246 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



than you can count. One customer got 48 at the first trial, and about ten 

 the D-xt time. This took them all and he was no longer troubled by mice. 



HOW TO MAKE PERCHES. 



In making perches, one of our friends has a plan that may be of use to 

 some beginner. Take a square tobacco caddy with dove-tailed corners, 

 such as can be had at any tobacco counter. Remove the bottom and saw 

 the sides in two half way. A small block of wood nailed in the angle furnishes 

 an easy way to fasten the perch to the wall. 



PITTSBURG MARKET. 



Our customers repeatedly call our attention to the fine market for squabs in 

 Pittsburg. They are quoted at $4 a dozen in the newspapers there, and we 

 have customers in that city who are getting as high as a dollar apiece, or 

 $12 a dozen,' for first-class squabs bred from our birds, weighing a pound 

 apiece. It is quite true that Pittsburg is an excellent squab market, in 

 fact, one of the best in the country, as there are so many rich people there. 

 We have also some good, live, wide-awake customers who are shipping 

 squabs to Pittsburg, and they have shown Pittsburg squab buyers the 

 superiority of well-bred squabs. The result is that they have worked up 

 an insistent demand which must be satisfied. What our customers have done 

 for Pittsburg anybody can do living near a city, or a town. This work of 

 letting your nearest market know what you have, and then showing what 

 you have to the market must be done by you. Nobody can do it for you. 

 The prices you can get for your squabs, and the demand for your squabs, 

 which you can create, rest entirely with you. Nobody can do this from 

 a distance — you are on the ground and such work must be done by you. 



LOW QUOTATIONS. 



Beginners may find in the newspapers or in letters from commission men 

 a low quotation for squabs. Some will write to commission men and dealers 

 asking them what they will pay for squabs, etc. In nearly -evfery case the 

 commission man or dealer will write back an absurdly low price. It is to 

 his advantage of course to buy squabs as cheap as he can and sell as dear as 

 he can. The most peculiar feature of such matters to us is that the breeder 

 or prospective breeder of squabs apparently takes the matter for settled 

 and writes us that he can get only $1.50 or $2 a dozen for squabs. Such 

 people seem to be lacking entirely in any business ability. An eight-year- 

 old boy who is accustomed to selling newspapers has enough business judg- 

 ment to prevent him from writing such a letter. Of course the commission 

 men or squab dealers start with a very low price. If the breeder vill sell 

 to him at this very low price, that is so much more to the advantage of the 

 commission man or dealer. He is writing. to feel out the breeder. If the 

 breeder writes back to him and says, "ysur rrice is too low, you will never 

 get my squabs for this figure," then the commission man or dealer will raise 

 his prices. The dealer who is selling "squabs for from $3 to $6 or more a 

 dozen (as they all are) will pay from $2r50 to'$4 a dozen, no matter who he 

 is or where he lives, in any part of the United States or Canada. 



The only way for you to determine the true market price of squabs wher- 

 ever you live is to go into the market or apply by letter and offer to buy 

 squabs and not to sell them. In all the letters you write and all the talk 



