Bird Number Increase

Bird Number Increase

Throughout Virginia

The wild turkey is eoming back to Virginia.

The whitetail delr has been re* stored to Virginia’s mountains. .

A long-range program of the (State Game Commission aims at greatly increased wildlife supplies throughout the State.

Commission officials, who for many years operated their program with an annual fund, less than that used by the City of Richmond taking care of garbage, say nevertheless, that every year there has been a gradual strengthening of the game management setup.

For instance, the State turkey farm in Cumberland county has worked , out a system under which pure wild turkey hens are mated - with native gobblers in the wild.' “In the vast areas of the State, in which turkeys have become extinct, wild brood stocks are being restored by releasing purebred wild turkeys raised in captivity,” they say.

Studies of quail in Virginia are giving the Commission a betteridea of how to manage the quail crop. They found that there is an average annual loss of 42.7 per cent of aR the quail which survive the hunting season. These losses in late winter and early spring can be attributed directly to undernourishment, the officials say. The study revealed that the most' important matter in maintaining • and increasing supplies of such! game as quail is improvement of food and cover conditions.

Increasing wildlife * supplies in Virginia will take help, the officials say. They point out that “the farmer is the key man. in producing enough food for game.” During tiie past two years privatelyowned lands, including over 1,000,800 acres have been permanently improved for game through “intelligent” plantings, and the Commission is making a major education effort to “bring to the farmers keener realization of the value of game.”

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