THE INCREASE OF THE FOOD SUPPLY FOR DUCKS 

 IN NORTHERN ONTARIO. 



In a previous pamphlet published by the Game and Fisheries Department of 

 Ontario, entitled "The Possibilities of Northern Ontario as a Breeding Ground 

 for Ducks," it was shown that there were probably 2,800,000 acres in the lakes and 

 rivers of that territory on which edible water plants would grow. Since that time 

 the district of Patricia, with a total area of about 150,000 square miles or six- 

 sevenths the size of Northern Ontario as it existed before this addition, has been 

 included. No definite information is available of the percentage of water-covered 

 area in this district. From the maps published, the proportion covered by water 

 probably is somewhere between that existing in the part east of Port Arthur and 

 north and south of the height of land respectively, or from 2 to 10 per cent. On 

 the basis explained in above mentioned pamphlet this would mean an addition of 

 from 450,000 to over 2,000,000 acres available for the growth of edible water 

 plants. In any case it must constitute a most important increase to the duck 

 breeding possibilities. 



As the idea is to propagate plants which furnish food for ducks not only in 

 the fall but throughout the entire season during which the waters are open, we are 

 confined to plants which have a continuous growth, arid have parts other than the 

 seed which are edible. In the following descriptions and illustrations only some 

 of the important ones are dealt with, others might form matter for further inves- 

 tigation and description at a later time. As it was desirable to have the aid of a 

 skilled botanist, Mr. R. B. Thomson, Associate Professor of Botany, in the Uni- 

 versity of Toronto, was asked to collect and illustrate the plants in question. The 

 specimens were taken from Whitewater Lake, near Sudbury, about the middle of 

 September last year. 



Of the plants described wild celery (Vallisneria spiralis] is perhaps the most 

 important, as it provides food at all times of the year, the roots being available 

 always, while the leaves are edible in the early part of the season and the seed pod 

 forms a favorite morsel in the fall. In addition to this it is probably able to 

 grow in a greater depth of water than the other edible plants gnd consequently can 

 thrive over a greater area. To grow in ten feet depth is nothing unusual for 

 the wild celery, and it will thrive in water a's shallow as three feet. The means 

 it has of propagating itself are moreover very efficient both by seed and sending 

 out suckers so that it is in all ways a most desirable plant to introduce. All the 

 varieties described here are indigenous in Northern Ontario except the wild celery. 



EXPERIMENT WITH WILD CELERY IN NORTHERN ONTARIO. 



That this plant will readily grow in Northern Ontario can be seen by the, 

 results in above mentioned lake. The first attempt to cultivate wild celery in this 

 water was in 1909 when about half a bushel of pods was obtained from Lake Erie 

 and some plants from Lake Ontario. The method used in planting was to wrap 

 the pods in balls made of clay and drop them in water of the proper depth, viz: 

 about four feet. The following year about two bushels of pods were introduced, 

 and in 1911 about three bushels. By 1912 the wild celery had spread in a sur- 

 prising manner. In many cases it was found half a mile or more from where any 



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