APPENDIX F 



(Copyrighl, 1909. by Elmer C Bice.) 



Letters from customers which we print on the following pages are a few 

 of those received lately. From a pile of manuscript some three feet high 

 we have selected enough letters to make a proper setting for the pictures. 

 Many customers have sent in letters which ought to be printed for the news 

 in them, but in this book, now grown to quite bulky proportions, we have 

 run up against the limit of space. 



A MONTHLY SQUAB MAGAZIIfE. 



The best outlet for suggestions, experiences, market reports from all over 

 the country, etc., constantly being sent in, would be a monthly squab maga- 

 zine, printed and illustrated in the best style, capably edited and written by 

 experienced and industrious men and women who have ability as well as 

 good intentions, who know what they are doing, and who know squabs. 

 Such a magazine, creditably gotten up, with money behind it, and money com- 

 ing in from subscribers really pleased because they would be getting full value, 

 wouldbe a power in the squab industry. Properly managed, it would not only 

 be a clearing house for ideas and a monthly entertainment, but of assistance 

 in actually making market prices for squabs, bettering them. Breeders of 

 squabs should be organized for better prices and other ends. A first-class 

 monthly squab magazine would be cheap at a subscription price of $1 a year, 

 issued on time each month, and containing nothing but original matter at 

 first-hand (no politics or cheap wrangling, but plain and thorough business 

 all the time.) There is a demand for such a national squab magazine and 

 thousands of breeders would subscribe for it. 



MORE ABOUT HOW TO TELL SEX. 



A good proportion of our letters, month after month and year after year, 

 inquire how to tell the sex of pigeons. People ask us this question before 

 they have read this Manual and after they have read the Manual. We 

 should like to write this down to the remotest detail so that even a child 

 could tell the sex of a pigeon by looking at it, but this is impossible. There 

 is no language which can convey the secret of telling absolutely the sex of 

 pigeons. You can tell only by watching them and by experience gained 

 by this watching. You become more expert in determining the sex as you go 

 along. There are no marks on either male or female by which you can 

 distinguish them at any age. Some large male pigeons act the same as 

 roosters do and can be told almost at a glance. On the other hand, some 

 female pigeons are large and coarse, like a male bird, and the secret of their 

 sex is disclosed only by their actions in conjunction with birds of the opposite ^ 

 sex. 



The birds we ship are banded cocks on right leg and hens on left leg. You 

 must watch these birds and see how they act. By the location of the band 

 you will know the sex and by their actions you will learn to connect what 

 you see with the specified sex. Sometimes customers will write to us and 

 state that they have raised birds and are puzzled about the sex of them. 

 In that case you must watch their actions or you can turn such birds in with 



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