304 



APPENDIX G 



MULBERRY STEMS FOR NESTING, by 

 Gordon Lallemand. I started with two pairs 

 of Homers and had a small, wooden pen and 

 did not have very good success, but I gradually 

 learned the ways and habits of pigeons. After 

 that I built a new house unit with the pen 

 nine by ten by fourteen feet. I now use sand 

 all over the floor. I raise all the squabs I 

 want to eat and sell lots of dressed squabs. 

 I have found out that strangers are a great 

 setback to mated pairs, especially those which 

 have squabs. I have had pigeons leave their 

 eggs and let the squabs starve because I let 

 strangers go in or near the pens. In dressing 

 I gather the squabs, cut their large jugular vein 

 in the throat, tie the feet and hang up to bleed, 

 then I pick and put in cold water. I do not 

 cut open the squabs, but leave them as they 

 are. 



For nesting, I use the small stems of the 

 mulberry. I prefer the white. The pigeons 

 seem to like these better than straw or tobacco 

 stems. 



WEEDS FOR NESTING MATERIAL, 

 by J. C. Snyder. Bitter weed tops are good 

 for nesting material. It is a small weed that 

 grows wild in Mississippi and is of no value that 

 I can see except for the purpose I have named. 

 It grows about two feet high and has a little 

 yellow flower that is bitter, and if cows eat it 

 the milk will be bitter. We have trouble dur- 

 ing the summer on this account. The way 

 I happened to try them was this. Two weeks 

 before Christmas my nesting "material gave 

 out. I had been using pine needles and couldn't 

 spare the time to get more, so just went out 

 in the pasture a few hundred yards from my 

 pigeon lofts and broke off the tops of the weeds. 

 They broke easily because they were dead 

 from the cold weather. I took an armful 

 back and put them in the loft and when I 

 went in to feed that evening it was all gone. 

 Looking around, I saw lots of new nests and 

 in a few days lots of eggs, and now I must 

 say I have more squabs than at any other 

 previous time, and I can attribute it to these 

 bitter weed tops, as they like them better 

 than anything I have yet found. 



ATTRACTIVE PACKAGE, by Mrs. Walter 

 J. Wilcox. For five years my husband has 

 been reading about squabs. At last he is 

 fairly launched into the business and is so 

 busy that I am writing for him. Last summer 

 in his spare time he built a house eight by 

 twelve feet and covered it with flexible asphalt 

 roofing paper; red roof and gray walls. The 

 house is divided into two pens, one for Car- 

 neaux and the other for Homers. It was 

 ready for birds September 1, 1914, and in 

 spite of skeptical neighbors and laughing 

 friends, I bought twelve pairs of Homers, 

 colored and white, also four pairs of Carneaux, 

 one pair solid yellow, one pair of solid red and 

 two pairs of splashed, from Mr. Rice. Our 

 neighbors are beginning to sit up and take 

 notice now, for all our trade has come to us. 



We have disposed of all our squabs and have 

 orders ahead. The squabs go to family trade, 

 for as yet we haven't enough at a time to send 

 to market. My husband dresses them ready 

 for cooking, then each squab is wrapped in 

 parchment paper, fastened with gummed tape, 

 then packed in boxes containing four. This is 

 wrapped in lavender paper with string to match. 

 On top of this neat package he has a printed 

 label with our trade name, and it is just the 

 thing to go through the parcel post. Perhaps 

 you will think a lot of time is wasted in doing 

 up such a package, but have you noticed 

 how anything in an attractive package or box 

 appeals to the ladies? And it's the house- 

 keepers who buy our squabs, so why not try 

 to please? 



I feed and water the pigeons every morning 

 It gives me a chance to watch the interesting 

 little things and leaves my husband more time 

 for killing and cleaning the latter once a week. 

 He has found a scratch feed such as is given 

 to chickens to be very satisfactory mixed with 

 a liberal amount of peanuts. He is fortunate 

 in being supplied with tobacco stems from the 

 local cigar stores and uses them for nest ma- 

 terial. Just now he is having a new pigeon 

 house built thirty-six feet long. This is only 

 a side line or hobby with us, as my husband 

 has a Government position, also is tenor soloist 

 in one of the large churches. 



HOW I RAISED THE PRICE FROM $3 

 TO $s A DOZ., by R. M. Ayres. As I enjoy 

 reading the experiences of others, I thought 

 some one would enjoy reading some of mine. 

 My start was on a very small scale, but after I 

 had a little experience I invested in a small flock 

 of Homers and Carneaux, buying them from 

 the people who I think have made the squab 

 business what it is. today. From these I have 

 raised quite a flock.- C 



One of the lessons I have learned is that it 

 doesn't pay to put too many pigeons in one 

 pen. I think twenty-five pairs are plenty. I 

 believe I can get as many squabs out of. twenty- 

 five pairs as I can out of thirty-five or forty 

 pairs in the same pen. 



A word about feed. I read of a number who 

 get large, fat squabs without using any Canada 

 peas. I cannot see how they do it. Just as 

 soon as I quit using peas my squabs commence 

 to lose in weight. I feed a mixture of peas, 

 cracked com, kaffir com, buckwheat, millet 

 and wild-grass seed.. 



As to the market end of the business, that 

 has been easy. I have been able to sell all I 

 can raise, at prices ranging from $4 to $5 per 

 dozen. When I started I was selling them at 

 $3 per dozen, but I soon found that did not 

 pay, so I kept pushing the price up until I got 

 it up to $5 a dozen, and my customers pay 

 that just the same as they did the lower price. 



I use the post-card method of advertising, 

 which I think is the best, as it reaches just the 

 ones you want to reach, while the advertise- 

 ment in the ordinary daily paper is not read 

 by the class of people that you are after. 



