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. It is 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 



11 



