WOODLAND AND COVERT 139 



become apparent. From a false notion 

 of the space a tree required for health, 

 the last generation nearly killed their 

 woods by excessive kindness. These over- 

 thinned woods are practically worthless to 

 the forester, and so the first outcome of 

 his scheme consists in extensive felling and 

 replanting of all the older planted area. 

 Thus under the first years of his regime, 

 the interests of game are well provided for 

 by the abundance of young wood, but this 

 advantage is naturally only transitory, 

 as the normal annual planting — one 

 eightieth at most of the whole — soon 

 comes into operation. 



Let us now turn to the gamekeeper's 

 view of the matter. His coverts should 

 all lie well to the sun, and instead of 

 concentration he would have dispersion. 

 His woodland area divided into many 

 coverts of manageable size ; more numer- 

 ous about the policies, chief stronghold 

 of his pheasants, but with outlying 

 clumps, strips and belts all over the 

 estate to shelter his fields and offer safe 



