CHAPTER IX. 
: THE MARKETS. 
Squabs with the Feathers on Taken by the Boston and Some Other City 
Markets—The New York Market Wants 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 
elean, throw the squab into cold water and leave it there over night to 
plump out and harden the flesh. In the summer use ice water. 
The squab puts on more feathers than flesh during the last few days of 
its growth and if you see squabs which 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 if 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 York than there -are in Boston, and they are more 
free with their money in providing luxuries for their table than Boston 
folks. We 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 
that the New York market is a phenomenal one. Anybody living near 
New York can make a fortune raising squabs. Our largest orders have 
come from customers who are shipping to New York. 
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