384. NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 
A peculiarity about pigeon manure is that it is not foul- 
smelling like hen manure, and when it is mixed with water 
you get a kind of crude soap. In washing the old-style 
earthenware nest bowls, no soap was necessary. We used 
warm water in washing them and the manure caked to them 
formed a cleansing soap in conjunction with the water. If 
you have a basket in which you have transported pigeons, 
and whose bottom is caked with the hard droppings, lay the 
basket face down and sprinkle water liberally on the under- 
side. The manure will drop off in large pieces from the 
inside and the basket will become perfectly clean. ; 
In raising live-stock of any kind, arrange matters so the 
animals will look after themselves as much as possible. Aim 
to cut down the factor of personal drudgery, so as to leave 
your time clear to observe, plan, and execute intelligently. 
Beginners who load themselves down with a daily round of 
exacting duties soon lose heart, their patience gives out and 
they become disgusted. We have known breeders of rabbits 
to fail simply because they raised them in hutches. Each 
hutch had a door and two dishes, one for feed, the other for 
water. Every day, the door of the hutch had to be opened, 
the hutch cleaned, the dishes refilled (and often cleaned), and 
the door closed. It took fifteen or twenty motions to do this 
for each hutch. Multiply this by twenty to thirty (the 
number of the hutches), and the burden grew unbearable. 
It was not surprising that in three or four months the breeder’s 
patience was worn out. The factor of personal drudgery had 
become greater than the rabbits. The thoughtful breeder 
would have turned his rabbits into two or three enclosures on 
the ground and let them shift for themselves. Then one set 
of motions in feeding would have answered for all, and there 
would have been no dirt to clean up. Infinite patience as 
well as skill is required to make a success of animals given 
individual attention. The aim of every breeder should be to 
make one minute of his time serve the greatest possible num- 
ber of animals. When you think and reason for yourself, 
you understand how much more practical it is to give sixty 
animals one minute of your time than one animal one minute. 
Time is money and if you are too particular, and too fussy, 
and thoughtless about these details, it is a clear case of the 
chances being sixty to one against you, 
