w. cook's turkey, goose, and pheasant book. 13 



Seventeen people out of every twenty, especially in some 

 districts, who rear pheasants and shut them up for breeding 

 purposes, feed them principally on Indian corn all the 

 winter. This is a most unnatural grain to give these 

 birds, as it is very fattening, and does not make just what 

 is wanted. Barley is far superior, buckwheat is better 

 still, but pheasants in their natural state are accustomed 

 to a variety of things. There are two reasons why 

 people usually feed on Indian corn. First, because it is 

 cheap, and secondly, it is very warming, and of course 

 when pheasants are confined they have nothing like the 

 exercise in flying and running about as when they 

 have their liberty. When they are fed upon Indian corn 

 in the winter, and they have their liberty and can get 

 insects, herbs, and all kinds of green-stuff, the corn 

 does not have such an injurious effect upon them. It 

 is when they are kept in confinement during the winter 

 months and fed principally upon the Indian corn the 

 mischief is done, in that case the birds seldom last more 

 than two years. This grain is too stimulating and heats 

 the blood and brings on liver disease. 



In some cases, where there have been twenty pheasants 

 kept in one pen, I have known only three to be left out 

 of that number at the end of the breeding season of the 

 third year. They have died with ulcerated stomachs, spleen 

 and kidney, as well as a tuberculous liver. \\'hen 

 pheasants are enclosed they should be fed on less Indian 

 corn than any other grain. 



As a large poultry breeder, I have found too much 

 maize or Indian corn very injurious to fowls when they 



