APPENDIX G 



411 



would leave a net profit of $3.55 per "pair per 

 year. These figures are not theoretical by any 

 means, for this income is being derived from 

 squab plants which are carried on in a successful 

 manner. The breeding birds are constant and 

 vigorous workers from the age of six months to 

 twelve years, producing fat, juicy squabs all 

 this time. This is surely three times as long 

 as any chicken can be said to be profitable and 

 you do not need the infusion of new blood every 

 year as is the case with chickens, 



50W SQUABS MADE A SICK WOMAN 

 WELL, By Mrs. H. F. Maxwell. One year ago 

 I ordered six pairs of extra Plymouth Rock 

 Homers, and it has been a delight for me to 

 watch them multiply. I have nearly two hun- 

 dred now. My birds are remarkable breeders. 

 I have six or seven pairs which lay three or four 

 eggs and hatch and raise three of them. I have 

 never lost a single grown bird, and only a few 

 squabs. The work is all a pleasure to me, 

 even the cleaning of the houses, for I do it all. 

 This fall I shall begin to market my squabs. 

 There is a splendid market here (Florida) with 

 good prices, and I do wish a number of people 

 would go into the business on a large scale. 

 Florida is an ideal place to raise pigeons, since 

 we have no cold, icy winter to contend with. 

 My houses are built with open fronts and the 

 birds seem well contented. I have cement 

 bath pans in the flying pens and use self-feeders 

 in the houses. A friend of mine called on me, 

 and I told her I was raising pigeons. She said, 

 "Why, we tried that and they all died with 

 bowel trouble." I took her out to the cotes 

 and showed her how I feed and care for them. 

 She said, " OhI we just threw the feed on the 

 ground." I told her that was the reason they 

 died, from damp and sprouted feed. She was 

 delighted with my birds and wants to try again 

 to raise them. I-told her they were a great 

 pleasure to me and had helped me to regain my 

 health, so I felt they were a good investment if 

 they never brought in any money. I do not 

 intend to be satisfied with less than a thousand 

 pairs. They will bring me a good income. 



I am also raising Indian Runner ducks and 

 they are very interesting. Oh] if I only could 

 convince more women that it is an ideal busi- 

 ness for women, so much easier than working 

 in the city on a salary, where you are in a close 

 house all day, I believe more would take up 

 this work. My friends laugh and call me a 

 crank on the subject, but I cannot help telling 

 others how interesting it is- I am in splendid 

 health, whereas two years ago I was an invalid. 

 That is what it has done for me. 



HOW I SAVE MONEY BY FEEDING 

 BREAD, by Charlton Greea. I have been 

 feeding bakers' discarded bread to a pen of 

 eight pairs of breeders and eleven squabs, most 

 of which are just learning to eat. The bread 

 can be fed crushed dry or moistened. The 

 pigeons like clean bread and white bread better 

 than rye bread. Besides bread, I feed about 

 half a pound of Indian com each day. i tind 

 the tread an excellent feed for squabs that are 



just out of the nest. They learn to eat it much 

 quicker and easier than they do grain. I have 

 noticed squabs in nests with it also. I believe 

 it is as good for squabs in nest as it is for the 

 older squabs or youngsters. I don't believe a 

 better feed could be fed to youngsters. The 

 bread costs me one cent a loaf, or from $1 to 

 Sl.lO per 100 poimds. 



SOY BEANS FOR PIGEONS. Soy beans 

 are a Canada peas substitute. A region of the 

 world where the bean is indigenous, and where 

 it has been a staple commodity of di^t for 

 centuries, is Asia, conspicuously India, China 

 and Japan. Until a comparatively recent date 

 native consimiption has kept pace with pro- 

 duction and there has not been much export 

 trade. But with recent development of Man- 

 churia the soy bean crop has come to have a 

 bulk and value that is astounding, the demand 

 from Europe and Japan steadily growing, so 

 that the latest reports of shipment from Darien 

 (formerly Dalny) and Vladivostok indicate that 

 the Manchurian farmers are now raising an- 

 nually about 1,800,000 tons of the beans and 

 beancake. The soy bean flourishes well in the 

 climate and on the soil of north Asia, and 

 Russia as well as China and Japan stands to 

 gain much by the value of the salable crops 

 hereafter to come from the lands they own or 

 control. European nations are finding that 

 the oil from the bean has a variety of uses, 

 edible as well as lubricating; that the flour can 

 be used with wheat and rye to make bread: and 

 that the beancake is admirable as food for 

 cattle. Japanese capital and managers are 

 profiting by the sudden and yet substantial 

 expansion of this Manchurian export trade 

 through their wise administration of the port 

 of Darien and the trading enterprises which 

 they carry on in the zone along the railway that 

 they control. Japanese in Japan also are 

 profiting by the new and inexpensive form of 

 food supply; there the soy bean provides much 

 for a people not over rich in foods and taxed 

 at present to a point that only a people as 

 loyal as the Japanese would bear long without 

 complaint. Soy beans are exceedingly rich in 

 protein. 



WHY THE BREEDING OF MONGRELS 

 FAILS, by Charles Darwin. Pigeons with 

 feathered feet have skin between their outer 

 toes. Pigeons with short beaks have small 

 feet, and those with long beaks large feet. 

 Hence if man goes on selecting, and thus 

 augmenting, any pecularity, he will almost 

 certainly modify unintentionally other parts of 

 the structure, owing to the mysterious laws of 

 correlation. 



Having kept nearly all the English breeds 

 of the fowl alive, having bred and crossed 

 them, and examined their skeletons, it appears 

 to me almost certain that all are the desr'^nd- 

 ants of the wild Indian fowl, gallus bankiva; 

 and this is the conclusion of Mr. Blyth and 

 of others who have studied this bird in India. 

 In regard to ducks and rabbits, some breeds 

 of which differ much from each other, the 



