142 PHEASANTS 



the same estate might present, were either 

 game or timber the sole consideration 

 allowed to make its influence felt. Small 

 wonder that constant friction is bound to 

 arise between the rival departments of 

 forester and gamekeeper, where no work- 

 ing system of compromise between their 

 conflicting interests has been arrived at. 



Such a compromise is by no means 

 unattainable, and the question seems one 

 of sufficient weight to warrant our briefly 

 considering the relative importance of the 

 rival claims on our attention, before trying 

 to indicate the general lines on which a 

 settlement may be effected, by which — 

 although both parties may have to be 

 content to sacrifice something — yet the 

 interests of neither shall be unduly com- 

 promised. 



The chief points of the forester's case 

 may thus be summed up. The low estate 

 of our woods and forests is a matter of 

 vital interest to the nation. Every year 

 nearly 10,000,000 tons of such timber as 

 our climate and soil would grow, are im- 



