APPENDIX G 



387 



CHICAGO $4.50 A DOZEN, by Stewart Gal- 

 braith. Send the National Squab Magazine 



for anotiier year. I like it and prize it next 

 to the National Standard Squab Book» 

 which taught me how to raise squabs at a profit. 

 I live in a suburb of Chicago and get $4.50 a 

 dozen for my squabs twenty-five to thirty 

 days old, not picked, no express charges, and 

 although I have about one hundred breeders. 

 I cannot begin to supply the demand. I have 

 only the best Plymouth Rock Homers. I use 

 a prepared pigeon feed only, costing $2 a 

 hundred in half-ton lots delivered. I have an 

 iron kitchen sink sunk in the pigeon fly. The 

 fly is forty-four by forty, nine feet high, and 

 as I have the garden hose attached to faucet 

 in basement and running to this sink with 

 water running slowly all times (except very 

 cold weather) and keep a solution of perman- 

 ganate of potash in the water, I don't know 

 what canker is. Put one-quarter ounce perman- 

 ganate of potash in a pint bottle of water and 

 use about one teaspoonful of this solution to 

 one gallon of water. 



HOMERS ARE WORTHY THEIR HIGH 

 PLACE, by Harry M. Samson. Only too often 

 the opportunity presents itself for the man with 

 a fairly productive loft of Homers and kindred 

 breeds to launch out upon the sea of uncer- 

 tainty by becoming interested in some of the 

 larger varieties of squab producers. There are 

 about as many varieties of large squab pro- 

 ducers as there are hairs on a dog's tail, some 

 good, others fairly so and many absolutely 

 worthless. It is not size that counts, but the 

 breeding qualities. An old breeder quoted 

 something that seems to ring true, viz., " Other 

 birds may come and other birds may go, but 

 the Homer keeps on forever." Go where you 

 will, one finds the Homer in evidence. 



The safe way in shipping is to have a tag of 

 your own printed something as follows: "PLY- 

 MOUTH ROCK SQUABS, from JOHN 

 JONES, COLLIERS, WEST VIRGINIA, 

 PERISHABLE RUSH, FOR " and then write 

 plainly in ink or indelible pencil the full name 

 and address of the consignee, being sure to put 

 on his street address and spell out in full the 

 name of his state. Inside the box put your in- 

 voice, with your name and address in full 

 printed on it, and send him by mail a letter 

 telling him what and when you are shipping, 

 with duplicate invoice. 



Sometimes irresponsible grain dealers will 

 doctor peas, and actually make them poisonous 

 for pigeons. Some of the least scrupulous will 

 go so far as to take a lot of cracked com or other 

 grain which is green with mould and dye it 

 yellow. Such grain will make pigeons sick and 

 kill squabs. Cases of sickness and deaths in 

 the squabhouse are in nine cases out of ten 

 traceable to the grain. One must be observing 

 to detect such bad grain and it is not to be 

 wondered that other causes are imagmed. 

 The remedy is to buy grain only of rehable 

 dealers. 



HOW TO FASTEN WIRE NETTING, by 

 W. O. Bunch. Take No. 12 galvanized wire 

 and with a pair of common pliers in the right 

 hand and the wire in the left make a ring about 

 three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Then 

 cut off and make another, or as many as you 

 want. These little rings should be open enough 

 so that you can easily put one around the two 

 outside wires of the poultry netting. Then with 

 the pliers pinch the little rings together. An- 

 other nice way is to take hog rings and with hog 

 ringers you can fasten the netting together 

 very quickly and neatly. 



Question: In my flock of thirty-five pairs 

 of Homers which at one time were all mated 

 and at work, eight pairs have broken up and 

 taken other mates. One male bird has raised 

 squabs vv'ith three females, and built a nest 

 with one, leaving her before she laid eggs, 

 making four matings for him in eight months, 

 or less. Is this customary? Answer: In 

 every flock there are exceptions to the rule. 

 For that reason, no seller can give mated 

 pairs whose matings are guaranteed to hold 

 absolutely. I think it is a mistake, as I have 

 many times written, to advertise mated pairs 

 guaranteed, for pigeons themselves settle 

 such matters. Moreover, if one sells what 

 he calls guaranteed mated pairs, this means, 

 in the mind of a rascal, that the buyer can hold 

 the seller responsible for profits he might have 

 made if certain pairs had held continuously 

 together, instead of readjusting, as in the 

 above case. That may seem to be far-fetched, 

 but I have seen it tried. The most satisfactory 

 way to sell pigeons is to let the customer try 

 them for a while and, if he is not pleased with 

 them, exchange them, or refimd his money. 

 That certainly is fair both to buyer and seller. 

 Anybody who would guarantee the flirtings 

 and other love affairs of a pair of pigeons in a 

 pen with many other pigeons has quite a con- 

 tract on his hands. It has been my experience 

 that those who were the most insistent in 

 guaranteeing such matters have been the slow- 

 est in performance. They rectified nothing 

 and in the end, ninety-nine per cent of them 

 went out of business. The reasons pigeons 

 look for new mates occasionally are the same 

 as one sees every day in the human family. 

 The rule among humans, as among pigeons, is 

 that of one wife, one husband, nevertheless 

 there are sailors with a sweetheart in every 

 port, and railroad men with wives at both ends 

 of the line. — Ehner C. Rice. 



In Savannah there is great interest in pigeons. 

 The Homers and Carneaux have full sway 

 down here. They are raised mostly for pets 

 and not for commercial purposes. The Homer 

 squabs bring from $4.50 to $5.00 a dozen and 

 the matured birds about $3.00 a pair. The 

 Cameaux bring $6.00 a dozen for the squabs. 

 The matured birds are $5.00 a pair straight. 

 The demand exceeds the supplj"- and it is a 

 pity that some large plant is not established 

 here. The hotels sell the squabs as quail. — 

 Timothy F. Sullivan, Georgia. 



