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THE GAME BREEDER 



many quail can be produced. Quail which 

 -have hatched broods in wire enclosures 

 also should be permitted to take their 

 young' into small gardens especially 

 planted for them. 



All garden vegetables furnish insect food 

 and sweet corn furnishes shade. The gar- 

 den weeds furnish many seeds, and lettuce 

 is especially attractive. See that the garden 

 has plenty of briars. It is an excellent 

 plan to make the garden adjoining berry 

 patches and to plant hedges of black- 

 berries, raspberries and currants, and 

 these may well be bordered with clover 

 grass, sunflowers, etc. At very small ex- 

 pense a garden can be made for the 

 quails which will be safe and attractive. 

 One or more dusting places should be 

 spaded up, and if sand and ashes con- 

 taining some insect powder be added to 

 the dust bath the quail will use it and 

 not be induced to go to the roads or other 

 exposed places for the dust bath. Briars 

 beside or surrounding the dusting place 

 will make it safe, and some small grit 

 should be distributed where the birds 

 easily can find it. 



Quail eggs will sell for more than 

 pheasants' eggs and the demand for quail 

 far exceeds the supply. 



Rice Damage by Ducks. 



There has been much newspaper pub- 

 licity given to the depredations of ducks 

 in the rice fields of the Sacramento Val- 

 ley. It appears that some of this pub- 

 licity has been the work of selfish hunters 

 desiring to hunt ducks before the'season 

 opens. Proof of this is apparent in the 

 fact that most rice growers wijl not 

 allow duck hunters in their fields. On 

 the other hand, it appears that some 

 growers have received severe loss from 

 ducks. Certain it is, also, that many of 

 the ducks shot this season had their crops 

 filled with rice. The Fish and Game 

 Commission realizes that the problem of 

 protecting the rice fields in the Sacra- 

 mento Valley is a serious one and it is 

 anxious to reach a solution fair to both 

 the grower and the hunter. Especially 

 is it desirable to rightly settle the con- 

 troversy, owing to the food situation. 

 Consequently, the Commission plans to 



hold in the near future a conference with 

 rice growers to obtain their point O'f view. 

 Furthermore, during the fall of 1918, a 

 special investigation will be made in those 

 districts where depredations are reported. 



Fireworks Used to Frighten Birds in 

 Rice Fields. 



Some experiments to determine the ef- 

 fectiveness of fireworks in frightening 

 t birds from rice fields have recently been 

 made in the Sacramento Valley. The 

 location selected was on the Gingg and 

 Cooper ranch, four miles west of Live 

 Oak, where birds did considerable dam- 

 age last year. 



In talking with Mr. Cooper in Septem- 

 ber regarding co-operation by the Fish 

 and Game Commission* in order to find 

 a remedy, and knowing the effect of 

 black powder, which is both loud and 

 smoky, we suggested to him the use of 

 some form of loud explosive that would 

 carry fire and smoke. We secured sev- 

 eral samples of rockets and .bombs from 

 San Francisco and commenced the exper- 

 iment by setting some of them off after 

 dark. However, the birds were still 

 numerous on the rice fields at daylight in 

 the morning. We then fired more bombs 

 and still more while the birds were in 

 the air. To say that the ducks were 

 demoralized does not convey an idea of 

 how much they were frightened. 



Mr. Cooper was so impressed with the 

 effectiveness of the bombs that he sent 

 for four dozen of the kind selected, at 

 five dollars per dozen. After using half 

 of this number night and morning there 

 was not a bird of any kind to be found 

 on his fields. In a few days some mud- 

 hens and ducks returned, presumably 

 new ones. He then used the 'balance of 

 the four dozen effectively, and sent for 

 five dozen more for emergency use. On 

 Sept. 26 Mr. Cooper stated to us that 

 he had had no occasion to use or open 

 the last five dozen, as at that time there 

 was not a bird on his fields and he had 

 not suffered a particle of injury. Judg- 

 ing from this, the experiment may be said 

 to have been a success. 



Conditions on Mr. Cooper's fields made 

 it harder to protect them from the birds 

 than any other fields in the district, the 



