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40 Yes, Mr. DeMille guests and a 50-foot square living room, sported a sort of rustic and Indian motif, derived from a scattering of log and bamboo furnishings, as well as a full-size ornate totem pole. Walls held a moose head from Canada and the bust of a grizzly shot by DeMille near the dwellings, In a corner stood a pipe organ, its sonorous pipes carved with Aztec inscriptions. A pool table, standing unobtrusively at one end of the immense room, was for the pleasure of weekend house guests carefully chosen and royally entertained. Mr. DeMille himself slept in a private stone cottage just below, and out of sight of, the ranch house. His first act upon arising was a plunge into the spring waters of a small pool, totally obscured by trees to protect his nude caperings from chance visits. Few guests could summon the courage to try the icy water; a prudent toe-test usually sent them into full retreat. In the area of the ranch DeMille owned some 700 acres and leased substantial parcels of adjoining preserves belonging to the Government. On this rocky hill terrain he consistently refuted the best local advice on practical agriculture by raising self-supporting crops of apples, grapes and alfalfa. Then in 1929 he decided to try his hand at a pheasantry. Not something ordinary but a model institution of its kind. There was an expanding market for pheasants in enough states to intrigue a person not given to sidelines that did not pay. Quickly the pheasant population rose to 4,000. Neat rows of 12-by-25-foot pens were set up, their approach beautifully landscaped. These contained the rarer specimens—Manchurian, silver, golden, black neck and Lady Amherst pheasants. There were also African crowned cranes, Abyssinian graven fowl, blue Australian goura pigeons, blue and white pea fowl, and forty white doves, The doves appeared in scenes of the crucifixion in The King of Kings (later pensioned for life for their efforts). In later years he turned to turkeys, with somewhat less com- mercial success. A Christmas turkey from DeMille graced the