The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor WorkMiller, Mary Rogers
Philosophy
The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work
Miller, Mary Rogers
Agriculture -- Juvenile literature
Every farmer who kills the birds on his place justifies the destruction
by the evidence that they eat fruit. True, some of them do. But if
water is provided many of them prefer it to fruit juice. To preserve
our strawberries and cherries, we should plant June berry and Russian
mulberry, which the birds like better. Chokeberry, buckthorn, elder
berry, and mulberry will attract birds away from blackberry and
raspberry patches. Wild cherry will protect the grapes, as both ripen
late.
DOMESTICATING WILD GAME
The country would be a more attractive place to live in if there were
more wild game. Thirty years ago, when I was a little girl in the
middle West, my brothers used to shoot "prairie chickens" (grouse),
quail (bob-white), wild geese, brant, wild ducks, and even bigger
birds. But now the guns are all rusty, and the powder flask is empty. I
came across the old wad-cutter in the attic and hardly recognized it.
Efforts are being made in several states to rear wild fowl in the
barn yard. Bob-white, grouse, mallard, wood ducks, and Canada geese
are being experimented upon. A measure of success has already been
achieved, but more experience is necessary especially with regard to
the feeding of the young birds.
[Illustration: A wood duck will nest in a box like this]
Probably the wild fowl for young hunters to experiment with is wood
duck or mallard. A man whose ten years' experience with raising wild
fowl has earned him the title of expert, writes as follows: "I think
it would be a most useful work to educate our young people up to the
fact that with a little patience and a small outlay they can help to
increase our supply of wild birds. For raising wood ducks, all one
needs is a small pond or even an artificial tank surrounded by a few
bushes enclosed by a wire fence. In one corner, place a box on a post
three feet high with a cleated boardwalk leading up to a platform from
which they can reach the entrance, which should be a round hole. Turn a
pair of wood ducks into the enclosure the first of March, and with luck
your duck will build her nest, and lay from eight to twelve eggs. In
about four weeks the eggs will hatch and the troubles commence."
He goes on to say that some kinds of wild geese are comparatively easy
to raise and that they do not require much of a pond, but ample grazing
facilities, like their domestic relatives. Mallards, also, are very
easy to raise.
As wild fowl bred in captivity bring a very good price and the demand
is increasing with the spreading interest in the subject, raising wild
fowl might be a source of income to an enterprising young man or woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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