Pheasants and Hungarians 103 



While the present planting program seems large, it is really small when 

 compared with the area involved. It now averages 1 pheasant per 43,000 acres 

 of total area, or about half a pheasant per township per year. A considerable 

 fraction of current plants are being made in territory where previous experience 

 holds out no assurance of success. The reason for this is probably the decep- 

 tive phenomenon of "straggling," to be described later. 



If it costs $2.50 to produce and plant a pheasant, and 15 cents to deliver 

 the farmer an egg, then the cost of the present plantings is $100,000 per year for 

 the region. 



History of Hungarian Plantings. Practically all Hungarian plantings 

 are wild trapped stock imported from Europe. Planting stock is not yet suc- 

 cessfully produced by artificial propagation. Hence import records furnish an 

 accurate index to planting activities for the country as a whole, but the early total 

 imports cannot readily be divided by States. 



Dr. T. S. Palmer states (1922) that systematic importation began in 1906 

 and reached a peak in 1914. Evidently the north central region participated in 

 the first importation, since Illinois planted 1,060 birds in 1906. Indiana fol- 

 lowed with a 2,000 bird planting in 1907, and Missouri with 4,000 (?) in 1910. 

 Iowa planted Hungarians in 1910 but there is no record of the number. Col. 

 Gustav Pabst in that year also started his long series of plantings in Waukesha 

 County, Wisconsin, which continued until 1927 and totalled about 5,000 birds. 

 Ohio began in the peak year of 1914. 



The history of plantings, in so far as traced by the survey, is shown in Table 

 22 and Map 11. 



Total lack of success in Missouri, together with partial failure in all the other 

 States (see Map 11) presumably caused the subsequent decline in Hungarian 

 plantings which lasted until 1926, when Minnesota and Michigan started new 

 programs. Unlike pheasants, which are still being planted everywhere, the 

 present plantings of Hungarians are largely confined to territory in which there 

 is some assurance of success. 



If it costs $6 per bird to import Hungarians, the cost of the 1930 plantings 

 was about $30,000 for the region. 



The Place of Exotics. The question of whether or not it is good public 

 policy to establish exotic species of game is characterized by emphatic and strongly 

 divided opinions, most of which attempt to answer the question by a single yes 

 or no for the whole United States. 



This survey is concerned more with matters of fact than with matters of 

 opinion. The facts gathered, however, indicate that there can be no single 

 answer to the question of exotics. They indicate that planting of exotics may be 

 very bad or very good policy, depending on local conditions, and also that there 

 are many intermediate conditions where the wisdom of introducing exotics may 

 be open to various degrees of doubt. 



