no LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



their ills, are innumerable, and, according to their 

 advertisers, indispensable. As to the food, this but 

 consists of ordinary meal christened with high- 

 sounding names ; and as to the ' medicines,' NONE of 

 them, at all events in my experience, and I have tried 

 quite a dozen, have the least effect in curing that 

 curse of the game rearer, tlie gapes. 



If a keeper is ignorant as to the feeding of his 

 birds, or is lazy in doing so, he is sure to recom- 

 mend his employer to purchase some much-advertised 

 pheasant meal of supposed wonderful quality, from a 

 factory or agent, perhaps pocketing a percentage on 

 the supply sent. 



Pheasants can be kept and reared on the simplest 

 ingredients, and there is no reason why a game pre- 

 server should pay extra for ' mixing,' l porterage,' and 

 a * fancy name,' when he can use a similar food at 

 home without these additions to its original cost. 



With proper attention to the birds, and a knoidedge 

 of his duties, a keeper should have just as much 

 success with plain foods, purchased from the small 

 local miller or village corn-dealer, as with any high- 

 priced mixture received from a grand manufactory at 

 a distance, and which, from being stored in large 

 quantity for many months, is seldom as fresh or 

 nutritious as it ought to be. 



We do not require for pheasants a menu diversified 

 as an alderman's dinner, for the trouble and expense 

 entailed by supplying the birds with a large variety 



