56 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 
dealer in nine cases out of ten knows nothing about pigeons 
and their feed and if you give him the name of a strange grain, 
he will ‘be liable to shy and say he never heard of it. The 
trouble with him is that he sells horse feed and is accustomed 
to handling only the grains which horses need. He can get 
the grains you wish by writing to his nearest port or railroad 
junction. There is nothing odd or out of the way about the 
grains. They are going from one point to another all the 
time. Sometimes they are scarce at certain periods of the 
year. For instance, nearly every fall there is no kaffir corn 
at a reasonable price obtainable in Boston, so we do not feed 
it to our pigeons then, but cut it out altogether in favor of 
the grains selling at a lower price. Most of the kaffir corn 
which we get in Boston comes from Kansas. It is a splendid 
feed for pigeons. Itis small and comparatively soft, and their 
crops make easy work of it. It is nourishing and they like 
it. Maybe your grain man sells a mixture for pigeons. If 
you will look in this mixture you will find probably kaffir 
corn, as well as buckwheat (in black kernels), also red wheat 
and Canada peas. 
A liberal supply of Canada peas and hemp-seed is necessary 
for a good egg production. 
Do not feed a great excess of corn, in the summer 
time. (By corn, we mean common Indian corn, not kaffir 
corn. Kaffir corn is harmless, even when forced on the 
birds.) The effect of corn is to heat the blood. This is what 
you want in the winter time, but not in the summer. 
Red wheat is better than white wheat to feed to pigeons 
because it is not so likely to cause diarrhoea, (See supple- 
ment of this book.) 
Beware of feeding too much wheat. Pigeons fed on an 
excess of wheat are constantly out of condition with continual 
diarrhcea and will lay no eggs while in that state. We recall 
vividly cases of pigeons doing poorly caused by the owner’s 
stupidity in feeding too much wheat. One customer in 
Kansas fed nothing but wheat and got his birds so weak that 
they could not fly off the ground. Another in California with 
a flock of over one hundred pairs had not been able in six 
months’ time to get more than one quarter of his birds at work. 
He complained bitterly that his birds were “ not mated,” 
were all cocks, and so on, but after further correspondence . 
