12 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



every point in this book in simple language and if the details 

 in some places appear too commonplace, remember that we 

 have erred on the side of plainness. 



The customers to whom we have sold breeding stock have 

 been of great help to us in arranging and presenting these 

 facts. We asked them to tell us just the points they wished 

 covered, or covered more fully, or just where our writings 

 were weak. They replied in a most kindly way, nearly every 

 letter thanking us heartily, and brimming over with enthus- 

 iasm for the squab industry. 



This manual has met with so much favor, and has sold so 

 largely in excess of expectations, that we wish to thank our 

 friends everjrwhere for their cordial support. 



In this book are many letters and squab prices from ten to 

 fifteen years old, but I have left them in as practical evidence 

 of the progress of the squab industry. It should be remembered 

 that now squab breeders are receiving for their squabs from 

 two to three times the prices then paid. 



In the days before the war, the prevailing prices for squabs 

 were $6 to $8 a dozen and thousands of squab breeders in every 

 part of the United States and Canada considered those prices 

 high, and aimed to get them. Grain was bought by such 

 breeders at $2.50 to $4 per hundred pounds. Many squab 

 breeders selling to middlemen received from $4 to $6 a dozen 

 for their squabs and kept in business year after year, making 

 a satisfactory profit at such prices. Squab breeders who 

 received $10 to $12 a_ dozen were the exception, those figures 

 being secured only by the most resourceful and skillful. Suqh 

 breeders were envied by their less fortunate brethren and their 

 sales methods made good stories. 



Now times have changed. Squabs are selling at retail for 

 $12 to as high as $20 a dozen. Commission men in the largest 

 cities who formerly offered $5 and $6 a dozen for squabs now 

 offer eighty cents, ninety cents and one dollar a pound, or at 

 the rate of $10 to $12 a dozen wholesale, and can't get enough 

 of them. 



The higher prices for squabs over the old days are due, first, 

 to the general increase in all prices; and second, to the scarcity 

 of squabs. Not so many squabs are being turned out now as 

 before the war. The reason for this is that the army draft 

 took in many young men. They had to abandon their homes 



