34 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



A peculiarity about pigeon manure is that it is not foul- 

 smelling like hen manure, and when it is mixed with water 

 you get a kind of crude soap. In washing the old-style 

 earthenware nest bowls, no soap was necessary. We used 

 warm water in washing them and the manure caked to them 

 formed a cleansing soap in conjunction with the water. If 

 you have a basket in which you have transported pigeons, 

 and whose bottom is caked with the hard droppings, lay the 

 basket face down and sprinkle water liberally on the under- 

 side. The manure will drop off in large pieces from the 

 inside and the basket will become perfectly clean. 



In raising live-stock of any kind, arrange matters so the 

 animals will look after themselves as much as possible. Aim 

 to cut down the factor of personal drudgery, so as to leave 

 your time clear to observe, plan, and execute intelligently. 

 Beginners who load themselves down with a daily round of 

 exacting duties soon lose heart, their patience gives out and 

 they become disgusted. We have known breeders of rabbits 

 to fail simply because they raised them in hutches. Each 

 hutch had a door and two dishes, one for feed, the other for 

 water. Every day, the door of the hutch had to be opened, 

 the hutch cleaned, the dishes refilled (and often cleaned), and 

 the door closed. It took fifteen or twenty motions to do this 

 for each hutch. Multiply this by twenty to thirty (the 

 number of the hutches), and the burden grew unbearable. 

 It was not surprising that in three or four months the breeder's 

 patience was worn out. The factor of personal drudgery had 

 become greater than the rabbits. The thoughtful breeder 

 would have turned his rabbits into two or three enclosures on 

 the ground and let them shift for themselves. Then one set 

 of motions in feeding would have answered for all, and there 

 would have been no dirt to clean up. Infinite patience as 

 well as skill is required to make a success of animals given 

 individual attention. The aim of every breeder should be to 

 make one minute of his time serve the greatest possible num- 

 ber of animals. When you think and reason for yourself, 

 you understand how much more practical it is to give sixty 

 animals one minute of your time than one animal one minute. 

 Time is money and if you are too particular, and too fussy, 

 and thoughtless about these details, it is a clear case of the 

 chances being sixty to one against you. 



