CHAPTER IX. 

 THE MARKETS. 



Squabs wdth the Feathers on Taken b.v the P.oston and Some Other City 

 Markets— The New York ilarket ^^■ants Them Plucked and Pays 

 the Highest Price of Any Northern City— Interpretation of Quota- 

 tions of Squabs as Seen in the Newspapers— White-Fleshed Squabs 

 Are Wanted, Not Dark-Fleshed. 



The Boston market, and the market in some other cities, will take 

 squabs with feathers on. It is only necessary for you to tweak the necks 

 of the squabs and send them to the train, after they have cooled over 

 night. Some shippers do not take the trouble to box the killed squabs, 

 but tie their legs together with string and send them along to market. 

 In the baggage cars of the trains running into Boston you will sometimes 

 see strings of squabs going in to the commission houses in this way. 



The New York market wants the squabs plucked. The squab breeders 

 who have large plants and who ship to the New York market employ 

 pluckers and pay them by the piece. A skillful plucker will strip feathers 

 from squabs at the rate of ten to twenty squabs an hour. The proper 

 time to pluck the killed squab is immediately after killing. When picked 

 clean, throw the squab into cold water and leave it there over night to 

 plump out and harden the Resh. In the summer use ice water. 



The squab puts on more feathers than Hesh during the last few days of 

 its growth and if you see squabs whic; are only three weeks old, but 

 which are of good size, you may save a week on feed by killing the squab 

 at that age and plucking it. When the feathers are off of it, it looks like 

 the four weeks' squabs which have not matured so rapidly. 



If you are shipping to the New York market, you should pack your 

 squabs in a neat white wood box, printed it you please. Do not use a 

 pine box for if you do the odor of the pine will penetrate the squabs. 



The New York market for squabs is the best in the north. Squabs 

 delivered by our customers there invariably bring from $1 to $1.50 per 

 dozen more than in the Boston market. This is because there are more 

 rich people in New 'i'ork than there are in Boston, and they are more 

 free with their money in providing luxuries for their table than Boston 

 folks. Wp do not mean to disparage the Boston market for squabs, which 

 is always .good, averaging $3 a dozen, but we wish to emphasize the fact 

 thnl the New York market is a phenomenal one. Anybody living near 

 New Y'ork can make a fortune raising squabs. Our largest orders have 

 come from customers who are shipping to New York. 



(60 



