for selling. Our houses are not as complete 

 as yours. We do not have any floor in our 

 houses except the earth. Have about 300 pair 

 pigeons and last year shipped 2700 squabs. 

 We feed three times a. day In the flying pen 

 and on the ground, and in wet weather this 

 is quite a disadvantage. Your self-feeder 

 strikes me as being very desirable. We keep 

 fifty pair pigeons in each house." 



At the same time the above correspondent 

 was getting $4.25 to $4.50 a dozen for his 

 squabs, we were getting for ours in Boston 

 $3 a dozen. There is an immense and very 

 rich hotel trade in New York, not to speak 

 of the fine butcher shops. Such hotels as 

 the Waldorf-Astoria, Imperial, Fifth Avenue, 

 Hoffman House, Astor House, etc., and res- 

 taurants like Sherry's and Delmonico's will 

 pay as high as $8 and $10 a dozen for choice, 

 plump squabs, and if the squab-breeder will 

 personally interview the proprietors of these 

 places, when he has stock ready, he will 

 make sales at ton-notch prices direct, avoiding 

 the middleman. Anybody owning a farm on 

 Long Island, in southern New York, northern 

 New Jersey or Connecticut, can make a for- 

 tune by shipping squabs to New York. 



Our advertising has brought us many letters 

 from game supply houses, hotels and clubs in 

 New York who wish to buy our killed squabs, 

 and offering to pay from $4 a dozen up. We 

 do not care to supply them, having our 

 hands full in raising live breeders and in 

 supplying Boston game dealers under con- 

 tract, but our customers are welcome to this 

 trade. To every customer of ours who buys 

 breeding stock and who wishes to supply the 

 New York market, we will give letters of in- 

 troduction to desirable squab buyers in that 

 city. We intend to work up opportunities 

 for our customers in every large city. The 

 right to use our trade-mark and brand, "Ply- 

 mouth Rock," is given by us to every cus- 

 tomer who buys breeding stock of us, and 

 can be used by no other breeder. 



A correspondent in New York state sends us 

 a clipping from the New York Tribune's 

 market columns and asks us to interpret it. 

 We quote from the price-list 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 qiiotation, "Pigeons, 20 cents," means 

 20 cents a pair for common old killed pigeons. 

 These tough old birds are occasionally found 

 In the markets and are worth only 10 or 15 

 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 15 or 20 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 50 cents a dozen. They are 

 retailed at from $1 to ?1.20 a dozen. 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-shoot- 

 ing contest some skulker goes over the field 

 and gathers up all the killed and maimed 

 birds ho can find, and sells them- for two and 

 three cents apiece, or for anything he can 

 get, and these find their way into the mar- 

 kets. The cruel practice of pigeon shooting 

 by miscalled "sportsmen" on Long Island is 

 quite common, ' and the presence of these 

 birds in the New York butcher shops accounts 

 for the above quotation in the Tribune. It 

 is unnecessary to add that such birds do not 

 compete with squabs. They can be made 

 palatable only by stewing for hours in a pie, 

 which takes out a littl^ of their toughness. 



As to squabs, the quotation, "Prime, large, 

 white, per dozen $3.50 and $3.75," is for the 

 kind of squabs that are raised from our 

 Homers, namely. No. 1 grade. 



By the quotation, "Mixed, $2.75 and $3.00," 

 is meant that these amounts are paid for lots 

 of birds composed of No. 1 and No. 2 grades, 

 mixed. If you sort up your birds carefully 

 you will be able to get the No. 1 prices lor 

 all. Some people do not know how to sort 

 them, and they have to be satisfied with the 

 price of a mixed lot. 



By the quotation, "Dark. $1.75 and $2.00," 

 is meant the dark-fleshed squabs, as you have 

 learned by reading our Manual. , Squabs 

 whose flesh Is dark do not sell for as much 

 as the white-fieshed squabs. 



Pigeons are of all colors, i. e., as you see 

 their feathers, and the squabs likewise, but 

 when you pluck the feathers off the fiesh is 

 either a pure white with a tinge of yellow or 

 dark like a negro's skin. 



Quotations for squabs as found in the 

 market repojts In the newspapers are always 

 lower than they really are. The writers of 

 the market columns in the daily papers see 

 only the commission men and cater only to 

 them ; they smoke the commission men' s 

 cigrars and believe what the commission men 

 tell them. They do not see the producer at 

 all. The abject of the commission men is to 

 get the squabs as cheap as they can. When 

 you are breeding squabs make up your mind 

 to get from 25 cents to $1 or more per dozen 



71 



