=^^ 



33 



location for a rearing field. I am in receipt of the following statement 

 on the subject from Mr. Neil Clark, head game keeper of the club: 



"This year we placed a few birds in an old meadow, which 

 had not been plowed for many years. It contained many wire 

 worms which apparently did not agree with the young pheasants, 

 with the result that we lost a large percentage of them. Meadows 

 which have been seeded for only one, two or three years are appar- 

 ently much better adapted for rearing fields." 

 Mr. Clark has found that a strip of corn sowed across a rearing field 

 is excellent for the young birds in affording shade and protection from birds 

 of prey. Mr. Rogers sows similar strips of buckwheat across his rearing 

 fields. Some of this is cut green and fed to breeders at the conclusion of 

 the laying season, and what is allowed to stand proves a powerful attrac- 

 tion to escaped birds, many of which are trapped. 



SOWING THE FIELD.— Superintendent Harry T. Rogers of the 

 New York State Game Farms prepares his rearing field by sowing to each 

 acre a mixture of alsyke, 4 quarts; mammoth red, 2 quarts; red top, 2 

 quarts and timothy, 8 quarts. The ground is ploughed, harrowed and 

 rolled and the seed mixture is sowed with a drill. It is customary to sow 

 at the same time some grain crop such as oats, which are put in in April; 

 wheat, September; buckwheat, June; barley, the latter part of March. 

 The grain crop is mowed at its maturity, following which the grasses and 

 clovers sowed with it will come forth in due season and furnish cover for 

 the following spring. 



THE DUNN METHOD.— On the New Jersey Farm, Superintendent 

 Dunn sows at the rate of one-half a bushel to the acre the following mixture: 



Red clover, 3 bushels; alsyke, 1 bushel; timothy, 2 bushels; red top 

 grass seed, 2 bushels; English rye grass, 1 bushel. This mixture is sown 

 the last week in March or the first in April, the ground having been ploughed 

 the previous fall and spread with stable manure. Before sowing, the 

 field is again ploughed and is harrowed both ways. The mixture is then 

 sown with a drill, oats being put in at the same time at the rate of 2 bushels 

 to the acre. Harrowing is done once more. When the oats are three or 

 four inches high, the field is rolled, making a smooth surface for the coops 

 that will be placed on it later. The oats soon recover from the rolling and 

 when cut are stacked for winter feed for the adult birds. They are not 

 threshed. 



Fields thus prepared afford an ideal breeding place for the insect life 

 which is so necessary to the development of the chick; they furnish shade 

 and cover, keep the ground from drying up, and give an abundance of 

 succulent food. 



