PHEASANT EAISING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
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The pens and sheds should be kept scrupulously clean. There is 
no more fruitful source of disease among pheasants than uncleanli¬ 
ness. As has been aptly said, the pheasant pen should be kept as 
neat and clean as the front dooryard. Nevertheless chips and twigs 
may be scattered about to attract insects, and boughs for shelter 
should not be omitted. Each pen should be thoroughly spaded and 
limed every two or three years. Cover should be provided for the 
birds. The pens may be sown with clover, timothy, and other grass 
early enough to furnish ample cover by the time the birds are turned 
in. Small evergreens may be grown inside with decided advantage, 
or cut branches of evergreen or deciduous trees may be placed within. 
If growing grass or clover can not be conveniently provided in 
the pen, a piece of sod should be placed there occasionally. The 
birds enjoy tearing sod to pieces for the seeds, insects, and grass it 
contains. 
PROTECTION FROM ENEMIES. 
Careful protection must be provided against various enemies. 
Hawks, owls, crows, and other predatory birds, as well as cats and 
raccoons,® will be kept out if the top is covered. If traps and guns 
are used to protect pheasants from birds of prey, the destruction of 
mice-catching hawks and owls will result in serious losses through the 
unchecked increase of rodents. If the top of the pen is open, a foot 
of wire inclined outward and slightly downward should be extended 
from the top all around to prevent animals from scaling the sides. 
Burrowing animals may be frustrated by continuing the wire netting 
down into the ground, as already described. As an additional pre¬ 
caution it is a good plan to connect with the sides a strip of wire 
netting extending outward horizontally on the ground about a foot, 
as dogs, foxes, rats, and other burrowers try to dig close to the fence. 
Unbaited traps set alongside the pen will catch minks and other 
creatures that may be looking heedlessly for an opening. A lighted 
lantern on one of the posts at night will help to keep away minks. 
The old method of fastening a dog to a wire by means of a ring, 
which allows him to run along the wire for its full length, is still in 
use, and is an effective means of guarding the birds. 
ATTENDANCE. 
The pheasants should be attended, as far as possible, by the same 
person. It will even be well if the attendant always wears the same 
clothes when entering the pen, as pheasants are frightened by any¬ 
thing unfamiliar. English gamekeepers are accustomed to announce 
a Two raccoons are said to have killed 150 young pheasants in one night on the 
Illinois State game farm. 
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