Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-08-22
The CHINA PHEASANT.
The ssHeart of the Valley" has
Become Home.

domesticating Chinese pheasants
and is meeting with great sue
cess. Now and then Mr.. Simp-
son contributes an article on
pheasants and his writings are
always of an entertaining as well
as an educational character. His
latest article on these great game
birds appeared in the Northwest
Poultry Journal and we take
pleasure in reprinting it, as fol-
lows:
Among the poultry fanciers
there are those who are continu-
ally striving to create new breeds
and the wonder is that more do
not take up pheasants.
To the busy business or pro-
fessional man who keeps fancy
poultry for pleasure and irecrea-
ton we would advise the pur-
chase of a pair or two of pheas-
ants. They will prove far more
interesting and can be handled
in smaller quarters with less care
and feed and the beginner is sure
to become a devoted pheasant
fancier.
To attain best results with
poultry the young chicks demand
the most attention during the
early spring months when the
Evenings, after business hours are
short and the weather disagree
able, while the care of young
pheasants comes later in the sea-
son, during the most pleasant
weather for outdoor work of
Evenings, and at a time when the
Evenings are longest.
No lover OF birds can help ad-
miringa a pen of beautiful pheas-
ants. And no small item in their
favor is the profit derived from
small flock. Their feed costs
less than an equal number of
chickens, and you have no 'sculls"
but every bird will be saleable
and attain maturity and ready to
ship by September I, while fancy
poultry, as rule, does not find
a ready sale until the following
Jspring.
The Willamette valley is
known the world over as the
sportsman's paradise, due main
ly to the great numbers of the
grandest game birds in existence.
The China or To1quatus pleas
ant nowhere on the face of the
earth is 50 plentiful as in this
valley. According to the re-
p, rts from the Department ot
: Agriculture at Washington, D.
c., game birds of varions kind.
lave been imported into the
: United States from time to time
and given their liberty in differ
r ent localities, but none with such
. phenomenal success as the Chins
(pheasants brought to this STATE
: by the late Judge Denny abou
: twenty years ago.
e Raising from two to three
) broods a year from a dozen t
S eighteen each, thev have increas.
: ed in numbers almost beyond be
: lief, when one stops to think Q
e the thousands that have beel
E killed each year both in and ou
t tlof season, regardless of the legis
: lation enacted in their behalf
The last session of the legislator
i passed a law prohibiting th
: sale of all game within tn
y state, but previously the las
: fifteen Gays of the open seasol
elpot hunters could sell Chin
Il pheasants in the open markets
:, and it was a familiar sight to Sc
evening trains coming into Port
u land from up the valley bringin
| dozens of hunters "loaded to th
eI limit with China pheasants.
Il The China being the most pre-
,;|lifc variety of the pheasar
d family, is the most desirable fq
n stocking depleted game fields an
n private preserves, and should b
ofI liberated in pairs, but in capt
'e vity one male may be success
fully mated with three or fou
ofl females. In their wild stat
j. these birds mate off in pairs an
the male has been known to tax
the first brood at few weeks OLE
while the female prepares for al
other, and in this way sing
pair have been known to ha,