APPENDIX G 



395 



SQUAB MARKET UP IN SALT LAKE 

 CITY, by J. H. Armstrong. I will try and 

 tell you something of the squab and its market 

 in Salt Lake City. It has been only within 

 the past few years that the squab has had a 

 place on the tables of our private families. 

 Only the hotels and restaurants knew what 

 it was to have squabs to serve to their fine 

 trade, but today the squab will be found on 

 the tables of those who can afford it, and, in 

 fact, on the tables of a good many who can 

 not. The squab of today is taking the place 

 of the young chicken. The demand is growing 

 and the " hello " for squabs is getting greater 

 every day. I have only one hundred pairs 

 and I cannot breed enough squabs to fill my 

 orders, so I am buying from other parties, and 

 even then my supply is limited: I cannot get 

 enough. I am looking forward to the time 

 when I will have two thousand squab breeders 

 instead of two hundred. I am working slowly, 

 but it is steady. 



This past week's market (July) has been 

 good with prices as follows: 



8-lb. squabs per dozen, $3.00 hotel and 

 restaurant. 



9-lb. squabs, $3.50 hotel and restaurant. 



104b. squabs, $4.00 hotel and restaurant. 



10-lb. to 11-lb. squabs per dozen, $4.50 to 

 $6.00 family trade. 



These prices I have fought for the past three 

 years (credit to the magazine) as I could not 

 get other squab raisers to stay together on the 

 prices until the last few months. 



New Yorkers are spenders, and money is no 

 object when they desire something that appeals 

 to their appetites. Go where you will, squabs 

 will always be found on the bill of fare. The 

 demand is simply enormous, as thousands of 

 birds are consumed daily and the demand is 

 continually on the increase. The trouble has 

 been to obtain a sufficient quantity to supply 

 the demand, and I have heard it stated that 

 birds actually were imported to satisfy the 

 demand for extra large squabs. Here is an 

 excellent opportunity for the wide-awake, up- 

 to-date breeder who is in a position to deliver 

 first-class stock to the consumer direct. A 

 veritable hidden treasure of practically un- 

 limited profit awaits him. Just think of the 

 prospects, with our industry still in its infancy. 

 — Harry M. Samson, New York. 



We have been selling a few Plymouth Rock 

 squabs in Louisville, Ky., at $3 a dozen. The 

 men we sell to say they are the finest they ever 

 handled. As soon as we can get enough to 

 make regular shipments we intend to send 

 them away, as we were offered $5 a dozen for 

 them in June. We keep a strict account of all 

 expenditures in our large single entry ledger 

 and find it costs about ten cents per pair per 

 month to feed them. — James C. Martin, Indi- 



We have no ground oyster shells here, so 

 we use ground clam shells. — Miss B. Devereux, 

 British Columbia. 



EGGS AND SQUABS DUE TO CONDI- 

 TIONING. I am inclined to think that there 

 is such a thing as introducing too much red 

 tape in this business of mating and tabbing 

 birds so as to make the task too burdensome. 

 It would be a nice thing if you would give us 

 a line once in a while as indicating where system 

 leaves off and red tape begins. — J. C. Broadwell, 

 Oregon. Pigeons will breed naturally if you 

 give them a chance and if they are in condition. 

 Novices who have had no experience with 

 poultry cannot be made to comprehend that 

 the production of pigeon eggs is a study in 

 conditioning, the same as the production of 

 hen's eggs. Poultrymen also have their 

 matings but they know enough to look to 

 condition and not to the sexual relations for 

 eggs. Pigeons should be banded, but the 

 system of record keeping should be simple 

 and end in the squabhouse, not be carried into 

 evening work under the study lamp. The most 

 important work, as the National Squab Maga- 

 zine 'has demonstrated, is to sell the squabs 

 intelligently. Squab breeders who fuss about 

 the small matters never accomplish anything. 



TRANSFERRING BREEDERS, by Ida 

 Dana. I have been transferring my breeders 

 from the house in which they have been work- 

 ing since I received them in May, to one better 

 fitted for the winter. I have been careful to 

 take each family when the youngest squabs 

 were two weeks old, before the mother had 

 started her new nest. When I placed the 

 squabs in a nest in the same part of the new 

 room as that occupied by their nest in the old 

 room, the parents never failed to recognize and 

 feed them. It was before I understood the 

 necessity of this arrangement that one pair, 

 neglecting their own squabs, fed those in the 

 place in which theirs should have been. I 

 granted their wish by putting their squabs into 

 that box, and had no further trouble. 



FACTS ABOUT NEW YORK FRESH 

 SQUABS, by William R. McLaughlin. I get 



a great many letters during the year from timid 

 beginners and also from old breeders that in- 

 dicate 'they fear to make heavy investments at 

 the start or doubt the advisability of increasing 

 their flock for fear of overstocking the market. 

 To all such inquiries I urge them to go ahead 

 and increase their flocks of breeders so that they 

 can ship every few days from five to twenty- five 

 dozen squabs at a tune. They run no risk as 

 to demand at good prices all the year rovmd. 

 They run no risk of overloading the market. 



I have had extraordinary success with Ply- 

 mouth Rock Homers and am more than pleased 

 with the results. I have met with ready sale 

 for my squabs, and if I had the space would 

 increase my flock. I sell my squabs locally 

 and get $3 to $4.50 a dozen, in other words 

 fifty to seventy-five cents a pair. My squabs 

 will average in weight nine pounds to the dozen, 

 in fact in some instances had them to weigh 

 fifteen and sixteen ounces. — H. H. Kangeter, 

 South Carolina. 



