THE GAME BREEDER 



137 



SAFE AND ATTRACTIVE QUAIL GROUNDS. 



By D. W. Huntington. 



The individual or club, having ar- 

 ranged with the owners of some posted 

 farms to rent the shooting, should not 

 imagine that they can shoot much if any 

 of the game found in the fields and 

 woods without causing it rapidly to be- 

 come extinct unless some practical game 

 preserving be undertaken. 



The vermin, which surely is present, 

 although not much may be seen, will 

 check the increase of the game leaving 

 only enough stock birds to restock the 

 fields. Should the sportsmen take up 

 the destruction after the vermin has been 

 fed they will shoot the birds intended for 

 restocking and the result will be disas- 

 trous as such shooting always has been. 

 On the average farm many of the fields 

 will be unattractive to game and even 

 uninhabitable. Closely cropped pastures, 

 closely tilled fields surrounded by 

 barbed-wire fences, open woods where 

 the briars and underbrush have been 

 eliminated are neither safe nor attrac- 

 tive to upland game and in closely culti- 

 vated regions the fields should be made 

 safe and attractive before game birds are 

 turned down. 



It is highly desirable to have game in 

 every field. The more evenly it is dis- 

 tributed the better it will be not only for 

 the birds who do not stand overcrowding 

 and for the sportsmen who should enjoy 

 seeing the dogs point game often. 



It is not a difficult matter to make un- 

 attractive fields attractive. The two 

 things to be done are to provide cover 

 and food. The best cover for open fields 

 is small briar patches. The blackberry 

 and wild rose make excellent covers and 

 both supply excellent food ; the seeds 

 from the berries which wither on the 

 briars and the hips of the wild rose are 

 excellent winter foods and can be ob- 

 tained above the snow. A narrow strip 

 of briars and wild grasses and weeds will 

 make a safe cover beside the wire fences 

 and if some grain be planted and left 

 standing the quail and grouse will find 



the ground both safe and attractive ; and 

 if the numerous natural enemies be well 

 controlled with the gun and trap a good 

 number of birds can be shot safely every 

 season. A narrow strip of corn and a 

 narrow strip of wheat, buckwheat rye or 

 barley and the weeds which will appear 

 will supply all the food needed. The 

 corn will afford shade in summer and 

 some of the grain can be fed to the birds 

 in the winter. Where special plantings 

 are made in pastures they should be in- 

 closed with a wire to keep out the cattle. 

 An inexpensive fence run parallel to one 

 or more of the fences inclosing the field 

 and only a few feet distant will inclose 

 a food cover area which will yield some 

 ■ excellent shooting for two guns one on 

 either side of the cover. 



Open woods can be made attractive by 

 planting briars in a few places ; and a 

 few old tree tops and brush piles such as 

 we used to find plentiful in the woods 

 will be found desirable. A small clearing 

 made in the woods and planted with quail 

 foods including a little lettuce and other 

 garden plants clover and grass will 

 surely hold one or more covies. Grit and 

 dusting places easily can be arranged in 

 such clearings. They can be made at 

 small expense but the farmer should be 

 compensated for the use of the small 

 areas planted especially for the quail. 



The vermin will find it difficult to take 

 many birds in the briar patches. Sports- 

 men, no doubt, often have observed how 

 quickly the quail fly to the briars when 

 flushed on the stubbles. No hawk can 

 strike them there and the fox cannot 

 catch birds running in briars. 



The keeper should persistently destroy 

 the snakes, hawks, crows and other ver- 

 min and he will find a terrier useful in 

 aiding him to locate the ground vermin. 

 The foregoing applies to farms in the 

 Central and Western States where there 

 is often no cover at certain seasons of the 

 year. On the prairies in the West when 

 the stubble and weeds are plowed under 



