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 $3; 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 are 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 



