234 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



The actual cost of running a game farm will depend very largely on 

 the variety of birds raised and the initial expense, of course, of acquir- 

 ing land suitable to the purpose, as well as the cost of stock birds, but 

 in this Province, at least, it iB evident that the value placed on game 

 birds, both alive and dead, is such that there cannot but be a great margin 

 of profit to the farmer. The ringneck pheasant is not, in all probability, 

 adapted to the bleaker portions of the Province, but it has already been 

 demonstrated a success in certain of the southern districts, and there 

 can be little doubt that not only would a game farm dealing in this bird 

 be a profitable investment, but that its cultivation affords a means to the 

 ordinary farmer in those areas of considerably augmenting his income 

 at but little trouble or expense. 



• A pheasantry may be started with mature birds or eggs, although, 

 as a rule, it has been found more economical in the long run to acquire 

 the parent birds. The price of pheasants varies considerably according 

 to the season, being cheapest at the close of the breeding season, an aver- 

 age cost for ringnecked or English pheasants being, perhaps, |5.00 a 

 pair. Any well drained ground is suitable for pens, but a gentle slope 

 of sandy loam, comparatively cool in midsummer, furnishes ideal con- 

 ditions. Clay is the poorest soil for the purpose, as it is likely to foster 

 disease. The pens should be provided with plenty of both sunshine and 

 shade and constructed like ordinary poultry runs. Each pen should 

 cover at least 100 square feet, for contracted quarters are apt to induce 

 disease. A small open shed or enclosure at one end of the pen is advan- 

 tageous in that it provides shelter and a dry dusting place. The floor of 

 this shed should be natural earth, to furnish dust baths for the birds, for 

 dust baths are as essential to pheasants as to poultry, freeing them from 

 lice and keeping their plumage in good condition. Morta.r, cinders and 

 plenty of grit should be kept in the shed. Extra communicating pens, 

 alongside those in use, have been found advantageous as, in many in- 

 stances, a hen, stopping layinig in the one, will be induced to res'ume 

 laying by removal to another, and opportunity is afforded, also, of fresh- 

 ening the ground. The pens and sheds should be kept scrupulously 

 clean. The pheasant is polygamous and the male pugnacious during the 

 breeding season, so that each pen should contain one cock to three to 

 five hens. Eggs should be hatched under barnyard hens or turkeys, for 

 though broody, the pheasant hens are wild, and it has proved difficult 

 to obtain good results by leaving them to hatch the eggs. In selecting 

 a hen for the purpose it is essential that she be free from scaly leg, roup 

 or lice. The young should go without food for the first twenty- four 

 hours after hatching, and at the end of that period, or at least within 

 a day or tAVO of hatching, the hatching box should be removed to tlie 

 rearing field which may be meadowland, a clover field or an orchard, in 

 which coops are provided. These coops should be at least 30 yards apart 

 so as to allow plenty of territory to the various broods. Suitable food 

 is held to be of the utmost importance, and there are a variety of 



