WINTER FEEDING OF WILD LIFE ON NORTHERN FARMS 5 



game protectors or wardens, or they may be carried on in schools. 

 Awards are made on the basis of methods of winter feeding employed 

 and the extent and effectiveness of the contestants' feeding activities. 

 Such competition is most effective when organized on a large scale. 

 Contests have a broad educational value, but are less likely to produce 

 permanent results than are personal interviews, the direct purchase 

 of materials and services, and definite organization. 



There are many ways of organizing winter-feeding campaigns, 

 but they all require work and effort. Game wardens assigned to 

 this kind of duty create good will and respect, thus frequently 

 obtaining better local cooperation in other phases of their work. 

 Rural mail carriers have at times been instructed to assist in feeding 

 game along country roads. Section crews on railroads also some- 

 times carry food to localities difficult of access, if the materials are 

 furnished to them. Other ways of getting the work done will be 

 found in many communities, and all should be kept in mind. 



Regardless of the type of organization, preparations should be 

 made well before feeding becomes necessary. Cooperation by 

 farmers is the backbone of successful feeding operations. The test 

 of the efficiency of winter feeding comes when roads are drifted, 

 traffic paralyzed, and all ordinary transportation tied up. At such 

 times necessary arrangements can sometimes be made by telephone. 



CONVENIENT SOURCES OF FOOD 



Food for permanent feeding stations, effective throughout most 

 of the winter, should generally consist of standing, shocked, or sheaf 

 grains. Convenient cheap feeds for day-to-day or emergency use 

 include screenings from mills, threshing machines, combines, or 

 elevators, haymow chaff, food-products-manufacturing wastes, and 

 dry or fatty table scraps that are more or less resistant to freezing. 

 Ordinarily these should be supplemented with grain. 



FEEDING STATIONS 



Feeding stations should be located in places that afford easy access 

 to good protective cover (fig. 3) . If established for quail, the station 

 should probably never be more than 75 yards from protective cover, 

 and even then a strip of connecting cover, or a series of patches at 

 intervals, is desirable. Pheasants, prairie chickens, and sharp-tailed 

 grouse will no doubt range farther for food. Hungarian partridges 

 are like quail in being closely localized. 



In areas where quail are abundant, one feeding station to every 

 40 acres is desirable; otherwise, a station may be located near the 

 thickets or woods that a covey is known to use. The same applies 

 to Hungarian partridges. 



For ring-necked pheasants and sharp-tailed grouse, wholesale 

 feeding can be done with one effective station to the square mile. 



Prairie chickens may be accommodated by one good feeding station 

 for every 5 or 10 sections — that is, every 5 or 10 square miles — al- 

 though under stress these birds cover even larger areas in their 

 search for food. Turkeys also will come from a considerable dis- 

 tance, but it is best to provide feed in all the permanent winter 

 headquarters that they are known to frequent. 



