84 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



up young or adult stock, or for rearing operations again the 

 following spring. 



Rotation. In this way, every two years, Rogers has the 

 whole farm turned over, and he has no epidemics. A man 

 and team with plough can turn over about two acres a day, 

 and there is the harrowing and seeding besides. It pays, 

 however, if it makes safe the raising of thousands of birds 

 worth from $5 to $7 a pair. 



Control Methods. Though the birds wander off during 

 the day, they return at night to feed, pa,rticularly in response 

 to some recognized whistle or call, even when they are quite 

 large and have left the hens. Rogers begins to catch them 

 for distribution when they are about two months old, mostly 

 by enticing them into enclosures to feed. The last ones 

 become quite shy, and it takes considerable ingenuity to 

 catch or trap them. Out of some 5,000 he estimates that 

 about 300 get away and remain in the wild state. These, 

 however, are by no means wasted, as they breed wild and 

 help to stock the State, which already, after but a few years 

 of breeding, has an open season for pheasant shooting in a 

 number of counties. 



Good Method for States. This method is particularly 

 adapted to the purpose of liberating, by the State, for hunting, 

 birds that are full- winged, and through freedom are vigorous 

 and somewhat accustomed to finding their own living and 

 escaping enemies. 



The Evans System. The rearing system employed on the 

 Wallace Evans Game Farm is likewise successful, and is ideal 

 from the commercial standpoint, as the birds, while having 

 considerable and sufficient range, are under full control, and 

 very few get away. Everything here is raised and kept 

 inside wire fencing 8 feet high. The fields are large, averag- 

 ing, I should say, five to ten acres each. Evans has a num- 



