SELLING SQUAB BREEDING STOCK 127 



your advertisements in the small papers will not pay you and 

 to advertise in them is just like throwing away money that 

 niight otherwise he well spent. In writing your ad\ ertisements 

 make clean, clear-cut statements. Be sure that your statements 

 are honest and offer a liheral guarantee on your birds. You 

 can well afford to do this if you have the right kind of stock 

 for sale and you will make friends of your customers who will 

 later boost you every chance they get. 



Place a proper price on your stock. Do not ask ten dollars 

 a pair for birds that are worth only five and on the other hand 

 do not offer birds worth five dollars a pair for the small sum 

 of three dollars just to make sales. This might bring sales for 

 a while but eventually you will brand your stock as cheap and 

 yourself as a cheap man and the pigeon buying public will 

 buy elsewhere for they are slowly but surely beginning to steer 

 clear of cheap stock. 



Ship only what you promise to ship; that which you have told 

 your customer he might expect for his money. See that every 

 bird leaves your plant in the very best condition possible, both 

 as regards health and feather. Have them all properly banded 

 in pairs with new open bands. All of these things count for 

 more tlian you can think. 



In order to properly conduct this branch of the business one 

 must be fully prepared to carry it on. One of the first requisites 

 which we believe goes toward making for success is the knowl- 

 edge of the breeder concerning selection of squabs that are fit 

 to raise to maturity. You cannot save just any and every squab 

 that comes along and expect to develop them into a bird which 

 will, when sold to another breeder, make a good name for you, 

 to say nothing of the useless expense of raising such squabs. 

 An old rule handed down to me and I think it an excellent one 

 is to save for breeding purposes only such squabs as show at 

 four weeks of age a good large frame, large feet and stocky 

 legs and, as equally important, a broad back and a well formed 

 breast, A squab with these qualities will invariably develop 



