WOODLAND AND COVERT 157 



advice on woodland management would 

 probably be necessary. There would 

 then be no difficulty in arranging for a 

 visit by a professional expert on forestry, 

 nor would his moderate fee count for 

 much in the undoubted saving in money, 

 time and unnecessary friction, which this 

 change would effect. 



Still many will think the suggestion 

 unreasonable, and the gamekeeper quite 

 unfit to manage anything but his own 

 affairs ; seeing that, even if he had the 

 necessary training and experience, he 

 would still neglect the interests of forestry 

 in favour of his pheasants. This may 

 well have been true of the old race of 

 keepers, but I doubt if it be applicable to 

 the new school of singularly intelligent 

 men who have arisen in their stead. 



Speaking from a tolerably wide experi- 

 ence of keepers and their ways, and yet 

 under correction, as no expert in matters 

 pertaining to forestry, I offer the sug- 

 gestion — which has yet to be disproved — 

 that any one of the better class of head- 



