THE GAME BREEDER 1{)9 



ing lands, he says, it is necessary to can be much improved by cutting long 



fence the grain patches. It would be a rides through the cover, and these and 



good plan in America, where we have the abandoned fields should be planted 



more vermin than there is in England, to with wheat, potatoes and other grains 



plant a border of black-berry and other and vegetables, whatever will be most 



briars about the fences to protect the likely at least to pay the cost of produc- 



birds from their natural enemies. tion. Such ground, if the natural enemies 



Closely cultivated areas, usually, are °^ ^J^^ Same be controlled can be made 

 comparatively free from ground vermin ^^ y^^^<^ many ruffed grouse. The west- 

 and a good beat keeper easily can .control ^^^ farms, where quail preserving is 

 the winged enemies of the game so as undertaken. Can be made to yield many 

 to make all the fields produce an abun- Prairie grouse. A few pheasants can be 

 dance of game provided some special Purchased in the autumn and liberated 

 cover and foods be arranged at frequent ^^^ those which escape the guns should 

 intervals. Small thickets and wood lots "^^^ ^" ^ wild state provided the ground 

 can be made attractive by introducing ^^ made free from vermin, 

 briar covers and foods about their bor- A few ducks, also, may be introduced 

 ders when needed. The farmer, if the and permitted to rear their young beside 

 shooting is rented, should be compen- the small ponds and streams. The hand- 

 sated for the land reserved for covers rearing of ducks and pheasants, how- 

 and nesting sites, but a sale of a very lit- ^^er, should not be undertaken on quail 

 tie of the game produced will provide preserves with the idea that the keepers 

 the funds to more than fully compensate ^^^ attend to this. Beat keepers should 

 him. When the shooting is rented, as it ^^^ be permitted to handrear these birds 

 is in many places for a few cents per since their entire time is needed in the 

 acre, or about the amount of the taxes; a fields and woods. Pheasant rearing and 

 club can well afford to rent some land wild duck rearing only should be under- 

 especially for nesting and feeding places taken on places where the club dues are 

 and the expense per gun will not be comparatively large. Quail shooting can 

 large. The more evenly distributed the be made much less expensive and to my 

 covers and feeding places are the more mind far more interesting than the 

 uniformly the game will be distributed; shooting of hand-reared game is. I 

 the sportsmen can count on good shoot- would by no means, however, decry the 

 ing in every field and not at widely sepa- last-named sport, and the more places 

 rated likely places, where, under exist- which can afford both kinds of shooting 

 ing conditions, some indifferent shooting with two sets of keepers the better it 

 may occur. It is wise to make the most will be for sport not only within but out- 

 attractive plantings for the game in the side of the preserved areas, 

 central portions of the preserve in order The ratio of increase of all game is 

 to hold many of the birds at a distance geometrical and in the absence of losses 

 from the boundary. due to natural enemies, climate, fires. 



Areas which are not closely cultivated floods, farm machinery, and other less 



require different treatment to make and important causes, the progeny of a few 



keep the quail plentiful. In places where pair of quail soon will over-run a good 



agriculture has waned; where farms sized farm and restock the surrounding 



have been abandoned and where the territory. If each nest contains only 



weeds, briars and brush have become twelve eggs the progeny of a single pair 



over abundant, often there will be found would amount to over six million quails 



plenty of some kinds of natural foods,, in eight years, provided- there be no 



3Ut entirely too much cover; such dense losses. Quails often lay more than 



covers harbor many natural enemies in twelve eggs and sometimes rear more 



places where it is most difficult to con- than one brood in a season. The possi- 



rol them. Grounds of this character bilities of making the quail plentiful on 



