POPULAR SCIENCE 267 



Well, then, let us listen to the opinion of the land agents of 

 the country, men who, under almost every varying condition, 

 must have been brought into close and intimate touch with 

 the question. " Where a moderate head of winged game is 

 reared, it is an advantage to the land. Practically all farmers 

 agree with this statement. Except where there are woodlands, 

 partridges are the most important game-birds in this country, 

 and the better the land is cultivated the more birds it will 

 carry. The damage they do to crops is so small that it is more 

 than counter-balanced by the good that they do to the land. 

 Pheasants undoubtedly do more harm to crops, but they are 

 often blamed for the misdeeds of sparrows, starlings, rooks, 

 and pigeons. Like partridges, they are useful on the land. 

 Those that are hand-reared are, of course, artificially fed. For 

 the rest of their food, they feed, like domestic fowls, chiefly on 

 insects and weed-seeds, whose destruction is a boon to the 

 farmer." 1 



Here is an expression of opinion from a large body of men 

 " who spend their lives in daily contact with all the practical 

 problems of the agricultural industry," and who have the 

 management of "thousands of acres in every county in England 

 and Wales, as well as in many parts of Scotland," and they 

 represent every shade of political opinion. 



Again,, from the same source we learn (p. 228) : " The 

 average landowner is not in a position to sacrifice income by 

 withdrawing land from cultivation, if it is worth more to farm 

 than it is for game. If land does not pay for cultivating, it 

 is put to its best, if not its only, use by being devoted to game. 

 Without game preservation, it would be practically derelict, 

 and, as a means of affording employment and wages alone, 

 apart from the production of game as food, it is better to use 

 the land than to let it lie altogether idle." 



With one voice, the charges above-mentioned are refuted, 

 and the source from which that refutation comes will, we think, 

 carry conviction. 



We might dwell upon the value to agricultural communities 

 of the profit that the preservation of game-birds provides, 

 i.e. the indirect benefits in the form of " wages for temporary 

 assistants, such as drivers, ghillies, pony-men, and dog-men, 

 traffic in household supplies, sporting requisites, hiring, carting, 

 1 Facts about Land. London, 1916, p. 223. 



