PREFACE. 
This Manual or Handbook on Squabs is written to teach 
people, beginners mostly, not merely how to raise squabs, 
but how to conduct a squab and pigeon business successfully. 
We have found breeders of squabs who knew how to raise them 
fairly well and took pleasure in doing so, but were weak on 
the business end of the industry. The fancier, who raises 
animals because he likes their looks or their actions, or 
because he hopes to beat some other fancier at an exhibition, 
is not the-man for whom we have written this book. We 
have developed Homer pigeons and the Homer pigeon industry 
solely because they are staples, and the squabs they produce 
are staples, salable in any market at a remunerative price. 
The success of squabs as we exploit them depends on their 
earning capacity. They are a matter of business. Our 
development of squabs is based on the fact that they are 
good eating, that people now are in the habit of asking for 
and eating them, that there is a large traffic in them which 
may be pushed to an enormous extent without weakening 
either the market or the price. If, as happens in this case, 
pigeons are a beautiful pet stock as well as money makers, 
so much the better, but we never would breed anything not 
useful, salable merely as pets. It is just as easy to pet a 
practical animal as an impractical animal, and much more 
satisfying. 
This Manual is the latest and most comprehensive work we 
have done, giving the results of our experience as fully and 
accurately as we can present the subject. It is intended as an 
answer to the hundreds of letters we receive, and we have 
tried to cover every point which a beginner or an expert needs 
to know. It is a fault of writers of most guide books like 
this to leave out points which they think are too trivial, or 
“‘ which everybody ought to know.” It has been our experi- 
ence in handling this subject and bringing it home to people 
that the little points are the ones on which they most quickly 
go astray, and on which they wish the fullest information. 
After they have a fair start, they are able to think out their 
operations for themselves. Accordingly we have covered 
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