DOMESTIC PIGEONS 113 



ditions were more favorable. The breeders then 

 dealt with the wholesale market much more than 

 they do now. One small country village in New 

 Jersey sent 86,000 squabs to the market in one 

 year. A single grower in the same county 

 shipped nearly 25,000 that season. Those birds 

 alone were worth $50,000 ; but a few years later, 

 in 1920, all the farms combined in the United 

 States owned pigeons to the value of only ten 

 times that sum. Squab raising has not proved 

 profitable. 



