136 PHEASANTS 



have had to bear no slight burden of 

 abuse at the hands of the exponents of 

 the new system of forestry — new at least 

 in this country, though practised for 

 many generations on the continent — 

 for alleged neglect of the timber-pro- 

 ducing capacities of their woodlands, it 

 were no bad thing to avoid any shelving 

 or glossing over of a difficult question, but 

 rather to go bald-headed — to use an ex- 

 pressive Americanism — for it at once. 



A brief summary of what forester 

 and gamekeeper would consider the right 

 ordering of woods on an estate, as relating 

 to their several callings, may serve to 

 show us how far asunder their ideals lie, 

 when untrammelled by any thought of 

 compromise. 



The commercial side must assuredly 

 come first, in these days when the rank 

 of a sport is often determined quite 

 seriously by the number of men it em- 

 ploys. The forester, then, would have 

 his trees concentrated in extensive blocks. 

 Timber-forming qualities would determine 



