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reported to him by hie eon. lie believed that the dajonge coap&roi. to 
that inflicted on the Basye place was slight as his grain was threshed 
insnediately before the duoics bad opix)rtxmlty to cot^lete the destruotion. 
I 
In studyixxg this damage it was of tom interest to note that in 
the Stuttgart region damage by duoics was reported from fields in an area 
not more than three miles across. Beports of harm did not oome from out- 
side this aeotion though this oiay be ascribed probably to threshing be- 
ihfe' eompleied'^in' the dreas before the dtioks began to work in them. 
Other rioefields wliere damage by ducks was reported were visited 
in ti^ section about lie Witt on December 19. 
At the farm of Park Itoses a mile from De W’itt a field of 110 acres 
of blue Rose rice in the shook was examined. This rice had been slow in 
development and. the harvest consequently had been late, blallards had fed 
here in large numbers, coming at night and leaving for some roosting 
« 
place at the approach of day. As the shocks were frosen solidly to the 
ground they wore tom down in only a few instanoes but in many oases 1 
found that the oap sheaf had been displaced. In all of the shocks much 
of the grain exposed outside had been eaten and in one section compris— 
ing about one-third of the field the exposed sheaves had been completely 
stripped (eee figs. S-Aj). In addition the duoks had burrowed in between 
the bases of the sheaves in many Shooks in order to get at the inside 
grain. Uuoh straw had been pulled down by the birds in feeding and was 
tranpled in around the bases of the shooks. Uallard feathers and oon- 
aiderable amounts of excrement were scattered about. The yield in this 
field as shown by undamaged sheave had been very heavy, hr. Uosee as- 
timated his loss at approximately 2,000 bushels and this considering the 
