Vol. 13, No. 1 
Page 2 
reasonable degree of control was obtained over goat's beard ( Traqopogon spp.), an 
early-blooming weed on the roadsides, but little, if any, control was evident 
over wild carrot ( Daucus carota) . which blooms later in the summer. In 1969, 
when all plots were sprayed 3 weeks later than in the preceding year, with the 
more potent 2,4-D ester, good control of goat's beard resulted, but the wild 
carrot again appeared largely unaffected. It is not immediately evident why the 
wild carrot was not killed, especially in 1969 , unless spraying operations were 
too early or application rates were insufficient. 
Regardless of the reasons for the inadequate control of broadleaf weeds, 
the reactions of at least two farm operators, whose lands adjoin the roadsides, 
were adverse. The other five farmers with lands along the unseeded roadsides 
expressed no opposition to the project; neither did they display any enthusiasm 
for it. This raises the question whether attempts to manipulate existing 
vegetation on highway roadsides, with chemicals and fertilizer alone, would give 
results acceptable to adjacent farm operators if such roadsides were left 
unmowed. 
3• Factors Influencinq Oistribut ion and Abundance of Pheasants W. L. Anderson, 
D. R. Vance 
Previous research has demonstrated that sternal muscles are heavier, on the 
average, for pheasants from Neoga (poor pheasant range) than for pheasants from 
Sibley (good range). (See MWRL 10(4) :2 and MWRL 11(4) :2.) This was true for 
both actual weights of the muscles and for their weights expressed as percentages 
of body weight. It was thought that one plausible explanation for this difference 
between Neoga birds and Sibley birds was that muscles from the former might 
contain proportionately greater amounts of water. Therefore, sternal muscles 
from 10 juvenile hens (February 1968) and from 5 adult hens (August 1969) 
collected at Neoga and from the same numbers of hens collected at Sibley were 
analyzed for water content. The analyses were performed by toluene-entrainment 
distillation, conducted at Stewart Laboratories, Inc., Knoxville, Tennessee. 
The concentrations of water in sternal muscles averaged 68 . 6 jp .6 percent 
for juvenile hens from Neoga and 69-2+0.7 percent for juvenile hens from Sibley. 
Similarly, the water content of muscles from adult hens from Neoga and Sibley 
averaged 70.2+0.3 and 70.4+0.6 percent, respectively. These findings suggest 
that the relatively heavy weights of sternal muscles from Neoga pheasants were 
caused by factors other than the proportionate amounts of water they contained. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation J. A. Ellis, 
P. J. Matthews 
Hunters harvested 370 quail on the Dale Area in 1969" _ roore than in any 
previous year. The harvest in 1969 exceeded that of 1968 by 3 percent, and was 
achieved with the expenditure of 7 percent fewer gun-hours. 
On the Forbes Area, 373 quail were harvested in 1969, a decline of 33 
percent from the harvest of 559 birds in 1968 , the highest ever recorded on the 
area. Although the harvest was lower in 1969 than in 1968, the hunting effort 
(gun-hours) was 5 percent greater in 1969 than in I 968 . 
