PHEASANT REARING 83 



and other landowners are instructed to let the brood range 

 with the hen, like turkeys, and it is claimed that 50 per cent, 

 from the number of eggs on the average are reared to ma- 

 turity. 



For rearing pheasants on a larger scale almost every 

 breeder has a method or system which is more or less in- 

 dividual in some details. It will suffice to describe a few 

 representative methods which have come under my personal 

 observation. Feeding and other details not mentioned are 

 the same as described for quails. 



The Rogers System. First I will outline the free-range 

 rearing, a leading exponent of which is Harry T. Rogers, 

 superintendent of the New York State Game Farms. Some- 

 times Mr. Rogers has used large fenced rearing-fields, in 

 which cases he made no attempt to prevent the birds from 

 flying out, letting them range as far as they wished. Lat- 

 terly he has found unnecessary all fences or rearing-fields, 

 and he now rears about 5,000 young pheasants each year on 

 open farm land. 



Prefers Good Soil. Many people have the idea that any 

 wild, rough land will do for a game farm. From Rogers's 

 standpoint, the best arable land is none too good. Aside 

 from patches of swamp or outlying woodland, he would 

 have the whole farm tillable, of light soil to allow of good 

 drainage, which is a great preventive of disease, and fertile, 

 so as to raise good crops of grass, clover, and grain. He 

 plans to raise no birds on the same ground two years in 

 succession, and to plough and seed down each fall the land 

 used for rearing during the past season. Or it may be sown 

 to a grain crop in fall or spring, with grass and clover as an 

 undercrop. In late summer, when the grain is harvested, 

 there will be a fine stand of clover, which is splendid for the 

 pheasants. In fall such renovated land is ready for caught- 



