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. 



