The Cost and Evils of Ground Game 



87 



Robotham calculated about 16,000,000 acres 

 of land to be overrun with an excess of game 

 to the extent of one hare or one rabbit to 

 the acre, and he contended that one for 

 every 4 acres was a fair quantity for sporting 

 purposes. There was, therefore, an excess 

 of 12,000,000 hares and rabbits, taking them 

 in equal quantities. The hares would repre- 

 sent the value of ;;^9oo,ooo, and the rabbits 

 ;^3oo,ooo, or a total value of ;^i, 200,000; 

 but remembering that two hares and two 

 rabbits consumed as much as a sheep, they 

 could keep in their place no less than 

 3,000,000 more sheep than were kept at 

 present. In twelve months a small sheep fed 

 without artificial food would leave j[^2. 

 Three million sheep at this price would realize 

 ^6,000,000 in place of ;;^i, 200,000, the 

 value of hares and rabbits in excess. It was 

 evident, therefore, that a loss was incurred 

 annually, by the excessive preservation of 

 ground game, of no less than _/^4, 800,000 

 worth of food and wool for the people, which 

 loss had to be sustained by the occupiers of 

 land — an amount which is in excess of the 

 value of all the cattle and sheep imported 

 annually into this country. It was evident, 

 then, that the annual cost of hares and rab- 

 bits kept on cultivated land was los. each. 

 In addition to this there was the cost of pre- 

 serving, keepers, watchers, dogs, powder, 

 shot, &c., while the value of this costly article 

 of food was 3s. per head for the one, and is. 

 only for the other. It was not to be ex- 

 pected that a farmer, when he saw the depre- 

 dations from game going on upon his farm, 

 would have the spirit to purchase the quan- 

 tity of manure for the land and cakes for his 

 stock which were necessary for good farming, 

 hence he would continue his tenancy with loss 

 both to him.self and his landlord, or else he 

 must seriously contemplate leaving the farm, 

 and it was by no means an easy matter to 

 get away from a farm without pecuniary loss. 



THE INJUSTICE TO THE TENANT OF OVER- 

 PRESERVATION. 



It sometimes happened, when a farm was 

 taken tolerably clear of game, in a few years 

 a new owner commenced to preserve game 



to the injury of the tenant. What remedy 

 under such circumstances had he? It migiit 

 be said that if he did not like to stay, he wa>s 

 at liberty to leave. In many cases this was 

 done after having laid out extia m.oney 

 without the chance of getting it back again. 

 He might consent to continue his tenancy 

 on the promise that orders were given to the 

 keeper to kill the rabbits ; but those were 

 often the keeper's perquisite, and it would 

 be against his own interest to destroy all the 

 rabbits. In the meantime, the capital of the 

 tenant was being reduced year by year, 

 until, in many cases, the tenant scarcely dare 

 think of leaving, for fear that he should have 

 little to leave with, although he might ulti- 

 mately be obliged to do so. Several cases 

 of this character had come under his OAvn 

 observation, and where valuation or arbitra- 

 tion had been resorted to, he had never see-n 

 the farmer receive half compensation for his 

 loss by game, &c. — a statement which could 

 be borne out by practical valuers. The 

 abuses and injustice traceable to the over 

 preservation of ground game were almost 

 endless. Keepers might profess to kill rats, 

 &c., and perhaps they did when they found 

 them ; but they destroyed the destroyers of 

 vermin, and shot or trapped the cats that 

 killed the mice, and waged war against owls 

 and hawks. Rats, where numerous, are very 

 destructive in fields as well as in corn stacks 

 and buildings, and it is next to impossible to 

 keep them down without dogs and cats, 

 which are very difficult to keep on game-pre- 

 served lands. Hares were very destructive 

 to wheat, barley, and clovers in April and 

 May. The blade which was eaten did not 

 come to proper maturity, was later ripe, and 

 smaller in the ear, thus causing the sample to 

 be uneven. The hare also eats tracks through 

 a Avheat field v/hen nearly matured, taking 

 only one bite out of each stem. The ear, 

 drooping down, was entirely wasted, and 

 Yz acre patches of apparent barrenness here 

 and there testified to the destructive tendency 

 of the hare. Those animals appeared to 

 have a pleasure for waste, for the barren 

 ground on such patche.3 would be found 

 strewed with stems, &c., which they had left 



