Have pigeon loft face south, with plenty of light and air but free from drafts. Windows should all be on the south side. Pigeon house should be one ft. to 18 inches above ground to avoid trouble from rats.
To protect against cold in the winter have floor made double, bottom of rough board and top of matched flooring. This is much warmer than concrete.
Ten pair of pigeons in 6 months will produce about 30 to 40 squabs. If you wish squabs for breeders remove them from parents when 6 weeks old. Put in pen 11⁄2 ft. square and twice as much space outside.
It will cost about $2.25 to feed a pair of pigeons and 6 pair of squabs until they are 4 weeks old—which is the age to market them. If the sale price of the 6 pair is $3.00 you would realize a profit of 75 cents per breeding pair.
PLAN No. 802. 52-ACRE MICHIGAN ORCHARD
Fourteen years ago the first of March, I purchased twenty-five acres one-half mile south of Bangor, Michigan, and two weeks later moved onto it from Illinois.
Two years after moving onto this farm I set out an orchard of 500 trees, planting them twenty feet each way. This orchard was set to Duchess, Yellow Transparent, Wealthy, Grimes Golden, Snow and Jonathan. This orchard was cultivated each year until the first of August, then a cover crop was planted and turned under the following spring, until it was six years old. Then it was left to go into a natural seed, which is blue grass and red top.
These trees had made such a wonderful growth that they were large enough to bear a good crop at six years old. This orchard has been mowed each year since going into sod, and at harvesting time when the trees were six years old we took $340 worth of apples from the orchard, or $68 per acre. From that time on this orchard has been doing better each year, and when nine years old we made $90 per acre from it; at ten years $100 per acre, and the past season, at eleven years old, we sold $1,200 worth of apples, a return of $240 per acre.
This orchard is protected by timber on the west and north sides. It is sandy loam soil. The first trimming these trees received was when they were six years old, and from that time on they got an annual moderate trimming and received thorough spraying. Our spray has been lime sulphur and arsenate of lead. We found that we could not grow wood and fruit spurs at the same time, hence no trimming was done until the trees were large enough to bear.