1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 



READ THIS STORY OF SUCCESS BY A MAK 80 YEARS OLD. HE HAS DONE SOME 

 ORIGINAL AND EFFECTIVE THINKING. NO BUILDINGS FOR HIM. HE USES AN ATTIC 

 ROOM AND GETS THERE." Being old (80 years) , failing s^jht 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 pigeons from boyhood \antil a few years since when the telephone, etc. 

 came, and I killed all oft. 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, so 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 iioor, 

 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-ajid 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 feed 

 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 immated. 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 theha. 



But here conies 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 e^gs are good. 

 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 told 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. A small 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 cu-stomer 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. . -, i 



As to three squabs in a nest, this comes to pass, but we never knew so many cases m » flock 

 of this size at the same time. That was extraordinary- . , . ^ ^ ^^ 



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, brmgmg 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 m a 

 crude way, pay in profits a share of the running expenses of the home. 



LETTERS RECEIVED FROM CUSTOMERS BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 



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