410 



APPENDIX G 



necessary for Montana squab raisers to send 

 East for their grain. They can buy wheat and 

 peas chea,per than eastern squab raisers. 



SEATTLE MARKET, by Fred B. Lancaster. 



I have been reading one of your scjuab books 

 and believe you are pretty nearly right. I am 

 a breeder of Homers myself. I have four 

 hundred and twenty-eight pairs of birds, and 

 fine ones too. I intend to buy some more this 

 fall. I will need some soon, as I am now build- 

 ing a large house to accommodate about five 

 hundred more birds. ^ I am now getting $5.25 



Eer dozen for squabs in Seattle, so you see we 

 ave a pretty good market in the West, and 

 there is always a good demand for squabs. 



Pigeons are a good deal like figures in one 

 respect : whereas figures acquire their value 

 from their position, so pigeons demonstrate 

 'their value through their owner. 



The Pacific Market in Ocean Park gives 

 S4.50 a dozen for squabs, and sells them for 

 $5 or $6. Tlie City Market gives S3 and sells 

 for $4.50. I can get sixty cents apiece for 

 squabs from four to five weeks old and twenty- 

 five cants for old pigeons per pair. The squab 

 is the most tender, sweetest, and most easily- 

 digested. I would rather have squab than any 

 other meat. A woman in my neighborhood 

 clears from fifteen to eighteen dollars per month 

 from her pigeons. I have blue bar and blue 

 checker Homers. — ^Homer E. Vincent, Cali- 

 fornia. 



I raise squabs. over a pound apiece, getting as 

 much as five dollars per dozen. I am building 

 larger this spring.— iEmest Madsen, Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Prices in San Francisco fluctuate according 

 to supply. On one occasion I was quoted 

 common squabs at twenty cents each, Ply- 

 mouth Rock Homer squat^ at forty-five and 

 fifty cents each. About four weeks later or 

 during April, 1912, I was quoted common 

 squabs at two dollars per dozen, Homer squabs 

 at three and four dollars per dozen. Prices 

 in Berkeley (May 22, 191^ : common squabs 

 $2.75 to $3.25 per dozen. Homer squabs $3.50 

 to $4.50 per dozen. One market quoted the 

 Homer squabs at strictly forty-five cents each. 

 —Harry Preiss, California. 



WOMAN GETS $6 FOR EIGHT-POUND 

 SQUABS, by Mrs. W. A. Roth. In 1908 I had 

 a severe attack of the squab breeder's fever, 

 brought on by reading everything I could get 

 on the subject. ^ I had never seen any but com- 

 mon pigeons flying around. After reading Mr. 

 Rice's Manual I decided I could do what others 

 had done. I bought twenty-five pairs _ of 

 Homers and later twenty-five pairs more, with 

 a pair of Carneaux. At first I fed according 

 to the advice given by so many, two-thirds 

 com, one-third wheat in winter and the reverse 

 in summer, with Canada peas, kaffir corn, 

 hempseed, broken rice and buckwheat. The 



birds did well on this in the winter but when the 

 hot weather came in June, the squabs were 

 light in weight, some having swollen wmg and 

 leg joints,. I wrote to some experienced men 

 for help and feel I owe much of my success 

 to them. They told me the wheat was at the 

 bottom of the trouble and never to feed more 

 than one-fourth wheat in the ration, I use 

 winter wheat. I have learned not to let the 

 birds out on the snow as their cold feet chill 

 the eggs and prevent hatching. My first squabs 

 I sold all sizes for $3 per dozen. I am now 

 selling , eight-pound squabs at $5, nine-pound 

 squabs at $6, twelve-pound squabs at $8 per 

 dozen, less express and commission. I have 

 nothing in my pens breeding less than six pairs ' 

 per year, averagfaig nine to twelve pounds per 

 dozen. The Cameau-Homer cross makes a 

 large squab, also Maltese-Homer, but I would 

 not like to keep them for breeders because a 

 well-established breed like pure Homers and 

 pure Carneaux, is so much more reliable in 

 reproducing its characteristics. 



CHICAGO IS AN EXCELLENT SQUAB 

 MARKET, by John Loring Cook. I am in- 

 tensely iifterested in the squab business, and 

 it is proving to be a successful venture. I 

 put in five hundred birds first and have slowly 

 developed the plant until I have now five lofts 

 and about a thousand birds. Chicago is surely 

 an excellent market, and my plant is doing as 

 well as could be expected. I believe there is 

 good money to be made in the squab and poul- 

 try business, if the help expense can be kept at 

 a low figure and the feed bill is properly regu- 

 lated. These two items can be kept down if 

 one understands how to do it. Feed should 

 not cost very much over $1.70 a hundredweight. 



I FIND MUSTARD SEED CHEAP AND 

 GOOD, by Riley C. Clark. I think most of 

 the pigeon men here feed a little different than 

 in most places. My main feed is wild brown 

 mustard seed. I have fed it with good results 

 for three years. I will give my way of feeding. 

 One and one-half quarts wheat in morning. 

 From three to four quarts mustard seed at 

 noon. One and one-half to two quarts Egyp- 

 tian com at night, with a feed of peas and rice 

 once a week each. In each loft is a feeder 

 containing grit, charcoal and sea-shells, in each 

 fly a piece of mineral salt. One reason I feed 

 more mustard seed is that it is a cheaper feed 

 than anything else. It costs here $1.25 per 

 one hundred pounds; white wheat is about $1.60 

 and Egyptian corn $1.75 to $2 per hundred. 

 I should like to hear from some one who has 

 tried mustard seed. The price of live squabs 

 here is from $2.50 to $4.50 t.o.h., San Francisco. 

 We do not dress squabs for market. 



PROFIT OF $3.55 A YEAR A PAIR ON 



HOMERS, by R. L. Chipman. I find the total 

 cost of keeping a pair of breeding pigeons per 

 year (here in the State of Washington) to be 

 between $1 and $1.25 according to the grains 

 used. The production per pair of sixteen 

 squabs per year if sold at thirty cents apiece 



