build up the soil so that it will produce 
other crops in greater abundance later. 
Inoculation of seed or soil is often 
necessary. Follow the local successful 
agricultural practice. 
The millets, both wild and tame, 
are goad small seed producers for mid- 
summer. Foxtail is excellent. Many 
millets do well on dry soils, while 
others thrive on moist land. Again, 
follow local farming practice. 
The various canes; whichever varie- 
ties are successful in your community, 
sunflowers, buckwheat, popcorn, field 
corn, field  peas, (the hard winter- 
mildew-resistent varieties in the south), 
benne (for southern doves), and a 
long list of weeds are good late sum- 
mer and fall crops. 
Food   patches designed   to  bring 
rorthern birds through winter conai- 
tions, and  theoretically supposed  to 
keep their cupboards full of edibles 
until spring, are specialized and dif- 
ficult problems. It is usually the saf- 
est plan to plant heavily as to acreage, 
harvesting a half or more of the crop 
to be stored in the shock or sheaf 
against the time when the birds, (and 
rodents, wastage, etc.), have reduced 
the larder to the danger point. Many 
northern food patches, if no shocked 
or sheaf grain can be opened up, must 
be supplemented with hopper feeding. 
In planting the food patch it must 
be remembered at all times that cot- 
ton rats, meadow mice, gophers, small 
birds, squirrels, rabbits and perhaps 
domestic livestock will naturally make 
more or less use of the feed provided. 
Flocks of blackbirds may drop in on 
the Arkansas rice patch, or may de- 
vour the   grain   from  a  Michigan 
planting; while goldfinches find the 
sunflowers quickly, and squirrels make 
short work of the corn. This is not 
an argument for combatting these visi- 
tors to the food patch, but is sound 
reason for planting larger and more 
food patches than appear to be called 
for from the standpoint of the game 
alone. 
It is often necessary to fence out 
cattle, horses and pigs if there is to be 
anything left of the food patches. A 
better solution, where some control of 
the practices can be effected by agree- 
ment with the livestock owners, is to 
keep such stock confined. But this is 
often less feasible than fencing the 
patch itself. 
In location, food strips and patches 
should be very close to good cover. 
Patches left out in the middle of large 
open fields may either not be used for 
much of the year or may subject game 
to unusual hazards from poachers and 
predators. 
The above essentials should indicate 
 
Planting the Game Food Patch 
(Continued from page 103) 
enough of the general principles in- 
volved to permit interested parties to 
select a suitable variety of game food 
crops to meet the local situation. Talk 
with good competent farmers or agri- 
cultural leaders in your community, 
secure there advice as to planting dates 
and practices, and then build your food 
patches with the idea that each covert 
must have an ample food supply not 
only for the winter period, but for the 
year as a whole. If it is possible, a 
good plan for upland game bird feed- 
ing is to surround particular coverts 
with strips of feed wide enough to per- 
mit three or more year rotations, 
leaving part of the strip fallow each 
year.