!)() FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF GAME FARMS. 



By August Bade, In Charge. 



On December 7, 1925, the first work of construction was started on 

 llie site near Yonntyille that had been chosen as the location of the 

 new game farm. This preliminary work consisted of grubbing out 

 some fifty odd trees and filling up a large ditch that ran through the 

 grounds. With the completion of this work, excavation was begun on 

 the trench for the concrete base upon which the outer wall of the main 

 enclosure was to be built. This necessitated the digging of a trench 

 two feet deep for a distance of 2280 feet. The purpose of this concrete 

 base is to exclude all ground vermin from the main rearing field. It 

 required the services of a power concrete mixer and twelve men to 

 lay this wall in seven days. 



While this was being done a man and team were engaged in plow- 

 ing the ditches in which over 7000 feet of water pipe was later to be 

 laid forming the irrigation system for the 472 pens that the main 

 enclosure was to contain. 



Shortly after the first of the year twenty-four pens were built to 

 care for the breeding stock that had been purchased in Oregon. These 

 birds, ring-necked pheasants, arrived on the farm the 12th of January. 

 Later on twentj^-four more pens were built to accommodate all the 

 pheasants and some valley quail that had been trapped for breeding 

 purposes. There was not time for cultivation and the proper seeding of 

 these breeding pens, so oak boughs were used as cover during the 

 season. At intervals these boughs were renewed as the hot sun soon 

 dried the leaves. 



With the breeding stock taken care of, attention was directed towards 

 the building of the rearing field. It was obvious that no time could 

 be lost as the pheasants Would start laying by the first of April. All 

 material had been ordered, but it was a case of getting delivery. The 

 first of seven cars of lumber arrived at the Yountville depot of the 

 Southern Pacific on January 8th. A large truck belonging to the 

 Fish and Game Commission was used in hauling this lumber to the 

 site of the farm, a distance of four miles. It was soon worked into 

 the framework of the structure bj^ a crew of twenty-five carpenters 

 and their helpers. 



When it came to the matter of poultry netting, it was found neces- 

 sary to have this article shipped direct from the factory at Boston, 

 Massachusetts. Fifteen acres of wire netting was the order. The 

 side walls of the pens are made of one-inch mesh wire and the top 

 covering is two-inch. This order of wire came by water on one of the 

 Luckenbach steamships. 



While the framework was being put up, an expert plumber and 

 his helpers were engaged in laying the water lines. The pipe for this 

 system ranges in size from 4- to f-inch galvanized. Rector Creek 

 furnishes the water and it is delivered into each pen under a seventy- 

 ]iound pressure gravity feed. 



It was now evident to all concerned that a race against time was on. 

 The pheasants should start laying by the first of April. Could the 

 construction work be finished 1 Running true to form, even under the 

 handicap of noise and confusion, the first pheasant eggs were picked 



