to the rais- ing ¢ f squabs for market until about a year ago. I had some Homer pigeons, and then I bought a few more, and sold my first pair of squabs in Mays 1910, and from that time on I have had sale for all the squabs I could raise. I sell all ay squabs dressed, and get seventy-five cents a p air for all. feed corn, wheat, kaffir corn, buckwheat, hemp, peas, barley and millet. They are very prolific breeders and raise nice squabs. Iam a great lover of pigeons and find squab raising very interesting work. I have been a subscriber to the Squab Magazine since January, 1910, and think it is the best period- ical on pigeons ever published, and would not be without it.—Ralph Lenz, Ohio. iL. bout some fine Homers from the Ply- mouth Rock Squab Company two years ago. A frie ne asked me to try my birds in a Homing Club, but I thought they were not good enough for racing. L joined one of the largest Homing Clubs in Canada. I won a good many prizes in the club, the birds flying as far North as Cobalt.—Peter Chormann, Ontario. The retail prices in Providence for ten- pound squabs are $1.10 per pair, $5 per dozen.— . Card, Rhode Island. APPENDIX G HOW I BUILT LARGE FROM A SMALL START, by W. E. Blakslee. Many times we fail to realize that the things we do for a pleas- ant pastime may become most important later. About three years ago I thought it would be an enjoyable and interesting way to spend my spare time to have a small flock of pigeons, and make a study of raising both breeders and squabs. At that time I little realized what it was going to mean for me later. My first move was to obtain the National Standard Squab Book and study up what information I could derive from that. I found it to be a great aid to me for the ‘‘ know how,” and what to do, in getting my place in proper shape for keeping birds. As I advanced in my experience I appreciated more and more what the Manual taught. lfixed a place at the start for a good number of birds, and also a good-sized rearing pen. My first order to the Plymouth Rock Squab Company was for only three pairs of birds. It was my intention to go slow and sure, and let my knowledge increase as my birds in- creased. I can see what it means to me now in being able to handle any number of pigeons with perfect ease. After I got started under way, I found my- self getting more and more interested. There seems to be something very attractive in it if one once gets fully interested. The growth of the squab is a fast and wonderful develop- ment. Any lover of nature cannot help being astonished by seeing it. After one has raised a nice lot of selected breeders, he certainly has done a work to be proud of. As I advanced in raising my flock, I added now and then a few birds from Mr. Rice to mix in with my own raising. I had such good success, and increased so fast, that many times I found myself wishing I could devote my whole time to them. I little thought then the time would come so soon for me to do so. My birds have done well and proved a perfect success from my start, and I have a fine large flock at present that is a good investment for me. I have had the misfortune to lose my health and have had to stay in a higher altitude than my own home all the summer, leaving my home and birds to the care of my wife and daughter, who have kept everything right up to good success and standard. This proves a family might be left in worse circumstances than having a good, profitable flock of pigeons to help out. My condition has made it neces- sary for me to give up my home in the valley for one in the mountains, so I am having to give up my position in the manufacturing line and do what I am next best fitted for, and able. If it was not for my squab experience, I don’t know what I would take up, for I am prepared for maintaining myself only in a mechanical life. It now looks as if the squab business came to me for a good purpose. I now have nearly a thousand pairs, all Plymouth Rock stock. I am getting fine squabs, very few less than ten ounces, most_twelve to fourteen ounces and very often I find a few fifteen, sixteen and seventeen ounces, 383 HOW WE RID A LOFT OF FLIES AND MICE, by H. J. Moeller. We are living in the trade center of this state (Wisconsin), but the game laws extend over such a wide range of time, that it is a hard proposition to have our squabs bring the right market prices. At present (July) we are receiving three dollars per dozen for squabs weighing eight to nine pounds er dozen, while the same are being retailed for four and five dollars. The prices of grain, however, are reasonable, thus afford- ing us one advantage over the low prices paid. We have arranged to have always about fifty extra nestbowls on hand, so that when the squabs are taken from the soiled ones we can quickly take them out and replace with clean ones. Then if the time does not permit we can put the dirty nestbowls aside and clean them later in the day. After the nests are cleaned we scrub them with a solution of lime and carbolic acid. We also use the crystal form of carbolic acid as a disinfectant around the coop, placing it on different parts of the floor in cans with the tops perforated. This is a quick way to rid a loft of flies and mice, as neither of them can bear the odor. For nest- ing material we use nothing but tobacco stems in the warm months and marsh hay in the winter. Our loft is given a good cleaning twice a year, and painted a good heavy coat of whitewash. The floor and nests are at- tended to weekly. T have just finished the job of whitewashing my pen with a very good whitewash made as follows: Dump a bushel of lime into a water- tight barrel and add water until it is slaked, at the same time adding cup by cup, while the slaking is going on and the mixture is very hot, common kerosene oil until you have added a gallon. If added in this way the oil forms a curious chemical combination with the slaked lime. The product when mixed with water to form a whitewash of ordinary consistency gives a smooth, hard finish, brilliant whitewash. Fill the barrel up with water after the mixture has cooled, when a small amount of the uncombined oil rises to the surface and protects the wash against deteriora- tion. Any unused residue keeps for years. Put the wash made as indicated above on the outside of everything that you wish a brilliant, durable white. On the inside use the same whitewash, modified by adding a third of a cup of crude carbolic acid (purchased at drug store) to the water bucket of the wash. The carbolic acid reacts with the lime, making carbolate of lime, which is the basis of most of the lice powders. This is an excellent white- wash to put on the nestboxes and walls on the inside of the squabhouses—H. M. Mayhew, California. Carneaux come not only in red splashed with white, but also yellow splashed with white and solid yellow. These colors are liable to come out at any time, just as several colors come from Homers. SMALL SQUABHOUSE. In a corner of the right-hand picture is szen a group of some of his Homers. PITTSBURG A RICH MARKET FOR SQUABS, by William McK. Ewart. One year ago last March, I purchased twenty-six pairs of Plymouth Rock Carneaux and nine pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers. I had no intention of making a business out of my birds, but bought them to please my son. This started me to making an effort to reach two hundred pairs of birds. Last August I started to kill squabs and have been since selling them to a Pittsburg wholesaler who pays liberally and takes all I offer him. I must tell you what grand breeders my birds have been. By _ substituting Carneaux eggs under Homers, I have been getting my best birds to lay fifteen times a year. (For full directions for doing this, see page 231 of this Manual.) The squabs weigh a pound at four weeks of age, which is what good Carneaux should weigh. Most of my young birds have proven as good and better than my old ones, which goes to prove that my original birds were first class. It pays always to buy the best. A friend of mine told me about mixing Venetian red in the grit, which has proven a first-class way to give it to them. They must get the red when they eat the grit. I have no trouble now with canker. Another plan of his is to equip your nests with wire bobs, made from griddle toasters, which cost five cents each. Have these fastened on your nests when squabs are about three weeks old, and keep them there till you are ready to kill at four weeks. This keeps the squabs from getting out on the floor and running off all their flesh and weight. The old birds feed them through these wire bobs which will swing in if you wish them to, thus letting the old bird into the nest. This, however, requires you to let the old bird out to get feed and exercise. I find the cock bird will feed through these wires all right. While raising youngsters I found that more females were dying than males, so I tried the scheme of taking away the first egg_and only hatching the second. As a result I now am actually long on hens. APPENDIX G Four years ago the Healys purchased twenty pairs of Ply- mouto Rock Extra Homers. The increase was conserved, the culls disposed of, and new stock was introduced and added just as fast as the owners were able to pay for it. The market- ing of squabs was also carried along with the growth of the plant, demonstrating conclus- ively that the profits would be greater, and the expense far less than usual to the conduct of a large chicken plant. The houses, fliesand other equipment were gradually gotten in place. As the large stock of poultry was disposed of the proceeds were invested in more adult Homers, and some Carneaux. The flock has grown until now there are 750 pairs of producing birdsin thenine- teen units of housesand flies. Nomore beautiful sight was ever beheld than that presented by these contented and happy birds in their clean and comfortable homes. Shipments of squabs to New York have been successfully made through three summers without the loss of a single bird and no shipment has been re-iced en route. In each box is a tiny outlet for drainage. The rate to New York is $3.50 per one hundred pounds by express, there being no charge made for the ice. The boxes are returned at a very low charge and one box will make the round trip in six days. The New York market alone would take one hundred birds for every single bird offered. There is no way to fill the demand and there seems to be no limit to the demand. Mr. Healy, the manager, stated that while he had no stock of any kind for sale, he would be glad to see others enter the business, as there is no element of risk encountered in it, and, with fairly good attention and a little capital most any energetic person could make a suc- cess of the industry.—T. K. Bates, Florida. If you raise pigeons get all you can out of them. Raising squabs is a business, so by all means make it a business. You would not in- vest your good money in a dry-goods business and sit down and expect the business to come to you. Ifa business man with the big, red-writ- ten word of success ever before you, you would fix up your show windows to attract attention, would carry all the newest and best goods, and, above all, you would advertise and advertise well. What applies to one business applies to another. If you go in for squabs, either as your business or as a help to your income, go into it well, and with all your heart. Do not buy your birds and then sit down and wait for results.—Charles B. Durborow, New Jersey. Your birds have proven to be what you claim them to be. I find also that I can depend upon you with absolute confidence.—Sylvester Grote, Ohio. APPENDIX G POOR JUDGMENT IN MARKETING SQUABS. “Members of the National Squab Breeders’ Association will be interested in the, following letter received from New Jersey: I take my squabs to a New York supply house, and am getting top prices. I Rive found out that some breeders are considerably to blame if low prices for squabs prevail. A commission man sold me eight dozen eight- pound squabs for $1.96 a dozen, and the breeder received $1.87 a dozen, minus express- age. I sold these squabs at $3 a dozen, but I can not always do this, as they smelled a rat.” The above is an instance where one squab breeder profited by the ignorance of another. What happened was this: The breeder of the squabs had eight dozen good ones which he could have sold at retail by the use of ordinary intelligence and_the directions given by the National Squab Magazine for $5 a dozen, and at wholesale for at least $3 a dozen. He parted with them at the absurdly low price of $1.87 a dozen. The expressman or other middleman reported to him that the sale had been made at $1.96 and took off nine cents a dozen commission, probably figuring at five per cent. The breeder did not get the whole of $1.87, because the express charges had to come out of that. It reads like an express company sale. All interstate express com- panies have what is called order and com- mission departments. They will take any farm produce and sell it on commission, In such cases the wagon starts out from the depot with the goods and the driver calls at a con- venient marketplace. It is for the interest of the express company to sell the goods at highest price so that they can get a higher commission but their interest is not nearly so strong as that of the shipper and as a matter of fact, in the case of perishable goods, they are anxious to get rid of the loadin the quickest possible time. The buyers know all this and taking advantage of the circumstances, buy at what is practically their own figure. The expressman will put up no argument with them and will not move on to another place but concludes the sale then and there. Franklin wrote: “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” If you wish your squabs sold properly, sell them yourself; you are the interested party and don’t think that anybody else will fight your battles for ou. * The man who sold the squabs for $3 a dozen made his profit because his intelligence was superior to the breeder’s. It is a case of knowledge and skill every time when squabs are marketed. It seems incredible that the original breeder was a member of our associa- tion. coats Some might ask: Was not the commission man to blame for buying the squabs so cheaply? Did he not rob the breeder? It is business, and honorable business, to buy in the cheapest and sellin the dearest market. The breeder was to blame, if anybody, in giving up his squabs so cheaply. He would not have done so, had he known that another breeder would step in and buy, and again sell, at a profit. This lack of 385 knowledge on the part of any squab breeder is easily remedied by joining the National Squab Breeders’ Association, subscribing for the mag- azine, reading it every month,and remem- bering what he reads. The subscription price of the magazine for a year can be saved on every dozen of squabs marketed if the reader will sell as we have instructed him to sell. HOW I CATCH MATES THROUGH PEEP- HOLES, by Arthur H. Penny. I have been in the squab business four years, and have learned by hard experience a few things that may help others just beginning. From my observation, and what I have learned from hotel stewards, commission men, too, I believe that Homers are much the best for the squab breeder, unless he has very fancy private trade. My squabs bring $4 a dozen for all weighing seven pounds to the dozen and over, and I find this a very good price. If I had all ten and twelve-pound squabs, I could not hope to get very much more for them, and taking into consideration the greater amount of feed required for the larger birds, and the fewer squabs produced, I consider the Homers more profitable. Ihave never seen described my method of mating, which has proven easy and satisfactory. I have several pens for the youngsters that are boarded all around, with a peep-hole, close by a slide in each door. When the birds are mating, I watch them through the peep-hole, and when I see a pair together in a nestbox, building a nest, I walk in on them quickly, and almost always catch one in each hand. If I am not certainI have the right ones, I let them go and try again. For this method, rather a small pen is best, and not more than one hundred birds in a pen. COST PER PAIR FOR ME, $1.60 A YEAR, by G. Allan Sorrick. During the first week in March, with a pen of eighteen working pairs, I endeavored to ascertain the cost of feeding a pair of breeders for a year with feed per bushel as follows: Corn .80, wheat $1.20, peas $1.59, millet $1.38, buckwheat $1.11, grit $1.50 per 100. Total pounds fed 30 3-4, cost 57 cents, or $1.60 a paira year. One year ago I made the same test, result $1.80 a pair, I credit the difference to buying feed in larger quantities, and a different method of feeding. The Pitts- burg wholesale prices to jobbers and retailers, which are an advance over prices paid to pro- ducers and shippers, were from December 1 to April $5.50 and $5.75. Newspaper market quotations $4.75 and $5. Few squabhouses are heated. Cold air, if pure, will not hurt pigeons if they are well fed. It is customary for the old birds to hover their young more closely during freezing weather. If the pigeons are not broken in to cold weather you will find some frozen squabs in the squab- house if you forget and leave the windows open on such a flock some night in zero weather. The Squab Magazine has printed articles written by Canadian breeders telling how they breed squabs through the winter as well as the summer in houses built of cotton cloth, 386 APPENDIX G Since quail can no longer be served at California hotels and cafes, fine, fat squabs are filling the place at first-class tables. A large squab plant about sixty milesfrom San Fran- cisco has a contract for all its squabs (large varieties), killed and feathers off, at $5.50 per dozen. Another gets $5 alive the yeararound. When wecon- sider that these birds are but four or five weeks old, and re- quire little or no care except that the parent birds are well fed and watered, it certainly looks well for this growing busi- ness. It pays, like any busi- ness, to raise the best. When people ship little, half-fed, half- feathered, black-meated squabs, bred from small stock, there is small profit, and no satisfaction to seller, dealer or consumer. The San Francisco papers have all summer quoted: squabs at $2 to $2.50 per dozen, but hun- dreds of shippers have been getting from $3 to $5 right through, according to size and quality. They pay better than chickens. One squab plant in Sonoma County sends as high as 700 fat squabs per month to San Francisco.—W. A. Bolton, California. Iam shipping Plymouth Rock squabs to a hotel in Ind- jana. They give me $3.75 a dozen. They wanted me to sell them by the pound, offering TWO KINDS OF SQUABS. The top picture shows Homer squabs ten days old: the bottom a (The camera was they look larger pair of Carneaux squabs almost four weeks old. cluser to the Homers than to the Carneaux, so proportionately.) I received the Plymouth Rock Carneaux ten days ago and the other goods a few days before the arrival of the birds. Everything came to mein good shape and is satisfactory in every way. I am not much given to making testi- monials, but I want to say that the birds you sent me are fine, indeed much better than I ex- pected, or bargained for. You advised me that you had now no solid yellow birds, so I was much surprised to find one fine yellow cock and three other birds so nearly solid yellow that the white can be seen only by close examination. I made two entries in the pigeon show I told you about, and won first in class of five. Some of the pairs have already gone to work and have eggs, although they are in the moult.—C. R. Deardorff, Indiana. me so much for twelve pounds, but I made one shipment of sixteen Homer squabs that weighed twelve pounds, and they were so well pleased with them, that I finally got $3.75 per dozen to start, and I think 1 can contract with them for about $4.50 per dozen the year round. The parties I deal with send me a check on the first and fif- teenth of each month. They will accept even half a dozen squabs at one time. The express charges on my shipments are only twenty-five cents.—Mrs. Ida Kosman, Indiana. In South Bend, the people like squabs very much, but they do not want to pay more than $3 per dozen. I sold some squabs in Chicago last summer at $3 per dozen. I paid the mer- chandise express rate for dressed squabs until we got a new agent. I asked him what the express rate on dressed squabs was. He looked it up and found that they go at the general special rate, which is less than mer- chandise rate.—W. O. Bunch, Indiana. APPENDIX G CHICAGO $4.50 A DOZEN, by Stewart Gal- braith. Send the National Squab Magazine for another year. [I like it and prize it next to the National Standard Squab Book, which taught me how to raise squabs at a profit. I live in a suburb of Chicago and get $4.50 a dozen for my squabs twenty-five to thirty days old, not picked, no express charges, and although I have about one hundred breeders, I cannot begin to supply the demand. I have only the best Plymouth Rock Homers. I use a prepared pigeon feed only, costing $2 a hundred in half-ton lots delivered. Ihave an iron kitchen sink sunk in the pigeon fly. The fly is forty-four by forty, nine feet high, and as I have the garden hose attached to faucet in basement and running to this sink with water running slowly all times (except very eaid weather) and keep a solution of perman- ganate of potash in the water, I don’t know what cankeris. Put one-quarter ounce perman- ganate of potash in a pint bottle of water and use about one teaspoonful of this solution to one gallon of water. HOMERS ARE WORTHY THEIR HIGH PLACE, by Harry M. Samson. Only too often the opportunity presents itself for the man with a fairly productive loft of Homers and kindred breeds to launch out upon the sea of uncer- tainty by becoming interested in some of the larger varieties of squab producers. There are about as many varieties of large squab pro- ducers as there are hairs on a dog’s tail, some good, others fairly so and many absolutely worthless. It is not size that counts, but the breeding qualities. An old breeder quoted something that seems to ring true, viz., “‘ Other birds may come and other birds may go, but the Homer keeps on forever.” Go where you will, one finds the Homer in evidence, The safe way in shipping is to have a tag of your own printed something as follows: “PLY- MOUTH ROCK SQUABS, from JOHN JONES, COLLIERS, WEST VIRGINIA, PERISHABLE RUSH, FOR” and then write plainly in ink or indelible pencil the full name and address of the consignee, being sure to put on his street address and spell out in full the name of his state. Inside the box put your in- voice, with your name and address in full printed on it, and send him by mail a letter telling him what and when you are shipping, with duplicate invoice. Sometimes irresponsible grain dealers will doctor peas, and actually make them poisonous for pigeons. Some of the least scrupulous will go so far as to take a lot of cracked corn or other grain which is green with mould and dye it yellow. Such grain will make pigeons sick and idll squabs. Cases of sickness and deaths in the squabhouse are in nine cases out of ten traceable to the grain. One must be observing to detect such bad grain and it is not to be wondered that other causes are imagined. The remedy is to buy grain only of reliable dealers. 387 HOW TO FASTEN WIRE NETTING, by W. O. Bunch. Take No. 12 galvanized wire and with a pair of common pliers in the right hand and the wire in the left make a ring about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Then cut off and make another, or as many as you want. These little rings should be open enough so that you can easily put one around the two outside wires of the poultry netting. Then with the pliers pinch the little rings together. An- other nice way is to take hog rings and with hog Tingers you can fasten the netting together very quickly and neatly. Question: In my flock of thirty-five pairs of Homers which at one time were all mated and at work, eight pairs have broken up and taken other mates. One male bird has raised squabs with three females, and built a nest with one, leaving her before she laid eggs, making four matings for him in_ eight months, or less. Is this customary? Answer: In every flock there are exceptions to the rule. For that reason, no seller can give mated pairs whose matings are guaranteed to hold absolutely. I think it is a mistake, as I have many times written, to advertise mated pairs guaranteed, for pigeons themselves settle such matters. Moreover, if one sells what he calls guaranteed mated pairs, this means, in the mind of a rascal, that the buyer can hold the seller responsible for profits he might have made if certain pairs had held continuously together, instead of readjusting, as in the above case. That may seem to be far-fetched, but I have seenit tried. The most satisfactory way to sell pigeons is to let the customer try them for a while and, if he is not pleased with them, exchange them, or refund his money. That certainly is fair both to buyer and seller. Anybody who would arantee the flirtings and other love affairs of a pair of pigeons in a pen with many other pigeons has quite a con- tract on his hands. It has been my experience that those who were the most insistent in guaranteeing such matters have been the slow- est in performance. They rectified nothing and in the end, ninety-nine per cent of them went out of business. The reasons pigeons look for new mates occasionally are the same as one sees every day in the human family. The rule among humans, as among pigeons, is that of one wife, one husband, nevertheless there are sailors with a sweetheart in every port, and railroad men with wives at both ends of the line.—Elmer C. Rice. In Savannah there is great interest in eens The Homers and Carneaux have full sway down here. They are raised mostly for pets and not for commercial purposes. The Homer squabs bring from $4.50 te $5.00 a dozen and the matured birds about $3.00 a pair. The Carneaux bring $6.00 a dozen for the squabs. The matured birds are $5.00 a pair straight. The demand exceeds the supply and it is a pity that some large plant is not established here. The hotels sell the squabs as quail_— Timothy F. Sullivan, Georgia. 388 THE PERCY PERKINS ENERGIZER. The inventor finds use for this excellent machine almost daily, in his werk amonz the squabs. SPLENDID MACHINE FOR THOSE WHO SELL SQUABS AT LESS THAN COST, by Percy Perkins. Every squab breeder should make use of cheap and simple appliances to help him in his work. A little ingenuity in such matters will save him considerable ex- pense. I send herewith a sketch of a little device which I find exceedingly useful in producing animation in the breeder. It stimu- lates the thought cells and, incidentally, humiliates the spirit. I have found it helpful in cases like the following, for example. Our butcher called me on the telephone and said he would buy a few dozen squabs if the price was tight. I asked him what he considered the right price. He replied in turn by asking me what it cost me to raise a dozen squabs. As I have not raised any yet, I was in some doubt, not to say perplexity, but I promptly rejoined that each batch cost me, as near as I could figure, about two dollarsa dozen. There- upon he said he would give me $2.10 a dozen, which would allow me a profit of five per cent, which is more than government bonds pay. I told him his argument was good and that I would accept and give him a few dozen at his price. He asked how soon I could send them and I was obliged to reply that I would not have any ready for market until probably about February, 1912, as I was experimenting with a lot of young birds and wondering how many cocks and hens there were, and when it would be likely that they might reach adult age. He hung up the receiver with a fearful oath and I then repaired to the corner of the squabhouse where I have my machine set up, and exercised violently with it for half an hour, to remove the vexation caused by my failure to make that five per cent profit. I think the price the butcher offered me was a very fair one, as it would have enabled me to see several dollars which I could view in no other way. Ine i Hn ; APPENDIX G A word of appreciation from a conscientiously Tendled and well satisfied patient never made me mad yet. Possibly a little of the same thing from a customer of yours won't hurt your business feelings any. Six months ago I bought your Manual. Before that I knew as much about breeding squabs as you do about medicine, and prob- ably less. After reading it over three times I ordered three pairs of Extra Plymouth Rock Homers, which arrived April 14, 1911. 1. From these three pairs in just six months I got the following results, viz: Seven and a half pairs killed for personal use and sale, one and a half pairs banded, two pairs eggs in nest now, besides one egg broken in two different nests, and parent birds deserted nests. 2. From six pairs Extra Homers bought of you May 4, 1911: Twelve and a half pairs killed, two and a half pairs banded, two pairs eggs deserted, one pair in nest. 3. From six pairs bought of you June 8, 1911: Nine pairs killed, one and a half pairs banded, one pair eggs deserted, one pair in nest. For the squabs killed [ have received on an average one dollar per pair. The squabs I banded were all very large. Kept and moved to a separate pen to mate and save for breeders. I have fed whole corn, kaffir corn, red wheat, cracked corn, Canada peas, barley, and twice a week rice and hempseed, feeding twice daily, except when I didn’t get home before dark, which happens about twice a week. My birds have had no lice or disease, and are strong and vigorous. The house is cleaned weekly, and they have a bath in the middle of every pleasant day, also a constant supply of rock salt, fresh water, hard grit and fine oyster shell. Average time I spend every day is about ten minutes morning and afternoon, feeding and watering, and two hours once a week cleaning squabhouse. This is a greenhorn record of a small squab plant that is a source of recreation and pleasure, and a fair return to a man who is decidedly not mak- ing a business of squab raising. If my birds go through the winter safely, I shall give you a good order in the spring, for I can handle three times as many as I have now with little or no more demand upon my time.—Dr. Howell S. Bontecou, New York. Your Manuai has been of the greatest assist- ance to me, and since adopting your methods and style of housing, a great improvement has taken place in my pigeons, although IL am anxious as soon as possible to get some of your birds, as the demand for squabs is grow- ing here, and will be just as profitable here in the course of a year or two asin America. I have the best birds it is possible to get here. I have 170 pairs with accommodations for 400 pairs. I want to send for some of your stock. —D. R. MacDonald, Australia. APPENDIX G HOW A MARYLAND WOMAN COOKS SQUABS, by Mrs. Clara M. Hodson. I recently furnished the squabs and recipe for preparing them for a spring luncheon. I cannot always fill my orders for fresh birds. Here are two of my squab recipes: Grandma's Pigeon Pie. When I was a little girl, I went from the city every summer to visit my grandparents, living on a large farm on a beautiful river in Mary- land. There was an old mill on this place of the Dutch type of wind gristmills. It had gone to decay and become a rookery or pigeon loft. I would climb up and gather the young squabs in a basket and take them to my grand- mother, and then we would anxiously await dinner. This is the way she made it: After the bird had been shorn of feathers and drawn, it was split down the back with a sharp knife and pressed flat, or cut in half, as many pre- ferred half a bird, and it serves better. Placing the birds in a large stewing kettle, she covered them with water, cut up a very small onion, and a tablespoonful of minced parsley. This she added with salt, and a tiny piece of red pepper pod, tc the cooking birds, about ten or fifteen minutes cooking. Having made a nice pastry, she lined a large round baking pan with it, and put in the birds and stock. Adding a large lump of butter, half a cup of flour for thickening, and a cupful of rich milk or cream, she would cover the whole with fine pastry, touching here and there with a little butter, and bake until it was a golden brown, serving very hot at the midday dinner with fresh vegetables and plenty of fruit. About it there are pleasant memories. Roast Squab with Peas. Select medium-sized, fat squabs, draw and wash thoroughly, cleansing the mouth and bill carefully. Tuck the head under the left wing, bending wings close to the sides of the birds. Make an incision in which to tuck the legs, after cutting off the feet. Stuff the birds with minced celery (or minced celery and bread- crumbs), salt and pepper birds and rub with butter and a little flour. Place them in a shallow baking pan with just enough water to keep them from burning, and roast about twenty minutes in a hot oven, frequently bast- ing with the juices drawn from the birds. Serve whole or individual plates with a garnish of water cress and two tablespoonfuls of sifted or very small peas. Celery gives the flavor of the canvasback duck to the squab, and the whole makes a very acceptable spring luncheon. Question: Please tell me the proper propor- tion of grain to feed my pigeons, so as to obtain the largest squabs. My squabs although they have been as large as a pound apiece when four weeks old, now scarcely weigh half of that. Answer: The feed has a great deal to do with the weight of the squabs. If your squabs are running light, you should cut down your wheat and feed more coin, Canada peas and bread crumbs, all of which are fattening. 389 HOW I STARTED A BOYS’ PIGEON CLUB, by Reuben Brigham. Knowing how much pigeons have meant to me, I have been always glad to help other boys to learn to care for them and stick to them. About a year ago, the Speen craze struck the boys in this Mary- land neighborhood, and I helped organize the Sandy Spring Pigeon Club with thirteen charter members, all being boys under twenty-one excepting myself. Our object was ‘‘to encour- age the keeping of pigeons in this neighbor- hood and to promote the more intelligent and profitable care of those already in our posses- sion."’ We agreed to meet every other Friday night and to admit only bona fide pigeon keepers. Strangely enough, after the first en- thusiasm waned, the attendance and interest continued and it is rare that more than one or two members are absent. Minutes are read, short papers are written and delivered, and pig- eon papers subscribed to and studied. MUSLIN WINDOWS FOR ME, NO GLASS, by W.E. Blakslee. Last fall we put up on our new mountain site a building for our Plymouth Rock squab breeders, two hundred feet long, twenty-four feet wide, with a four-foot wide alleyway lengthwise in the center. Over this alleyway the whole length of the building is a lantern with windowsinits sides. All the doors for the pens are only frames. The ones on the alleyway are covered with wire. The outside ones opening into the flying yards are covered with muslin. The windows in the lantern are also frames covered with muslin. At each end of the alleyway is a tight-boarded door swing ing out for winter use, and a wired frame door swinging in for summer use. The way the doors and windows are arranged makes sure of no direct circulation across the nestboxes. There are no drafts from the use of muslin, but we do plan not to have any direct line of circula- tion across the nests. Our building is on posts six feet above the ground. The floor is double boarded with paper between. This gives a thorough ventilation underneath and the whole building is perfectly free from any ground dampness whatever. Just two years ago I bought four pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers and ten pairs of Ply- mouth Rock Carneaux. I have thirty-five pairs of Homers (sold all the rest for squabs) and four hundred Carneaux—sold seventy- three. So you can see that for a beginner I have done fairly well. I never have sold a squab for less than twenty-five cents, and never had enough of them to supply my neighbors. I have just bought five acres and hope to build up a good business. Will want more birds before the first of the year—W. C. Barrett, California. Have some cards printed with ‘' Eat Squabs and Stay Young '’ on them. Send these to all the women in town who are financially able to eat such; and explain in brief why squabs are the best meat. Be sure that you havean extra supply on hand when you do this. 390 APPENDIX G is no ‘give’ in the tobacco stems. When it is dry, mix hay or straw with your tobacco stems and see if you haven't less broken eggs. My first squabs I sold all sizes for $3 per dozen. I am now selling eight-pound squabs at $5, nine-pound squabs at $6, twelve-pound squabs at $8 per dozen, less express and com- mission. I have nothing in my pens breeding less than six pairs per year, averaging nine to twelve pounds per dozen. The Carneau-Homer cross makes a large squab, also Maltese- Homer, but I would not like to keep them for breeders because a well-established breed is so much more reliable in reproduc- ing its characteristics.—Mrs. W. A. Roth, Indiana. I have been in the squab business for some time and have done fairly well, but after visit- ing a number of small plants find they all use the Plymouth MR. STEWARD AND HIS BIG PLYMOUTH ROCK HOMERS. SQUAB BREEDING FOR A STAY-AT- HOME MAN, by Charles E. Steward. Three years ago today I was stricken with heart trouble and not being able to do any work of any account, I sat around the house and did nothing but worry about my trouble so I thought I would get a few pairs of Homers to keep my mind occupied. sent to Boston for twenty-five pairs of Homers and one pair of Carneaux. Today I have two hundred Homers and twenty Carneaux. Last summer I kept eighty youngsters for breeders, all banded, and left them to choose mates for themselves. Out of the eighty I got thirty- seven pairs and six odd mates. The best part of it was there were no nestmates that went together. I put twenty-five pairs of these young birds in a pen by themselves. Today, June 21, I counted forty-eight young ones and nineteen eggs. This shows that some birds have both young and eggs. Can any one beat it? This shows that it pays to buy good stock to start with. As squab breeders I think the Plymouth Rock Homers can not be beat (if they have the attention). My birds get fresh water twice a day and all the green stuff they will eat, such_as lettuce, horseradish leaves and dandelion. For nesting material I use tobacco stems and hay cut about six inches long. I notice that when you use only tobacco stems they become hard and dry in the nests and when a bird happens to bear much weight on the eggs you will find a good many eggs broken with a little dent or crack, and won't hatch. This is because there Rock Homers. Now what I want to know is if you will trade me Extra Homers for forty or fifty pairs of red and splashed Carneaux, most of the Carneaux I have being from parent steck that came from you and bought by a doctor of my town. I want to put in these two pens and buy them, and if satisfactory I will sell my other breeds and replace with your Homers. One of your customers was at my house last evening and he told me that your Homers are certainly first class, and of course I want the best.—George Sisco, New Jersey. HOW I SAVE MONEY BY FEEDING BREAD, by Charlton Green. I have been feeding bakers’ discarded bread, crushed dry or moistened. The pigeons like clean bread and white bread better than rye bread. Besides bread, I feed about half a pound of Indian corn each day. I find the bread an excellent feed for squabs that are just out of the nest. They learn to eat it much quicker and easier than they do grain. I have noticed squabs in nests with it also. I believe it is as good for squabs in nest as it is for the older squabs or youngsters. I don’t believe a better feed could be fed to youngsters. The bread costs me one cent a loaf, or from $1.00 to $1.10 per one hundred pounds. Take a piece of paper, wrap it around a pencil, glue and pull the pencil out, dip the paper in pulverized sulphur, hold the mouth of the bird open with thumb and first finger, and blow the contents down the bird’s neck once a day for a day or two, and the canker is gone.—Harry Wesner, Pennsylvania. APPENDIN G PEA VINES ARE BEST NESTING MA- TERIAL, by C. S. Persons. In nesting material I have used nearly everything, and I have found that the common pea vines which every one raises in gardens and throws away or burns are their choice. They will leave any- thing else for them. After I have used the peas I pull up the vines and thoroughly dry them, then cut them in lengths of about six inches, leaving as many of the leaves on as will stay. Sweet pea vines are equally as good. In regard to green food, clover, lettuce and Swiss chard are their favorites and a fine tonic as well. A ten-cent package of Swiss chard (or cut-and-come-again spinach) will feed seven hundred birds from June until the third or fourth frost, asitis very hardy. They will pick the stems clean and leave only the stalks. I feed lettuce the year round, in winter buying it by the crate once a week. I feed clover through the summer. With regard to a market for squabs, the Chicago commission men are paying from $2.75 to $3.25. I do not blame the commis- sion men for buying at these figures but I do blame the producer for selling, for with every- thing as high as it now is, and after deducting express charges and labor, what has the breeder made? He has simply lost money, and the commission man is getting the benefit of the failure to hustle. HOW TO WASH OUT THE SQUABS’ CROPS, by Henry Blake. A handy and quick way for cleaning the grain out of crops when washing squabs is easily arranged if you have piped water supply. Have a fitting made to screw on the bib-cock. One can go to the ex- pense of having a special fitting made. A cheap way is to tinker one up by using an old hose coupling. Solder a piece of bent small tubing into it. To use it, hold the bird’s head down, putting its mouth over the tube, set the water running slowly, work the bird up and down a few times, so the tube goes well up into the crop, and the job is done. If one does not have the water ipe, he can use an elevated reservoir either hang up or put up on a bracket. I stew squabs until tender and done, in water seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. I bake biscuits a delicate brown at the same time, being careful not to make them too thick. Take up the meat, add a little milk to the soup, being careful not to put in enough to weaken it, add salt, butter and pepper to taste; thicken with flour, making a medium thick gravy. Split the hot biscuits and add to this hot gravy. When well saturated take up and place hot squabs on top. Serve. De- licious! I have used in this way, too, rabbits and chickens.—Mrs. Dora B. Badger, Washing- ton. Do not keep extra small squabs for breeders just because their parents are fine birds — all birds will raise offs sometimes. 391 NOT TRUE TO COLOR, by Ralph Walker. I have a pair of Homers, the male being pure white, and the female black all over except one white feather in the back and a few on each leg. I have had only one pair of squabs from them that were of the exact color of the par- ents, and they were of different hatchings. Even then the male was white and the female black. Among the pigeons raised from them I have had the following color combinations: Dark brown, female; several light red pigeons, both sexes; heavy booted, solid silver female; black with white on tips of wings and at base of tail and various other places, both sexes; light brown with dark brown bars, female; and also a big dark blue cock with a shiny red blue breast. Don’t you think this is a pretty good color combination? Question: Of what value are pigeon fairs and exhibitions in advertising to sell breeding stock? Are the money prizes enough induce- ment to go to the expense of exhibiting? An- swer: The value of pigeon and poultry exhibi- tions as an advertising medium is something to the breeder who relies for sales on persons who come to visit him and look at his stock, but such results are practically nothing in comparison to the results obtained from peri- odical and newspaper advertising. Pigeon and poultry shows are an interesting neighbor- hood enjoyment, bringing good stock of each section together for comparison and gossip. The money prizes are never of themselves of any particular value, certainly not enough to recompense one for the time and effort ex- pended. One should go into a poultry and pigeon show with the idea of making a week of enjoyment for himself and his family, meeting others, seeing what they are doing, etc., but not with the idea of making himself rich or famous, for that never is accomplished by exhibitions alone. Question: I have been reading a story written by a woman who lost money raising poultry and squabs and her figures of produc- tion do not agree with those given in a bulletin which Ihave. Answer: That is why she failed. It is always assumed, in such writings, that intelligence, skill and industry are factors, but one who fails in these branches is seldom either intelligent, skilful or industrious. I have benefited much from the Magazine and am selling my own squabs to private trade for fifty cents each, dressing five cents extra, and ten cents for delivery; Carneaux squabs one dollar each, and have all I can do. Ply- mouth Rock stock.—Miss Marion S. Baker, Massachusetts. The general wholesale quotations on squabs here (San Francisco) range from $3.00 to $3.50 per dozen, although some extra large would bring $3.75. They can be handled better alive than dressed at present. Trade would prefer to do their own dressing.—Har- baugh & Co. (Wholesale Dealers), California. 392 APPENDIX G A PEN OF FIRST-CLASS HOMERS, SQUAB COST AND PROFIT, by H. C. Frankforter. For the last few years I and a friend of mine have been raising squabs and find that there is profit as well as pleasure de- rived from them. We buy feed from a Balti- more firm which costs us till we get the freight paid $2.25 a hundredweight. We have tried it on a separate pair of Homers and find that they ate nine cents worth of the feed from the day the young were hatched until they were salable, so we made it fifteen cents for labor, feed and health grit. We receive from $3 to $3.25 a dozen for our squabs, so you can see that the profit would be from thirty to forty cents on one pair of squabs. “* Market reports "' are generally furnished to the newspapers by the produce exchanges and in every case are not a record of true transac- tions, as are the stock exchange reports, but are the lowest prices which the members of these exchanges hope to pay for chickens, squabs, fruit, potatoes, etc. If you live in a city where such inspired quotations for eatables are being printed, write to the editor and tell him that as a subscriber to his paper you object to such information as being misleading and untruthful, and published in the interest-of the marketmen, with no thought of the producer. This will help to bring about a much needed reform. Not every newspaper will stand for such ‘‘ market reports’’ nonsense, The best send out a man or woman reporter to shop and write what they find. Prices of eatables ob- tained in any other way are inaccurate and false. If there are any squab or chicken breed- ers who are fooled into selling at such low prices simply because they have seen those quotations “in print,"’ they ought to have a guardian. Get your retail prices by actual shopping and then make a fair deduction to get at the whole- sale prices. DURABLE WHITEWASH. A_ whitewash adopted by the United States Government and used for coating light-houses and keepers’ dwellings, is composed as follows: To ten parts of freshly slaked lime add one part of best hydraulic cement. Mix well with salt water. This whitewash when properly mixed and applied, produces a clear white that does not easily rub or wash off. T sell all my squabs to private families and sell all I raise. In winter time the prices run from $4.50 to $5.50, in summer $3.50 to $4.50. Every Tuesday morning I ‘phone to every customer one after another until I have my forty-seven customers called, and then I have a boy hired to deliver the squabs. I have a one- horse wagon, painted orange color, trimmed black, and have a very showy horse, which makes a good appearance. It looks very tidy. I feed_a mixed ration which I buy for $28 a ton. I sold over 5700 squabs last year, took in $1575, cleared about $1000. Not so bad for the boy and me.—J. M. Shellenberger, Penn- sylvania. I inquired the retail price of dressed squabs of Robert Barron, a Yonge Street fish and game dealer of Toronto. He informed me that the pice was fifty cents each, or $6 a dozen. Mr. helts sells his squabs to the dealer whom I mention at $4 a dozen. There is a large de- mand for squabs in Toronto, as it is a city of 400,000 people.—Charles Watson, Ontario. During the past fourteen years I have had considerable experience, always as a side line, in selling eatables to family trade, and the only way I ever succeeded in obtaining a customer was to go right after them. The personal face-to-face_interview captures the trade.— Raymond W. Dotts, Pennsylvania. APPENDIX G I FEED A GREAT DEAL OF SWISS CHARD, by Hugh Steele. The market here (Kansas) is not very good yet, but is improving. 1 think a few good marketmen would make it the equal of any, as with all the large cities surrounding us, and very strict game laws being made, the demand is sure to come very fast. Our grain market is rather high: wheat ninety cents, corn eighty cents, kaffir $1.50 per hundred. Canada peas cost about $2 per bushel here and hemp sixteen pounds for $1. I feed a great deal of Swiss chard, which seems to be relished very much. A small bed will supply a large flock, as it is a very rank grower. GOOD SQUAB DEMAND AROUND PITTSBURG, by James G. Bennett. It costs me about $1.40 here (Pennsylvania) to feed a pair of breeding pigeons that raise from eight to ten pairs of squabs a year. That is the cost with good feed. Do not ever feed old or musty grain. In their free state, pigeons can select a variety of grain and seedae but when they are kept in flying pens, they must, of course, take what they aie given. While you may have seeming success for a time feeding only cracked corn and wheat or any other two grains selected, yet a long continued feeding of such invariably fails to produce as many or as good squabs as when a properly balanced ration is provided. Always have oyster-shell and the best of grit before them, and I find it very healthful to mix a little air-slaked lime and Venetian red with their grit. The lime sweetens their crops and helps the same as oyster-shellin producing eggs. I find kerosene oil and turpentine in equal parts good for canker, two or three drops to a dose. There is a fine outlet for squabs in this section, Pittsburg being the main market. In fact all along the three rivers here there is a good sale for squabs, as there are so many hotels and clubhouses. The supply cannot more than half meet the Aemend, The price paid by the wholesalers in Pittsburg is $5.25 a dozen for twelve-pounds-to-the-dozen squabs. ONE BOY’S WORK, by Roland Ralph. There is not a very good squab market in Richmond, Va., but I can make two hundred pairs pay me a good profit. I have made twelve hundred dollars clear profit out of three chicken incubators, twenty-two turkeys and a small root beer plant on two acres of ground, which father gave me, and I worked only after school and vacation time. I am situated near the city of Chicago, and I think I have a golden opportunity facing me. Upon having a personal interview with a stew- ard of a certain hotelin Chicago, I was informed that squabs were as high as $7.50 per dozen this summer. The commission merchants were paying $3.50 last week.—W. G. Puls, Illinois. I bought thirteen pairs of Plymouth Rock Homers, part of them a little over a year ago, and the others will be two years this fall, Inow (June, 1910) have 250 all told. R. C. Brenmer, Tilinois. 393 HOMERS BREED BETTER IN DARK- ENED PEN, by Richard L. Fishburne. I have found by experience that my breeders do better work in a loft slightly darkened. My build- ings face south, are 10x15x 10 feet, with a fly about the same siz for each pen. Around the fly I have planted sunflowers and sweet peas which add to the attractiveness of the place, at the same time affording shade for the birds, keep dampness from the fly and loft and give me a quantity of feed. Once each week my lofts are scraped and sprayed with a ten per cent solution of creolin, and air-slaked lime scattered on the floors. A few applica- tions of this solution will soon saturate the wood and positively prevent any lice in the lofts. About once or twice a week in the sum- mer I use a small quantity of creolin in the bath water and in spraying any birds or squabs that are near, spray without injury or frighten- ing them. The reason Plymouth Rock Homers are so popular is that the squabs they produce are good enough for any market. In many hands, skilful in feeding and selection, they do the work of more expensive breeds costing three times as much, and more. We have a letter dated August 23 from a customer in Connecti- cut, John N. Moeller by name, stating: “I intend to purchase a piece of property and erect a large plant and buy stock of you as soon as I find a satisfactory place to sell squabs in large lots, and regularly. As already stated in previous correspondence, I have raised twenty squabs from three pairs since March 12, 1910, and every one weighed one pound alive at four weeks of age." Mr. Moeller does not say that some weigh a pound apiece, or that the average weight of his squabs is one pound. He states that every one weighed one pound. This is twelve pounds to the dozen. The sales of Ply- mouth Rock Homers are many times more than all other pigeons combined. As we have before written, always remem- ber that prices of pigeons mean nothing with- out service. We throw out twenty-five per cent of all our pigeons, sending them in as culls to market, where we get only the eating price. We don't put them into shipments and expect the customer to throw them out. Moreover, we don’t keep our best pigeons. Every bird on our farm is for sale. ybody who calls there and fancies a bird can take it away with him in a coop and we're glad to see it go. My present squab plant consists of 300 pairs Homers, and a few larger breeders, but no Car- neaux. I have been visiting various squab plants in the country, and know what a good Carneau is supposed to look like. Most of the Carneaux that I have seen do not come up to what I call good Carneaux. The best that I have set my eyes on so far are those owned by M. C. Martin, and he told me that they were from you. Enclosed you will find a bank draft for which please send me the eleven pairs of Carneaux under the conditions stated.—J. E. Unruh, Kansas. 394 MY PLANT MAKES $100 MONTHLY PROFIT, by W. A. Bolton. The Sunny Slope (ie Squab Farm is shown in the accompanying photograph. The writer having been inter- ested in pigeons since his school days, when he kept a few for pets, resolved in 1908 to make it a business and made his first mistake by sending to Europe for his Carneaux and Homers, several hundred of them, with the result that atout half of the birds died en route, or just after they arrived. They are splendid birds and after a few months becan erecuperated and acclimated and proceeded to do their best, but if they had come from good reliable home breeders or eastern breeders, the results would doubtless have been much more satisfactory. Last year the plant practically paid fcr it- self. Today there are about 1400 birds at work, and taking care of some 1400 more young and old that will soon be at work, besides netting about $100 a month profit. The demand for breeding stock has been brisk since the squab prices dropped, so that but few squabs have gone to market. Our Carneaux youngsters bring from $10 to $15 per dozen and Homers to the market bring $3 in summer and $4 in winter. Next year, I expect to contract all our squabs at $5 a dozen the year round, not including the Carneaux which are likely to go for breeders as they always have done. I saw the books of one poultry dealer in San Francisco recently, showing where he gets $7 per dozen from one of his customers for large squabs. He pays $5 for the same, alive. The majority of raisers ship alive to San Francisco and Oakland, and the coops that produce best results are not over six inches high in the clear. This prevents the birds piling upon each other. BOSTON 1911 SQUAB PRICES. The following figures for 1911 taken from the Boston Globe show the prices for squabs from January to December of that year. The first price quoted in each case is for the poorer grade of squabs. The prices quoted highest in each case are for squabs bred from our Extra Ply- mouth Rock Homers and Carneaux. These figures show that the Boston squab market, like that in other cities, is steady all the year around at highly profitable prices, in no case falling below 53 a dozen, this price coming in the summer, when squabs may be sold at summer resorts in New England at prices equal to the best winter Boston city prices: January 6, $5, $6.50; January 13, $5, 56; January 20, .50, $6; January 27, $5, $7; February 3, 35, $6; February 10, $5.50, $6.50; APPENDIX G A CALIFORNIA HILLSIDE SLOPE SQUAB FARM. March 3, 35, 36; March 19. St. 50, $6; ae z IN oO, 4 50, § a May 19, S4, 36; May 36, » a. $6; ae > "$4: $5.50; June 9, $3. 50, $5.50; June 16, $3, $5; June 53, $3, $5; June 30, $3, $5; July 7,43, $5; July 14, $5, $6; July 21, $3, $4.50; July 28, $3, $5; August 4, $4, $3; August 11, $3.50, $4.50; August 18, $3, $5.50; August 25, $3, $5; Sep- tember 1, $4, $5; September 8, 84, $5. 50; September 15, $3.50, $4. 50; September 22, $3.50, $4.50; September 29, $3. 50, $4.50; Octo- ber 6, $3.50, $4.50; October 13, $3, '$4.50; October 20, $4, $5. 50; October 27. $4, $6; November 3, $4, $6; November 10, $4.50, $6; November 17, $4, $6; November D4, $4, ; December 8, $4, $6; December 15, $4, $6. When a beginner, like Etwinoma Farms, takes 25 pairs of our Extra Homers worth $50 and in two years multiplies them to 800 pairs worth $1600, do you realize that this is a big return? You can't put $50 into any bank and get $1600 back in two years. And remember, that in the two years squabs enough were sold to pay the entire running expenses of the plant. Fifty dollars increased to $1600 in two years is thirty-two hundred per cent increase. This is not theoretical, but is the record of something which actually has been accom- plished with our Plymouth Rock Extra Hom- ers. This is only one of hundreds of such phenomenal returns. After you have read this Manual, write us a letter telling us how you think it can be im- proved. Is anything lacking? What do you wish to know that is not covered here? We intend to keep the book’ full and complete from year to ycar and welcome suggestions for its improvement. Tell us what your plans for squab raising are and let us help you if we can. APPENDIX G SQUAB MARKET UP IN SALT LAKE CITY, by J. H. Armstrong. I will try and tell you something of the squab and its market in Salt Lake City. It has been only within the past few years that the squab has had a place on the tables of our private families. Only the hotels and restaurants knew what it was to have squabs to serve to their fine trade, but today the squab will be found on the tables of those who can afford it, and, in fact, on the tables of a good many who can not, The squab of today is taking the place of the young chicken. The demand is growing and the ‘‘hello’’ for squabs is getting greater every day. I have only one hundred _ pairs and I cannot breed enough squabs to fill my orders, so I am buying from other parties, and even then _my supply is limited; I cannot get enough. I am looking forward to the time when I will have two thousand squab breeders instead of two hundred. I am working slowly, but it is steady. This past week’s market (July) has been good with prices as follows: 8-Ib. squabs per dozen, $3.00 hotel and restaurant. 9-lb. squabs, $3.50 hotel and restaurant. 10-lb. squabs, $4.00 hotel and restaurant. 10-Ib. to 11-lb. squabs per dozen, $4.50 to $6.00 family trade. These prices I have fought for the past three years (credit to the magazine) as I could not get other squab raisers to stay together on the prices until the last few months. New Yorkers are spenders, and money is no object when they desire something that appeals to their appetites. Go where you will, squabs will always be found on the bill of fare. The demand is simply enormous, as thousands of birds are consumed daily and the demand is continually on the increase. The trouble has been to obtain a sufficient quantity to supply the demand, and I have heard it stated that birds actually were imported to satisfy the demand for extra large squabs. Here is an excellent opportunity for the wide-awake, up- to-date breeder who is in a position to deliver first-class stock to the consumer direct. A veritable hidden treasure of practically un- limited profit awaits him. Just think of the prospects, with our industry still in its infancy. —Harry M. Samson, New York. We have been selling a few Plymouth Rock squabs in Louisville, Ky., at $3 a dozen. The men we sell to say they are the finest they ever handled. As soon as we can get enough to make regular shipments we intend to send them away, as we were offered $5 a dozen for them in June. We keep a strict account of all expenditures in our large single entry ledger and find it costs about_ten cents per pair per month to feed them.—James C. Martin, Indi- ana. We have no ground oyster shells here, so we use ground clam shells.—Miss B. Devereux, British Columbia. 395 EGGS AND SQUABS DUE TO CONDI- TIONING. I am inclined to think that there is such a thing as introducing too much red tape in this business of mating and tabbing birds so as to make the task too burdensome. It would be a nice thing if you would give us a line once in a while as indicating where system leaves off and red tape begins.—J. C. Broadwell, Oregon. Pigeons will breed naturally if you give them a chance and if they are in condition. Novices who have had no experience with poultry cannot be made to comprehend that the production of pigeon eggs is a study in conditioning, the same as the production of hen's eggs. Poultrymen also have their matings but they know enough to look to condition and not to the sexual relations for eggs. Pigeons should be banded, but the system of record keeping should be simple and end in the squabhouse, not be carried into evening work underthestudylamp. The most important work, as the National Squab Maga- zine "has demonstrated, is to sell the squabs intelligently. Squab breeders who fuss about the small matters never accomplish anything. TRANSFERRING BREEDERS, by Ida Dana. I have been transferring my breeders from the house in which they have been work- ing since I received them in May, to one better fitted for the winter. I have been careful to take each family when the youngest squabs were two weeks old, before the mother had started her new nest. When I placed the squabs in a nest in the same part of the new room as that occupied by their nest in the old room, the parents never failed to recognize and feed them. It was before I understood the necessity of this arrangement that one pair, neglecting their own squabs, fed those in the place in which theirs should have been, I granted their wish by putting their squabs into that box, and had no further trouble. FACTS ABOUT NEW YORK FRESH SQUABS, by William R. McLaughlin. I get a great many letters during the year from timid beginners and also from old breeders that in- dicate they fear to make heavy investments at the start or doubt the advisability of increasing their flock for fear of overstocking the market. To all such inquiries I urge them to go ahead and increase their flocks of breeders so that they can ship every few days from five to twenty-five dozen squabs at a time. They run no risk as to demand at good prices all the year round. They run no risk of overloading the market. I have had extraordinary success with Ply- mouth Rock Homers and am more than pleased with the results. I have met with ready sale for my squabs, and if I had the space would increase my flock. I sell my squabs locally and get $3 to $4.50 a dozen, in other words fifty to seventy-five cents a pair. My squabs will average in weight nine pounds to the dozen, in fact in some instances had them to weigh fifteen and sixteen ounces.—H. H. Kangeter, South Carolina. 396 HOW I FEED HEALTH GRIT FRESH DAILY, by M. C. Martin. When I first started to feed health grit, as it was rather expensive, I was not very particular about the birds eating very much of it. So I would filla covered trough with a good quantity. Result, pigeons would ‘‘go some” for it, when first put in the trough, but would soon eat the choice ingredients, and care little for the leavings. Also, after water was poured on for several days, the grit became packed and hard, and the birds would pay little attention to it. In this way a sack of grit lasted a long time. But I began to study my birds, and found that when they ate more grit, they were healthier and heartier, Then began to experiment and after thorough trial have set- tled on the following method: Provide covered wooden troughs about four or six inches wide and two inches deep, and long enough for all the birds in each pen to eat at once. The top of the trough may be made so as to be lifted off or removed when putting grit in the trough. Once a day feed the grit in the covered troughs and the little birds will soon learn to come for it, and make more fuss about it than when you feed them hemp. Give them grit once a day just what they will eat up in a few minutes. With a little experimenting you can soon learn about how much is best for them. For, by this method, you can overfeed them easily. I use five-gallon cream cans to keep the grit in. Pour in a little water and keep closed, and in this way, the grit is always damp and moist, ready to feed. Grit should be bought in 500-pound or ton lots, thus saving on the freight bill. Now, as to the reasons for using health grit. I find the iron in it enriches the blood corpuscles. The small sea-shells, which it contains, I have noted, make better hatching eggs, as too much crude lime, contained in oyster shells, makes the eggshells have large white deposits on them, causing the eggs to be easily broken. Such eggs seldom hatch, and if they do, the ‘“ peepers'’ usually die. An- other thing I have noticed is that the birds seldom if ever have sour crop, a common ailment without a liberal use of grit. If you follow the method I have explained here, be careful you do not feed too much. A good, large handful once a day is sufficient for a flock of thirty birds. The other way of feeding as used by most squab men is to ut a large quantity in a covered trough and eave it a number of days untilit is all eaten up. SAVES WIRING TIME, by Louis A. Hart. Instead of the old method of tying every other mesh of the wire netting with a short wire, or even running a long wire all the way through the entire length of strand, just take an eight- penny nail and twist it around the two wires three or four times, causing the wires to weave together the same as the rest of the netting. It is very fast, also simple and entirely safe. To undo, just reverse the operation. APPENDIX G PREVENTS STICKING, by C. C. Fraser. I find it a good plan to dust the nestbowls with buckwheat hulls or tobacco dust. This pre- vents the manure from sticking to the bowls and makes the cleaning much easier. If nothing like this is used, the work of cleaning the bowls is quite difficult. One of our customers in New York State, Henry Blumers, who bought a big flock of our Homers and Carneaux last year, has raised six- teen squabs from one pair of our Carneauxina period of seven months. This is how he tells the story: ‘‘ We noticed in the magazine a party in California having sixteen squabs in ten months, so we thought we would send you the record of one of the pairs of Carneaux which we purchased of you last fall. They hatched: January 10, two squabs; February 9, two; March 14, one; April 22, two; May 7, one; May 25, two; June 27, two; July 15, two; July 31, two; and now at the present writing (August 23) they have a nest started with one egg. We call this the champion pair of the five hundred and fifty pairs of Homers and Carneaux which we bought at that time.” A man in business judges his correspondents by their style of correspondence. Anybody who wishes information of an advertiser should write him a letter, not a postal card, and en- close a two-cent stamp for his reply. If the advertiser has a stenographer, it will cost in her wages at least five cents to write the letter, not to mention the postage as well as the time of the advertiser in dictating or writing the letter. Every advertiser gets a great many foolish and needless inquiries which are a con- stant burden of expense, and scores of such cor- respondents are productive of no business. Hundreds of questions asked daily are fully answered in printed matter sent out by the advertisers. Another point to remember is that advertisers cannot reasonably be asked to make estimates of what the inquirer: will do with certain pigeons, or in certain contingencies which come up in daily work in the squabhouse. The only way one can find out what one can do, is to do it, or try to do it. Nobody can tell without trying. We are very particular about the quality of our grain. We never buy damaged or second quality grain, and we have told our grain dealer so in such plain words that he distinctly under- stands it. We govern the amount to give the birds at one time, by the looks of the feed box. If they have not eaten all that was given the time previous, we do not give them so much. We try to gauge the amount so there will be very little, if any, in the feed box at feeding time.—George F. Cook, Maine. I sell the pigeon manure to a tannery for fifty cents a bushel, I find plenty of fertilizer that does not go to the tannery, splendid for the garden and lawn.—Graham Roys, Michigan. Breed for three things: good feeders, good color and good size. APPENDIX G HOW I _OBTAINED A PROFITABLE PRICE, by John F. Bushmeyer. My brother has been selling Homer squabs in St. Louis at ten and fifteen cents apiece, not knowing they were worth more; in fact, not even looking up the market prices in the daily papers. We got wise to the fact that they were worth more through the Manual and the magazine, which is a daisy. My brother decided not to sell any more squabs unless he got a better price. One day last week, having three pairs of squabs ready for sale, he put them into a small box and went down to the market; but instead of going to the ten-and-fifteen-cent dealer, he went into the opposite side of the market to walk through, and the first butcher’s stand he passed, the man behind the counter, seeing the box he carried, called him, saying, ‘‘ What have you got there, squabs? "” “Yes,” answered my brother, “are you buying them? ” “* Are they commons? ” ““No,”’ answered my brother, “they are fancy Homers,” “What do you want for them? "’ asked the dealer. “The market price,’’ was the answer. After looking them over, he asked again, “* What do you. want for them? ” “The market price as I said before, if I cannot get any more.” ‘* Say, Chollie,’”’ the butcher called to another man behind the counter, ‘‘ what are Homer squabs selling for today? ”’ hollie picked up a morning paper, made a bluff at looking at it; ‘‘$1.75 a dozen,” he answered. “Wake up and let me see that paper,’’ said my brother, which he did after some stalling, and my brother proceeded to read the market quotations, which were as follows: ““* Pigeons and Squabs— Live pigeons at seventy-five cents per dozen. Squabs — Fancy Homers at $2.75 per dozen for eight-pound, $3.25 for nine-pound, $3.50 for ten-pound and at $1.50 for small; common at $1.00 and $1.25 per dozen.’ This is out of the Post Despatch of today. Now if you want those squabs, weigh them up and give me the price.” The butcher put them on the scales and they weighed four and a half pounds; for the six he readily produced $1.60 and said, ‘‘ Bring me all you can get.’’ This shows you how anxious they are to get good squabs. I am now shipping all my Plymouth Rock squabs to a Chicago marketman. He pays $3.25 for eight-pound squabs, $3.75 for nine- pound, $4.00 for ten-pound, and sends check weekly. I ship at 4.12 p.m. and they arrive in Chicago at 8.30 a.m. the following day. I am building another fine addition for three hun- dred more pairs of my Carneaux.—J. B. Beck- man, Missouri. Squabs are a good proposition around here. Ours are in demand, many more than we can care for, The trade is waiting for them at $5 tc $6 a dozen.—Mrs. Ed Cogley, Iowa. 397 SQUAB CONDITIONS IN ST. LOUIS, by Fred L. Stock. This is intended mainly for the information of the western squab breeder, yet it may prove of some interest to the eastern breeder, to the extent of giving him some inside, as to the conditions now in force in St. Louis. But, in the start, I wish to make my position clear, by the statement that I have no interest in any manner with the Ply- mouth Rock Squab Company, as I do not own one bird that was ever purchased from this firm, The market in this city (St. Louis) is without doubt the most unsatisfactory market in the United States today, and will continue to be such so long as the conditons are in force that now prevail, the conditions I refer to being the limited number of really good flocks of Homers in the city. In fact, I can use one hand in counting the owners of these first-class Homers, and in each and every case the original breeders were purchased from the Plymouth Rock Squab Company, and their owners have no trouble in finding a private market for their squabs at the eastern market price, owing to the vast difference in quality of squabs from these birds, and the squabs to be found ..1 the public market. Many pecs state how much per pair it costs .to feed their birds. The price of grain in California and the Middle States differs so greatly that their estimate gives me no idea whatever of what it would cost me per pair. For this season I am weighing all the feed used in one house. In the past three months they have eaten at the rate of eighty-four pounds to each pair per year. I will continue to weigh for a full year. There is little demand for large squabs in the small towns, but in San Francisco they want large squabs and lots of them. San Francisco is only seventy miles from here, so I ship my squabs alive. The express is fifty cents per hundredweight. A few of my squabs go to commission houses, but most of them go to marketmen direct, and I pay no commission. Several marketmen have asked me to contract my squabs to them by the year ata given price. They are willing to give a good price anyhow so I have not contracted yet. Squabs are quoted at $2 to $4.50 per dozen. My squabs are classed as extras and I never receive less than $3 per dozen and this for only a few shipments each year. I have been unable to find a demand for larger than a one-pound squab on the open market.—D. D. Powell, California. The largest New York hotels consume on an average of sixty dozen squabs a day, each hotel, and the prices range from 75 cents to $1.50 per squab, according to the location and size of the hotel. My readers can draw their own conclusion as to whether squab raising pays in this part of the country——Harry M. Samson, New York. I can sell all my squabs to private customers from fifty cents to seventy-five cents a pair.— Ray F. Peavey, Massachusetts. APPENDIX G 398 ‘SNOHDId HOOU HLINOWATd HLA GHMOOLS WUVd dynos SVSNYH SLHONH MNVUA ph ic as ST APPENDIX G I SHIP SQUABS FROM KANSAS TO COLORADO, by Frank Hucht. I started four years ago in the business. I did not know anything about the pigeon industry but have learned something since. The first Homers I saw were in our town, shipped from the East, one-half dozen pairs. They were fine: birds, and I liked them very much. I stocked up with Plymouth Rock Homers. My start was in an old barn almost ready to fall down. It did not take very long when my second room was filling up. I talked the matter over with my wife in regard to building a squabhouse, but she would not listen to me at first and told me I had better sell those old pigeons and get back what money I had spent on the birds I had. I had quite a time to convince my wife that there was moncy in raising squabs. I began selling a few dozen every week, and got $2.50 and $3 a dozen for them. My wife was well pleased with that, and I convinced her of the fact and built a house sixty feet long, fourteen feet wide, with three-foot aisle, self feeders in every unit. I then had only one hundred pairs and had four units to go on. I sent for one hundred pairs more Homers. That made the house fill up some. A year ago I bought other property in town, which gave me more room. I moved my sixty-foot building to this place and added sixty feet to it, which makes the present structure one hun- dred twenty feet long. (See photograph on oepeete page.) y principal feed is corn and kaffir corn, millet and wheat. I have kaffir corn in self feeders at all times. The other grains I throw on floor. I also feed hempseed and peas with plenty of grit. I have now five hundred mated pairs of Homers and some youngsters, and also Carneaux. I ship all of my squabs to Colorado. I dry- pick them in the winter and in the summer months I ship them alive. in the summer is not as good as it has been. I received $2.50 and $3.00 a dozen for them F. O. B. Denver, which I considered a fair market. I got as high as $3.75 for them. Let members of the association, when they go shopping, inquire the prices of squabs, as if they intended buying a pair or a dozen. Mail us the dealer’s full name and address, date and price quoted. These figures would give the true retail prices. Then the wholesale prices will be from twenty-five to fifty per cent less. It has been true, is true now, and will be true, that nobody can be guided successfully by printed quotations, but must find out first what his squabs cost him per dozen, then add what he desires for a profit and sell at that figure. Otherwise nothing but failure will result. I had a dirt floor in my pigeon house, think- ing it a necessity, but after I put in a floor of two-inch plank and raised my house about two feet off the ground I raised squabs with ease and rapidity. Dampness was the cause, produced by the dirt floor.—Charles A. Tupper, New York. The market West. 399 NON-FLAKING WHITEWASH. To pre- pare whitewash for fences, buildings, shqp interiors, etc., that will not flake and fall off, mix one part fine Portland cement with about eight gallons whitewash. The cement binds the whitewash to the wood and makes a per- manent covering which is unaffected by weather conditions, The small quantity of cement used and the constant stirring necessary to keep the whitewash in good condition for applying, pre- vents the cement hardening in lumps at the bottom of the pail, as might be expected. I have been in the habit of robbing the Car- neaux nests twice in succession, allowing the old birds to hatch the third pair of eggs. I had tobbed a certain pair twice and as the third pair of eggs was laid on the floor in an undesir- able place, I determined to rob them a third time. It seemed pretty hard, but I considered it best all round, so it was done. Nine days later pair of eggs number four appeared, this time in a nestbox. They were allowed to hatch this pair (strong, healthy chaps they are, too) and — here's where the speed comes in — just seven days after these youngsters were hatched, the hen laid again. These eggs were removed to a Homer pair as usual. It has now been four days since the second egg was laid and I am eagerly waiting to see how long it will take this fine little egg machine to produce again. I call this rapid work and if any one has a breed of birds which can go ahead of it, I should like to hear from him.—George N. Rogers, Maryland. I never knew a thing about pigeons until this March (1910) when T took charge of a hun- dred pairs — seventy-five pairs Homers, twenty- five pairs Carneaux. They were very much run down and neglected on account of my husband not having the time to devote to them that they should have had. I read all the National Squab Magazines over and over again and conse- quently have had better results than I ever dreamed of having. In June I sold $29.25 worth of squabs, besides keeping fourteen pairs for breeding purposes, and in July I expect to do better still—Mrs. Edgar Rapp, Missouri. This story ought to sell some more of the bound volumes of the magazine, price $2.50, trans- portation prepaid. Each volume has over four hundred large pages of original squab matter which will not be reprinted. The first, volume includes the twelve issues for 1909, the second 1910, the third 1911, the fourth 1912, and so on. ddress Squab Publishing Co., 220 Purchase Street, Boston, Mass. I purchased my Homers from your plant some two years ago, and I have bred them under the most adverse circumstances. I wish to state that after looking at several plants in this town my pigeons are just a little bit the best looking, and if I can get these cther pigeons from_your place, would be delighted to do so.—H. G. Cooper, Louisiana. 400 HOW GOOD SQUABS TOOK THE RIGHT OF WAY, by C. E. Plank. In May, 1908, I purchased one dozen pairs of the Extra Ply- mouth Rock Homers, intending to raise squabs for my own use only, but in a year I had on hand seventy pairs, and lacking room had to dispose of the surplus squabs. I called on one of the largest retail grocers, handling groceries, meats, fruits and all good things to eat, who offered me only $1.50 a dozen, saying he never paid over $2 for the best. I told him he must be getting only common birds of about seven or eight pounds per dozen. He acknowledged such was the case. When I explained what my birds were and that my squabs ran ten and eleven pounds per dozen, he was willing to talk, and we finally com- promised on $2.50, alive off the nest, any quantity and at any time, this because I had to sell my birds alive, having no time to dress or even pluck them. I averaged eight dozen a month the rest of the year, or $20 a month, and my feed was costing me about $7. I had one house twelve by fourteen feet, with alow upper story, keeping about ninety birds in the lower part and thirty above. In May, 1910, I built another cheap house seven by eleven feet, stocking it with select youngsters, fifty Homers and twelve Carneaux, allowing them to mate up as they wished. Most of the Carneaux mated with Homers and their squabs all run over a pound each, and these Carhomes are fully as prolific as the Homers. To verify the quality of my squabs, I will say that last month the head buyer for the grocer instructed me to bring no more squabs, as they were overstocked. I told him I had arranged with the owner personally for the sale of my birds, and the conditions. He called the owner, who said: ‘‘ Oh, you are the gentle- man who has the large squabs,”’ then to the buyer: ‘ Cut out some of the others, and take all this man brings. We can always dispose of his birds."’ His retail price is thirty to fifty cents each, and if I had the time to kill and pluck my squabs, I could find a ready sale for all of them to private parties and hotels at $3.50 to $4.50 a dozen. Comparatively few private families in this Missouri city use squabs to any extent what- ever. I have attended several banqucts at hotels and clubs, at which squabs were served, and find them invariably broiled, practically “dried up '’ and usually the common birds. It is no wonder that people who try the small birds, served in that manner, are not very “ strong "' for squabs. While my pigeons are yielding me a big per cent profit on the investment, I know they would be much more lucrative were I to give them an hour or two each day. I see them a few minutes each morning and spend a few hours with them on Sunday. In winter I see them in daylight only on Sunday. An elderly Englishman who raises fancy pigeons of all kinds for shows and fairs called to see my birds recently and said I had the nicest, healthiest lot of pigeons he had ever APPENDIX G seen. I lose very few birds with my present manner of feeding. I have tried various methods and find whole corn and kaffir as main food to be the best, with about one-sixth hard wheat. BRILLIANT WHITEWASH. Half a bushel unslaked lime; slake with warm water, cover it during the process to keep the steam; strain the liquid through a fine sieve or strainer; add a peck of salt, the same to be previously well dissolved in warm water; add three pounds of ground rice boiled to a thin paste and stir in boiling hot; add one-half pound of glue which has been previously dissolved over a slow fire and add five gallons of hot water to the mixture, stir well and let it stand for a few days, covering up to keep out dirt. It should be put on hot. One pint of the mixture, properly applied, will cover a square yard. Small brushes are best. There is nothing can compare with it for out- side or inside work and it retains its brilliancy for many years. Coloring matter may be put in and made of any shade — Spanish brown, yellow ochre, or common clay, etc. I tried to find out if there was any one in London, Ontario, a city of 50,000 inhabitants, who is doing a squab business, but I hear of only one man selling squabs. He is over eighty years of age. He pays the boys twenty-five cents a pair for common pigeons alive or dead. He plucks the feathers, and sells the pigeons to private customers at eighty centsa pair. That is I think a pretty high price, for common old pigeons. There are quite a few breeders of flying Homers in London and I understand they have an association, but apparently they have not yet become much interested in squabs. Near London is the city of Hamilton, with 65,000 people, sixty miles away; also Chatham sixty miles away, with 30,000 people, and St. Thomas twenty-six miles distant, with 30,000 inhabitants. Surely this is population enough to make trade for squab plants.—W. W. Suther- land, Canada. Sulphate of iron is a good tonic and cor- rective for pigeons. Use a tablespoonful to a gallon of water. I grind charcoal as fine as I can and mix it with salt, then dampen it and pack a paper bag and bake in the oven for half a day or longer, so it will be as hard as a brick. Put it in the pen and the pigeons peck atit. I have sold some of my squabs for sixty-five cents a pair. I think there is nothing better than squab raising, both to make money and for satisfaction.—Louis H. Scharff, Pennsylvania. In regard to nest-building, I have found out that by taking mustard stalks and cutting them about three feet from top of tree and then chopping the little thin branches and stump together to about six inches in length, this makes excellent nesting material for pigeons. They will leave all others and pick out mustard sticks. If some of your subscribers will try this, they will see how quickiy their pigeons will build nests.—Elmer Krider, California. ie ' oe Paikcteetere obean a be} THRUH Aen Ha ue u deh peti an ea i s uf ils ; I ia