£*7 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION NO. 159 



Washington, D.C. 



August 1933 



WINTER FEEDING OF WILD LD7E 

 ON NORTHERN FARMS 



By Wallace B. Grange, formerly Cooperative Agent, Division of Food Habits 

 Research, Bureau of Biological Survey 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Importance of winter food 1 



Natural foods and their deficiency in winter.. 2 



Organizing a winter -feeding campaign 3 



Convenient sources of food 5 



Feeding stations 5 



Permanent feed patches 6 



Standing and shocked corn 6 



Buckwheat 8 



Wheat, rye, and barley 8 



Milo, kafir, and other sorghums 8 



Sunflowers 8 



Page 

 Permanent feed patches— Continued 



Miscellaneous food 8 



Permanent shelters 9 



Temporary or emergency feeding 10 



Ear corn 10 



Straw stacks 10 



Manure spreading 10 



Natural windbreaks and shelters 11 



Providing grit at stations 11 



Feeding game mammals ll 



Predators near feeding stations 12 



Planning for next year 12 



Wild life in northern climates needs man's help in winter; this 

 fact has long been recognized. The sheaf of grain that in some 

 European countries is raised on a pole for the birds at Christmas 

 time symbolizes man's response to the need of wild life; but more 

 than a symbol, more than an offering at a single season, is required. 



Winter feeding, to be really helpful, should be well planned and 

 sustained. Food should be readily accessible before it is needed, 

 and the supply should never fail. Methods of winter feeding for 

 wild life that actual experience has proved to be valuable are dis- 

 cussed in this publication, and it is hoped that an increasing use 

 of them will be one of the mainstays in conserving interesting and 

 useful species. 



IMPORTANCE OF WINTER FOOD 



Winter is a critical period for many species of wild life. Coverts 

 then grow smaller in area and, without foliage, become less effective 

 in protection, while available food supplies also diminish in both 

 quantity and quality. Some species escape these hardships by hiber- 

 nating or by migrating, but by midwinter the upland game birds, 

 some small mammals, and many song birds are often being crowded 

 into restricted patches of cover and forced to subsist on scanty and 

 unsatisfactory foods (fig. 1), 



170893° — 33 



