The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-13
OFTEN IT IS PIGEON ON TOAST.
A Wisconsin Towns Special 1ndustr,

A Wisconsin Towns Special Industry is Breeding Pigeons for Quail. When the western packer who want l ed to enter the four hundred offered Ward McAllister one thousand dollars to teach him the society way of eating quail on toast he did not know the chances were dollars to doughnuts that the meat he was to experiment on was Wisconsin pigeon, instead of Nebraska quail. That the shipment of these 'quail' is an industry peculiar to Wa tertown of all Wisconsin towns would be a surprise to even most Milwaukee ans, who, as rule, are unaware that about thirty thousand pigeons are kept in cotes in that city to breed and sell to game dealers.
 As matter of fact, Watertown's "quaiP industry is one which would astonish the, average Wisconsin person by It's magnitude. Thousands of birds are killed there and shipped to Chicago and the east annually, but in Milwau- kee, only a few miles away, there Is al- most no market for the birds. This Is probably because the game laws in this state forbid the sale or killing of the real bird, so any placing of the substi- tute delicacy on a menu card would bring the game wardens around in CO., veys. The occasional pigeon pie, how ever, may be a Watertown exportation.
 Tn and near that city there are no less than five dove cotes, in one of which alone over fourteen thousand pigeons are housed. The four smaller cotes are within a radius of five miles from the city. The largest is owned and conduc- ted by Albert Wegemann. It is on the bank of the Rock river, and consists or a court, surrounded on three sides by low brick buildings, like the old Califor- mia monasteries. In one corner Is the frame granary and in another a remod- eled dwelling-hous
 One dove alone can make small blt of a noise with it's cooing, but when thousands of the birds are gurgling at once the sound Is audible for a block or more. The entrance of an intruder w. ries the sound as the millions of feath- CTS beat the air, taking one back to the times of the Arabian Nights, when the great roe hovered over It's victims. h. side the court which forms the big cote there were found on recent visit few birds flying about, but the majori- ty were under wire screen. It was ol- most feeding time, and the doves were flying about aimlessly, those. inside the brick buildings peeping out from the cave- dweller- like holes, which spotted the walls between the windows, as if anxious for dinner to be served.
 There were pigeons of all kinds and colors. The cropper, with its copper colored body, stood out in marked con- trast to the pure white birds mingled among those of more mixed blood, while the ruffle-necks perched on the clothes-hanger racks inside the wire cage, and the blowers puffed out their threats as if trying to imagine that their crops were full. Black and yell low "tumblers,' homers and letter car riers" lived in the same happy family with the mongrel, most of the birds be- ing those with the changeable cerise md green feathers which form collar lbout their necks.
 Down in the basement of the lofts oags of crushed corn were warming, md then it was time to feed the | Three bags of crushed corn we're for lunch, and three cries were to orm the breakfast in the morning. In [ he inclosure there were watering fed by continuous stream of water from a pipe line and on the round near the troughs the bags full if grain were dumped.
 While the pigeons flocked out from he lofts by the thousands carpeting he ground with their feathered bodies, he common English spnrrows gathered bout the wire netting, shiverlng and uffiing up their feathers in the cold. ooking hungrily down at the doves be- ow which were being fatted for the filling. The sparrows could get trough the netting, but a dash among he pigeons for bit of corn would be ut to be beaten to the ground under he wings of the larger birds, which ere continually moving from one part f the cage to the other.
 Now is about the duilest period of the ear in the pigeon business, but even at 1is time the shipments of dressed 1uabs, and older birds as well, will run , about four week. largely to Chica- 0 and New York. The birds are taken -om the lofts, which are ranged along he interior of the cote like shelves, neir necks slit and their bodies tucked, and then they are ready for le market. Some are sold in the east