10 National Standard Squab Book. 
the sous, a lad of nineteen, came on to see us in August and told us the 
story of their success. He was after more breeding stock. He said he 
had many calls from people who wished to buy stock of him, and he was 
unable to supply all of them, but he did not intend to have money offered 
him very long without being able to pass out the birds. In other words, 
they were going into squabs for all they were worth. They had uot done 
any advertising, and had not sold live breeders to any extent, but figured 
their profits solely on the sale of squabs to commission houses, and they 
were getting for them just what we said the commission men would pay. 
Now if a well-to-do superintendent, filled with no desperate idea of 
making squabs pay, can start with no experience, throw out money freely 
like that and depend on his boys mostly to push the venture ahead, all 
the while attending to a very large business, then we say that you can do 
it too, uo matter who you are or where you live. 
We have a great many visitors, some coming from remote points of the 
United States. One of our visitors in the summer of 1902 was Mr. A. L. 
Furlong, from a little town in Iowa. Mr. Furlong said to us: “Iowa is 
quite a squab-breeding state. ‘here are plants in Ruthven, Osage, Wal- 
lake and Estherville. The owner of a plant in Ruthven I know very well. 
He showed me his account books; he was shipping from $700 to $800 
worth of squabs last month. He is making a profit of $3,000 to $5,000 a 
year. He ships to the Chicago market, as do nearly all the Iowa breeders. 
He never gets less than $2.50 a dozen for his squabs. I am going to start 
raising squabs myself.” 
Mr. Furlong left an order for one of our Manuals, having given his first 
one to his friend. He said that his friend was breeding common pigeons 
and would like to know our methods. We discarded common pigeons some 
time ago. If our Iowa friends will use Homer pigeons instead of common 
ones, they will produce a much better squab and make more money. 
We had a curious confirmation of the above in August, 1902, when Mr. 
BE. H. Grice, who lives in the northern part ef Vermont, visited us. Mr. 
Grice had just returned from a visit to the West, and stopped for a while 
at Ruthven, Iowa, where he saw the plant above noted. The proprietor 
referred Mr. Grice to us and advised him to start with Homer pigeons, 
saying ‘that if he were to stock up again, it would be with Homer instead 
of the common pigeons. Before leaving, Mr. Grice gave us an order for 
100 pairs of our Homers. 
The number of orders for breeding stock which we have received from 
Iowa is out of proportion to any state near it, showing that these squab 
plants are known throughout Iowa to be making money. The same is true 
of California, also Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In the country around 
Millville, Mauricetown aud Dividing Creek, all in the southern part of 
New Jersey are hundreds of squab plants. The reason is that it has 
spread from mouth to mouth there that there is big money in raising these 
dainties. There are more squab breeders in eastern Pennsylvania and 
southern New Jersey than there are chicken breeders. We went through 
