1,000 acres of "beans in the Santa Maria district alone; the writer person- 

 ally inspected several ranches -cisfire fields as large as 200 acres were totally 

 destroyed. During the same season, agricultural officials estimated that 

 fully 1,500 acres of crops were destroyed in Monterey County. Numerous other 

 instances are cited in "The Need for Studies in Bird Control in California," 

 by 77. L. McAtee,§yand thorc are scores of other stich reports in unpuhlished 

 notes. 



Control Methods 



Methods tha,t involve the killing of the horned larks are not discussed 

 in this leaflet. Although such methods have "been partia-lly developed, their 

 application is so involved with climatic, topographic, and ecologic conditions 

 that it is not advisable to discuss them here; nor is it practicable to 

 depend on them for crop protection except under occasional favorable local 

 conditions. Their use is not recommended unless under trained supervision. 



Methods of Preventing Damage 



The development of effective methods of preventing attack by horned 

 larks has been progressive, limited only by the ingenuity of the persons 

 concerned. It is the purpose of this leaflet to discuss briefly the various 

 methods that have been seen in actual use and to comment upon their effec- 

 tiveness . 



IToiseHB'.aking Devices . — Sometimes one may see one or more men slowly 

 patrolling a field in which crop damage is occurring id bea,ting energeti- 

 cally and constantly upon tin pans or cans. This method is commonly prac- 

 tised only where low-waged foreign labor is employed, and effective crop 

 protection by its use demands so large a nomber of men for any sizable plant- 

 ing that it immediately becomes uneconomical and impractical. In any case, 

 if too fev; men are used, the bands of horned larks drift along ahead or 

 alight in another part of the field where they continue their feeding. 



Shooting or Herding^gff . — ^Herding- off with guns has proved too costly 

 in labor and ammunition, and is generally inefficient and impracticable. The 

 horned larks keep just out of gun shot, and because of their groundlike color 

 they are difficult to see at any distance. The Kings County packing company's 

 planting of spinach in 1932, already mentioned, was patrolled by 24 men, one 

 to each 10 acres, at a cost of $1,S00 for labor and $700 for aiamunition, yet 

 a sixth of the planting was a total loss. Although some exceptions may be 

 noted, this is a fair example of the futility of the herding method. 



Attracting Vulture s. — In some sections the rancher obtains all the 

 available heads of slaughtered cattle from the comm.unity slaughter house, 

 mounts them upon short poles, and places them at intervals over the field. 

 Some farmers collect all the available white chickens in the vicinity, kill 

 them, and scatter the dead bodies at intervals over the field. Both these 



2/ California State Department of Agriculture, Monthly Bulletin 

 SCI (4-6): 259-286. April-June 1932. 



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