1907 MORE STORIES OF SUCCESS 1908 
READ THIS STORY OF SUCCESS BY A MAN 80 YEARS OLD. HE HAS DONE SOME 
ORIGINAL AND EFFECTIVE THINKING. NO BUILDINGS FOR HIM. HE USES AN ATTIC 
ROOM AND GETSTHERE.” Being old (80 years), failing s:zht drove me out of a mechanical 
business and the prospect before me was to live and lean on my children. I had always been 
a lover and keeper of Pigeons from boyhood until a few years since when the telephone, etc. 
came, and I killed all off. My daughter saw your advertisement in a magazine and sent for 
your booklet. I saw at a glance the chance offered. I knew you were telling only what was 
the exact truth about pigeons, and the pictures showed them to be the best kind for the purpose. 
Had I been 20 years younger, I would have gone into it with all my means, so as it was I made 
a very modest beginning. 
In February, April and June you sent me three small lots, 40 in all, not your Extras. I put 
them in an attic where I had birds before with nest boxes, some hung: up, some on the floor, 
any way to keep them apart. They soon began to work. Six pairs had eggs ina week. When 
squabs began to come six, seven or eight at a time, a butcher took them, and since then we 
have given him over three dozen in one-week. He first paid at rate of $3 per dozen and has 
risen twice since to now, $3.75, and has. not been pushed. My daughter takes them in and 
gets the cash as if they were gold or wheat. The butcher says it is not the size but a plump 
breast that tells, so they go age and small many times, between seven and eight pounds to 
the dozen, bled and dressed. f course my stock has been increased by some getting out of 
nest, or saving some peculiar color. I keep those with odd markings and know them personally, 
The first year the 18 pairs averaged eight pairs each. I do not keep them to be a month old 
as they would all be on the floor then and butcher looks for wool on head. Seeing none he 
says: “ How long has this been flying?’ So I send them at 24 or 25 days. The younger they 
go, the faster the old ones breed, as well as saving of feed. So since May, 1905, when t began 
with 18 pairs, I have sold 805 squabs and increased stock from 18 pairs to 56 pairs, and no 
Stint of feed. I sell no manure. 7 7 
You are right on feed question. Cabbage is good. I give (when I have it) lettuce, parsley 
and even marshmallow weed and sunflower seeds, but my birds avoid wheat, eating very 
ee: They know me personally, come in from outside when I go in and get down under my 
eet. 
My attic where I breed is a queer shape, with two places for them to get outside, and feed 
boxes on floor to give them a chance to hide from-the others at.times. The other 20 pairs are 
ih an old wagon-house with the boxes over head to be away from rats, and a cat there most 
of the time. I suffer some from the makeshift pens I have. I need the arrangement you 
have, though I have a third place for the young unmated. When a pair in that place gets 
young, say 14 days old, I move pair (box and all) at night into one of the regular units and that 
fetches them. 
But here comes what few and those only that know me will believe. In the course of this 
April and May seven pairs have had three eggs each. Three pairs hatched all and are gone to 
butcher. Two more are hatched and doing well and of the two to come, all eggs are good. 
Some have had one smaller than other:two, then I take the small one and give it to another 
which has younger or some of same size. I am raising them all, The books say pigeons 
often have only one, but noeny about three. Are we getting a new breed? I have none 
for sale alive so this is no advertisement. 
For squabs I have received in money just double what I spend for feed.—D. G. L., New York. 
Note. There is a great deal of sound sense and experience in the ahove story of this valued 
customer, written by himself. Eighty years old, and with failing sight! Not much; he is 
young and keen. First, he had confidence that he was being tuld the truth by us and would 
get good birds, for he had known pigeons all his life. That is half the battle. He sold his 
Squabs when they were plump, even if only three weeks old, before they had a chance to walk 
around and train off fat. . He treated his birds so that they loved him, 
His butcher had customers which evidently did not weigh the squabs. Asmall plump squab 
is good but a big, plump squab is what 99 dealers out of 100 are after, because they get 
much more money for them. The educated markets once supplied with the big ones do not 
fancy the smaller ones. Our customer if he had started with our Extras would not have been 
content to sell to the butcher, but would have looked up the butcher’s customers and received 
also the 50 per cent profit made by the butcher. s 
As to three squabs in a nest, this comes to pass, but we never knew so many cases in a flock 
of this size at the same time. That was extraordinary. . Voth . 
His practice of changing the smaller squab in a nest for a squab of size equal to the one remain- 
ing is common. With two squabs in the nest, if one grows larger than the other, this means 
he is stronger and is continually stealing the share of the parents’ food belonging to the little 
one. Take the little one to another nest ee free is a squab of its own size, bringing back 
a larger squab equal in size to the one in the first nest. | ' 
pipe acces is that of a small flock. He simply makes a small lot, housed in a 
crude way, pay in profits a share of the running expenses of the home. 
LETTERS RECEIVED FROM CUSTOMERS BY PLYMOUTH ROCK SQUAB COMPANY 
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