78 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 
Beware of shoddy pigeons. Buy the best Homers you can 
get, they will wear hest and give you the most pride. Ex- 
perienced poultrymen do not go here and there looking for 
fowls at cut prices. They buy breeding stock of a reliable 
breeder which is reliable and sold at a price which will enable 
the seller to deliver a high quality article. We can tell when 
an order for our breeding stock comes from an old poultry- 
man, for they all write: ‘‘ I want the best stock you can give 
me.” 
Good Homers do not glut the markets. They are always 
fairly scarce, and the price for them has always been well 
kept up. Beware of cheap Homers for sale at cut prices. 
There is always something the matter with such birds. They 
have been worked too long and are played out, or if a flock 
is offered ‘‘ at a bargain,’’ the birds do not produce the large, 
plump, No. 1 squab, but only culls. If a squab breeder is 
going to quit the business and offers you his flock of birds on 
the bargain counter, make him give a good reason to you for 
selling. If he has been unable to make the flock pay, you may 
be sure that you will be unable to make them pay. If he 
offers them to you without a good reason for selling, the 
chances are that it is a poor flock and he has got tired of buying 
grain for them, and wishes to saddle the burden upon you. We 
are always selling breeders and it is very much to our interest 
to protect our reputation by sending out only good Homers 
that will make money for their owners. This is what we 
do, and our large business has been built up by square dealing, 
and knowing the business thoroughly. 
A pair of Homers capable of earning a pair of squabs in one 
month which will sell for at least fifty cents is worth more than 
one dollar or one dollar and twenty-five cents a pair. A pair 
of birds capable of earning only a ten-cent or twenty-cent 
pair of squabs once in two or three months is worth only 
fifty cents a pair. Jersey cows are worth more than common 
cows because they earn more. Good Homer pigeons, bred 
skilfully, are worth more than poor Homers because they 
earn more. 
