22 



THE GAME BREEDER 



Dr. Judd says : "Like other grouse the 

 prairie hen is an habitual browser, to 

 the extent of 25.09 per cent, of its food. 

 Twigs or Shoots, 0.50 per cent. ; flowers, 

 9.34 per cent., and leaves, 15.20 per 

 cent." 



Like the ruffed grouse, the prairie 

 grouse is fond of fruit buds and when 

 abundant the birds may do some dam- 

 age to fruit but with an open market 

 for grouse the birds will be worth far 

 more than the fruit and some apple 

 trees might be planted in rows beside the 

 hedges of wild roses, sunflower and su- 

 mac, especially for the birds. The secret 

 of game abundance undoubtedly lies in 

 making the ground safe and attractive 

 and the great attraction for all game 

 birds is an abundance of the foods 

 which they like most. 



The prairie hen has a marked taste 

 for flowers. A delicate pink rosebud 

 had been plucked by a bird shot at Ome- 

 ga, Nebraska, in June. More than a 

 thousand goldenrod heads were found 

 in another. Additional composite flow- 

 ers devoured were amphiachyris, sweet 

 balsam and others. The grouse eat, also, 

 birch buds and the leaves of the butter- 

 cup, everlasting, red and white clover, 

 and the interesting water milfoil often 

 grown in gold fish globes. 



The insect food of prairie grouse con- 

 sists largely of grasshoppers. Insects 

 constitute one-third of the fare from 

 May to October, and grouse are particu- 

 larly valuable as an enemy of the Rocky 

 Mountain locust. 



One of the best arrangements of the 

 land for prairie grouse undoubtedly is 

 alternating strips of corn and wheat 

 stubble, with broad hedges of wild roses, 

 sunflowers and sumac, bordered with 

 prairie grass. The land used for the 

 hedges will be found to be the most 

 profitable land on any farm since in all 

 of the prairie States it can be made to 

 yield both prairie grouse and partridges 

 or quail (the bob whites) . and in some 

 regions other species of quail. Having a 

 few sloughs with enough water for ducks 

 the game easily can be made very profi- 

 table. 



The prairie grouse in 1902 brought 



from $3 to $5 a brace. Soon thereafter 

 the birds sold for twice as much and the 

 birds no doubt will bring such prices for 

 many years to come in the New York 

 market after next winter when the mar- 

 will be opened to a regulated sale of 

 this desirable food, no doubt. 



As to the number of grouse and quail 

 that can be reared on any given area 

 we have no figures since practical pro- 

 tection or preserving never has been 

 given a fair trial in America. On lands 

 planted alternately with maise and corn 

 (corn and wheat as we would say) in 

 Hungary, tremendous bags of partridges 

 are shot every season and thousands of 

 birds are netted and shipped to England 

 and America. Capt. C. E. Radcliffe has 

 written about some big bags which he 

 helped make, in Hungary. On one day 

 three guns bagged 227 brace of par- 

 tridges in less than five hours in a field 

 of less than 300 acres. "Had the number 

 of guns," he says, "been six or seven the 

 bags he refers to would have been more 

 than doubled each day, as with such a 

 small party the coveys, kept breaking on 

 the flanks of the line, and the birds were 

 never scattered, nor the covies broken 

 up." On the same ground in 1901 a 

 party of ten guns bagged 905 brace in a 

 day. Since many birds were shot in the 

 standing corn and not recovered and 

 since an abundance was left after the 

 shooting the reader can form an estimate 

 of the number of birds inhabiting the 

 fields. 



Quail, prairie grouse and wild ducks 

 are harmonious and it will be interesting 

 to observe how many can be produced 

 and sold from the farms in Oklahoma, 

 Indiana and other States where the laws 

 now permit game breeding. Quail can 

 be sold by the thousand at $20 per dozen 

 and the common wild ducks sell for $3 

 and $4 per brace. There can be no 

 doubt about the "chickens" selling at 

 from $3 to $5 each in large lots and all 

 of these birds are much easier and 

 cheaper to rear than pheasants because 

 they will find most of their food in the 

 fields and sloughs and wild breeding 

 birds are not subject to the diseases 

 which often decimate the hand-reared 



