- Lespedezas for Quail and Goo 
By VERNE E. DAVISON, biologist, Soil Conservation Service 
(oN eeera TON OF OUR FARM GAME, 
such as the bobwhite quail, depends 
more and more each year on how well 
farmers and ranchers make full use 
of all of their land. 
Quail are an important agricultural 
crop. In addition to providing food 
and recreation, they help the farmer 
with his other crops by eating weed 
seeds and injurious insects. Hunting 
privileges are both a delight and a 
source of income. 
Planting lespedezas on land you can 
devote to wildlife production can be 
part of your well-rounded farm-conser- 
vation program. Odd areas—such as 
fence corners—and bare strips between 
fields and woodland make ideal spots. 
No other plants give you as good re- 
turn from small idle areas. Some of 
the lespedezas make good-quality food 
for the quail; others furnish cover 
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Quail are an agricultural crop. 
for them. Since the lespedezas are 
legumes, which supply their own nitro- 
gen after the first year, they are valu- 
able crops in soil conservation. Many 
of them provide excellent cover for 
eroding areas. 
A few decades ago farming methods 
in the lespedeza range favored the bob- 
white quail without any special effort 
on the part of the farmer. Natural 
foods and cover were more abundant 
then than now. We grew more cow- 
peas and millet. More weed seeds 
matured—weeds such as sunflowers, 
ragweed, partridge peas, panic grasses, 
smartweeds, pokeberries, and pig- 
weeds. And our farms had fewer live- 
stock to compete for the quail-food 
plants. 
Today we manage our land much 
more intensively—we have fewer 
weeds, less waste, less idle land. We 
cut and bale the surplus hay, leaving 
neither food nor cover. Our crop ro- 
tations come in rapid succession—one 
crop is plowed under to grow another. 
Winter grains and legumes follow sum- 
mer row crops but they, too, are 
plowed in soon after they mature their 
seeds. 
Conservation of bobwhite quail is a 
problem only landowners can solve. 
But game commissions and nonland- 
owning hunters can help wherever they 
want better hunting. Soil conserva- 
tion districts now recognize quail man- 
agement as a farming task. 4-H 
Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 
other youth groups encourage quail 
raising as part of their conservation- 
farming projects. 
