The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-26
WORLDS PIGEON RANCH.
R REMARKABLE INDUSTRY AT Los
 ANGELES.
Fifteen ThouEand Adult Blrds-T,vely, Thousand Dollars Annual Income

Fifteen Thouxand Adult Birds-Twelye
 Thousand Dollars Annual Income.
 A remarkable new industry in Amer
 ica-that of pigeon raising on a most
 extensive scale-has been successfully
 inaugurated by J, Y, Johnson, of Los
 Angeles. MT. Johnson has established
 the only pigeon ranch in the world
 Ills ranch Is twenty times as large as
 any pigeon farm in Europe. It con-
 talns fifteen thousand adult pigeons
 It sends to market two hundred and
 fifty dozen squabs every month. And
 It nets it's proprietor the comfortable
 income of twelve thousand dollars a
 year. The cost of feeding these birds
 amounts to little over fifteen dollars
 a day. These pigeons produce on an
 average the year round close to thirty
 five hundred squabs a month. If al
 lowed to breed uninterruptedly through
 the year, at the close of year these
 birds and their progeny would have
 produced one hundred and sixty thou
 sand pigeons. Under the same condi-
 tions with adequate housings and food,
 the offspring would amount to over one
 million birds at the end of two years
 The great family eats half a big
 wagonload of screenings, eight sacks of
 wheat and about twelve gallons of
 boiled meal daily. Tn addition to this.
 they are given four barrels of stale
 bread, soaked in water, throughout the
 week. The ranch covers an area of
 eight acres with six gigantic lofts each
 of which Is crowded to it's utmost ca
 pacity and is honeycombed both inside and out with nests. Three years ago Proprietor Johnson selected his site upon the Los Angeles river bed in the suburbs of the city. The sandy bluffs upon which the ranch Is located are ad- jacent to clear streamlet of running water that affords the birds every op- portunity for bathing in the gravel to their wel-being. The ranch was start 1 ed with two thousand birds purchased from one man, and at that time the | largest pigeon farm in the world. So rapidly have the birds increased how ever, that with all the present accom- modations there are many nests upon the ground. The main loft is twenty ! six feet wide, sixty feet long, ten feet high at the caves and eighteen feet wied at the apex. The tiers of nests run about the entire outside of this building; every particle of space is utilized. The interior is filled with tiers of nests extending from the ground to the ceiling, there being eight narrow passageways by which the birds approach their homes. A large number of the original nests were made with tin oil cans, the front of the can being removed, and in its place wood en block was inserted in which had been cut a suitable entranceway. This gave a positivel yrat-proof nest. The birds increased so rapidly that the owner found the manufacture of tin nests for all the pigeons impossible. many are provided with nests made of small fruit boxes.
 The big loft contains about forty-five hundred nests. All told there are fif- teen thousand nests upon the ranch. Two men, MT Johnson and his assis- tant do all the work of the great pig con farm Every morning rounds are made of the nests and marketable young squabs are selected. These are dropped in crate, to remain until ;. nests are thoroughly dislnfected once each week with solution of carbolic acid, sprayed with large compressed ,, air syringe Tn addition they are fre- 1uently sprinkled with sulphur and in !. sect powder. Each nest Is the home of :, some fond pair, Being well and abun- :, 1antly fed, the birds are fat and pro- :. fife. The craw of the squab is always , listended with f1stful of grain, and {, )ne can almost see the little gluttons ,row Sometimes a nest will contain ,air or fat squads, three weeks old, snd also two newly laid eggs, upon T which the mother bird has already be- ,un to set. Every particle of waste is Twelve big wagon loads of ,uanoas much in a load as one team T an haul--are taken from the ranch r ach year. Hundreds of bags of feath- 0 ITS are sent to upholstery factories. V
 "The pigeons die sometimes" says u 1r. Johnson, pointing to a dead bird as I e conducts the visitor about the ranch. il Here is a sGueaker" (ten days old) a that has got diphtheria," and he, pulls Il rom the nest a young bird with a I wollen neck All the very sick birds Ii re killed as also those that are affiict s q with contagious diseases. The birds Il $ a rule are remarkably strong and a ealthy, and it is not strange that there b ave been no cases of plague among c hem Another squab has the roup and t, he proprietor regards it regretfully as cl e dislocates the vertebrae of the neck n led tailed hawks are the worst enc ct 1ies of the pigeons, and next come W ats. Great precautions have been talk d n against these foes, however, and the t5 ,ss is comparatively slight. In the b' ,orning the pigeons come out in the 1T unlight in thousands. It is a pictur- "- soue sight to see great cloud of 1ese birds circling over the ranch in spirals, shifting, chang ,g a mass of white and gray f1uffi- ess--then swarming to the ground for ,e morning meal After that comes ,e hegira to the banks of the stream f where the pigeons drink and bathe. uddenly tte birds become restless, one arts for the lofts, and in a second lev are all a-wing. A remarkable lct in connection with this place is ,at the pigeons never leave the ranch, 1d it is seldom that use ever gets be- md the large wire fence that sur ,,ads +ba ward Stray pigeons some |