Vo!. 17, No. 10 
Page 3 
II lr r ch ! c ^ ns - The area was cover-mapped again this year. In I 939 , grassy 
pastures and redt °P and timothy harvested for seed or hay) 
constituted 47-1 percent of the area. In 1974, only 1.0 percent of the a^ea 
mained in grass, and this remnant was primarily overgrazed pasture. Soy- 
l > Q 7 U S \ US K d ma ' nly fo f hay > covered only 9-4 percent of the area in 1939 / In 
974, soybeans were planted on 68.8 percent of the land. As cash-grain farm- 
ing expanded, average field size more than doubled (from 10 acres ?o 23 acres) 
of .[ ence ^ ows * 1939, the 2,760-acre Hunt area contained 
about 43 linear miles of woody fencerows. Now the area contains less than 6 
miles of good fencerow cover. ' ss tnan b 
These changes in farm practices have eliminated most of the grassy cover 
f f °!i Prair ' e chickens > tremendously reduced both the quantity and 
aar 1° w®' *! nd decreased habitat diversity. Continuation of these 
as the! wlri f r6ndS CaP b \ aS d,sastrous for other game and nongame species 
as they were for prairie chickens. a H 
