Attracting Wild Ducks 
By Planting Natural Foods, You Improve Your Own Shooting and 
Help Along the Work of Conservation 




UCKS are ravenous 
eaters. The amount 
of food a duck will 
consume is_ incon- 
ceivable. The stom- 
ach of a Pintail Duck 
} recently analyzed by 
i the United States 
Biological Survey 
contained ninety- 
eight thousand Curage (water pepper) 
seeds. I have seen acres, literally 
square miles, of goose grass (three 
cornered grass) rooted up and de- 
voured in a month’s time after the ar- 
rival of the big flight of ducks and geese 
in southern waters. The vegetation, 
which is two or three feet high, disap- 
pears and gives the impression of hav- 
ing been pulled up by hand, stalk by 
stalk. The ducks and geese find their 
food in the succulent roots, which re- 
semble the roots of coco grass. Wise 
duck hunters are now taking cognizance 
of the fact that the vast natural feed- 
ing grounds, swamps, lakes and wild 
marshes, are yielding to the spread of 
the population in this country. Drain- 
age projects and reclamation plans 
(many improvidently conceived in the 
light of subsequent events) have done 
away with numbers of the former natu- 
ral feeding grounds and resting places 
of wild ducks on their annual migra- 
tion, and the limited spots still left 
along the line of flight no longer fur- 
nish enough food to maintain the ducks 
throughout their stay in the South. Just 
as the small farmer is driven to in- 
tensive cultivation on his limited acre- 
age, so are foresighted sportsmen now 
making the most of their shooting 
grounds to attract and to keep the ducks 
on their property by planting and culti- 
vating natural food plants. Some of 
the clubs have—I might say with fiend- 
ish preparation—gone into raising an 
annual corn crop exclusively for feed- 
ing ducks. In the shooting season, feed- 
ing platforms in front of duck blinds 
are baited with grains of corn and 
ducks are attracted and slaughtered 
with the same certainty as though the 
corn was scattered in the barnyard 
for domestic fowls. 
A SOUTHERN organization, with a 
large acreage of marsh land at 
the mouth of the Mississippi River, wit- 
nessing how the big: flight of ducks con- 
centrating there in the early Fall soon 
consume all of the natural foods grow- 
542 
By EUGENE J. McGIVNEY 
ing there, and then leave for other feed- 
ing grounds farther south, secured the 
assistance of the United States Biologi- 
cal Survey to recommend plans to pro- 
vide a greater supply of natural food 
plants. A survey was made for that 
purpose by a representative of the Bi- 
ological Survey and a recommendation 
was made that the following foods be 
planted, viz: wild rice, wild celery, 
widgeon grass and sago pond weed. 
Purchases were made of plants of 
each of the three last named varieties, 
and, so far, from the planting made in 
the spring of 1924, the widgeon grass 
and probably the sago pond weed have 
developed. There is no showing of the 
celery planted, due probably to the frag- 
ile and delicate character of celery 
plant and roots becoming dried out and 
unfitted for planting by shipment from 
a long distance. However, recently wild 
celery plants have been located in Lake 
Pontchartrain and in Lake Catherine, 
nearby to New Orleans, and plants will 
be procured from there and trans- 
planted this year. Widgeon grass, 
known locally as grey duck grass, was 
also located at Lake Catherine in great 
quantities. 
The wild rice planted did not show 
at all. 
EPPER grass grows wild in many 
sections of Louisiana, and plants 
of that variety were transplanted with 
success. 
Banana lilies were also transplanted 
with much success. 
Minorca nut seeds have been planted 
in the deep water ponds. 
Last year the ducks were found 
eagerly feeding on the widgeon grass 
and the banana lilies. 
The sportsmen intend to pursue their 
experiment and to import as many vari- 
eties of natural food plants as experi- 
ence shows will grow on the property. 
The observation of work done so far 
justifies the belief that widgeon grass 
(or grey duck grass) which is a float- 
ing plant, and wild celery also, will 
grow in any fresh water or brackish 
lake; that banana lilies and sago pond 
weed will also thrive under the same 
conditions; that pepper grass (smart 
weed) will grow on the side of ponds or 
bayous which have a sandy or loam foun- 
dation; that Minorca nut plants will 
grow in any deep fresh water ponds or 
lakes; that the delta duck potato will 
grow in any pond or lake or outiet of 
auy stream which has an annual flow 
of silt-bearing fresh water. 
ACH of these plants are vigorous 
growing and _ productive duck 
foods, which will justify an experiment 
in transplanting in the southern por- j 
tion of the United States. The goose 
grass and flag grass, both excellent 
duck foods, will grow on the edge of a 
fresh, or brackish water lake or pond. 
Then there is the pourpier blane and 
the chou cochon (pig cabbage) and the 
riz de l’an (wild rice) that can be 
obtained in unlimited quantities from 
the Louisiana marshes. The last men-— 
tioned looks more like Millet or John- 
son grass, with a small seed upon which — 
the ducks eagerly feed. 
The Conservation Commission of 
Louisiana has arranged to import and 
transplant many natural food plants 
on the public shooting grounds main- 
tained at the mouth of the Mississippi 
River. 
The properties of duck hunting clubs” 
are not to be regarded as slaughter 
pens because of the fact that food is 
planted to attract ducks. On the con- 
trary, the reverse of the proposition is 
true, because in such clubs, conserva- 
tion is the prevailing spirit, and obser- 
vation of the legal bag limit is rigidly 
enforced, so that, except to the extent 
of shooting the legal bag limit, the club _ 
grounds become a sanctuary for the 
ducks, as compared to the relentless 
greed of unrestrained public hunting” 
on non-private shooting ground. In 
the latter, except for the occasional in- 
terference of the game wardens, there 
is nothing that makes for conservation; 
bag limits are not observed; there are 
no hours for shooting, and ducks are 
continuously bombarded morning, noon 
and night. It is marvelous to note 
how soon ducks recognize the protec- 
tion afforded them on private shooting 
grounds and how the ducks, when not 
molested on non-hunting days, or after 
the noon hour fixed for the close of 
shooting, seek refuge in such sanctu- 
aries. ' 
F the ducks can be attracted to stay 
all of the winter in the south, rather 
than migrate further to Mexico, where 
there are no game laws, to be there 
slaughtered, the planting of duck foods 
on privately owned grounds, where bag 
limits are observed, and conservation 
is the prevailing spirit, then such work 
should not have any selfish aspect. 

