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United States Department of Agriculture) Ware.
Bureau of Biological Survey EA i

Wildlife Research and Management Leaflet Bgais2 0 193

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Washington, D. C. ca August 1935)

PLANTING FOR WILDLIFE IN THE COTTON BELT

By W. L. McAtee, principal biologist and technical adviser
Office of the Chief

Among uses to which land removed from cotton production may be put is
planting for wildlife. Farmers as a class enjoy hearing the cheery call of the
bobwhite, seeing the cottontail timorously come out to browse at dusk, or in
other ways sensing the presence of the wild things that help to make farm life
attractive. For those who wish to hunt or to permit hunting on their lands,
there are the additional rewards for good wildlife management-—game brought to
bag or revenue derived from the sale of shooting privileges. In some cases
receipts from this source pay taxes, and where due attention is given to the
matter, larger revenues are possible.

Planting for wildlife should be planned with rererence to two of the
greatest needs of furred and feathered creatures; namely, the need for cover and
the need for food. Important and indispensable as food is, yet cover must
receive first attention, for regardless of the presence of a plenteous food
supply, wildlife cannot persist on land without adequate shelter from its
enemies and where there is no cover where the young may be safely reared.

Cover for the majority of the small forms of wildlife means low, dense
vegetation, some of which should be tangled, or stiff and thorny, so that in
time of need, the pursued can dive into it to escape the pursuer. The common
broomsedge, for instance, is fairly good concealing cover, but fields of it
are much improved for wildlife by the presence of rose or berry brier patches,

plum thickets, or honeysuckle tangles.

Planting to improve cover can well be made to serve a double purpose by
using food-producing vegetation, and a triple use by carrying it on where
erosion control is needed. If only gullies and waste corners of the farm are
planted, much can be done to increase cover for wildlife. Cover plants for
the Cotton Belt that are useful both as soil binders and food producers include
greenbriers or catbriers, blackberries, dewberries, the Cherokee rose, grape—
vines, Virginia creeper, and Japan honeysuckle.

Fruit—bearing shrubs or small trees that can be used to provide cover
on any available land include redcedar, waxmyrtle near the coast, wild roses,
thornapples, blackberries, dewberries, wild plums, sumacs, gallberry or ink~
berry, wild grapes, dogwoods, blueberries, sparkleberry, beautyberry or Mexican
mulberry, elderberry, blackhaws and honeysuckles.

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Plants to be uSed primarily for food producers may be selected from the
preceding lists or may be such additional things as mulberry, hackberry, or sugar-—
berry, wild cherries, hollies, sour gum, and persimmon. Good mast yielders are
the scrub oaks in the eastern, and shin oaks in the western, part of the region.

Trees and shrubs produce more or less permanent coverts and feeding
places, but much use is made also of herbaceous plants, annual or perennial, for
feed patches. Land with alternating areas devoted to feed patches and coverts,
or in any event with plenty of food available near good coverts, is ideal for
wildlife.

Feed patches of a quarter acre to several acres in size are used. The
smaller ones are entirely satisfactory, and it should always be borne in mind
that proximity to good cover is necessary to full utility of a feed patch.
Plants suitable for feed patches are chufa and peanut for wild turkeys, and
winter pea, vetches, cowpeas, beggarweeds, Korean and common lespedezas, Lespe—
deza sericea and other bushclovers, soybeans, sorghums of various types, millets,
benne, bullgrass, and Sudan grass for quail. Feed patches are fertilized and
cultivated just as in agricultural production of the same plants. Livestock and
poultry must be excluded. Expert advice should be obtained as to the best
methods of cultivation and as to tested strains of the legumes, sorghums,
millets, etc., for each locality. This information can be obtained from the
County Agent or from the Agricultural Experiment Station.

A Farmers' Bulletin treating more fully the adaptation of farm practices
to wildlife production has been published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The number is 1719-F, and the title, "Improving the Farm Environment for Wild—
life." Copies can be obtained at 5 cents each from the Superintendent of
Documents, Washington, D.C.

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