THE GAME BREEDER 



11 



Columbia River Valley. The plant seems 

 to be absent from most of the Great 

 Basins and Rocky Mountain regions. 

 From the northern line specified the 

 plant ranges southward over the re- 

 mainder of the continent. (See fig. 10.) 

 It is widely distributed in warm climates 

 over the entire world. 



PROPAGATION. 



Although the chufa seems not to grow 

 naturally in a large area in the western 



Chufas do best on light or somewhat 

 sandy but rich soils. They are avail- 

 ble for duck food when planted on land 

 dry in summer and overflowed in winter. 

 In the open they should be planted 

 thickly so as to give the plants a bettel 

 chance in competition with weeds. In 

 timbered land they need not be planted 

 so thickly, but they will do well only in 

 rather sparse growths, where consider- 

 able light penetrates to the ground. 



Fig- 9-— Tubers of wild Cyf-crus and 



United States, there is no doubt that it 

 can be cultivated everywhere except in 

 the higher parts of the Rocky Mountain 

 region. It is said to do fairly well at 

 the altitude of Denver. 



Chufas can be obtained from most 

 seedsmen and are so cheap that it will 

 pay sportsmen to buy new stock every 

 few years, if earlier plantings show de- 

 generation in size of the tubers and 

 hence reduction in value as duck food. 



cultivated chufas. (Natural size ) 



When possible the land where planting is 

 intended should be broken up and freed 

 from weeds. Plant the tubers just be- 

 neath the surface in spring. 



Wild Millet. 



VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 



Wild millet (Echinochloa crus-galli) 

 is an important tood for ducks in widely 

 separated regions of the United States. 

 At Mud Lake, Ark., the writer found 



