THE NEW FORESTRY. 31 



cocks from the hens. Mr. French has fully entered into the 

 merits of the plan of rearing. No keepers are employed, but 

 his son an intelligent lad of about fifteen or sixteen, who 

 appreciates his work is the feeder of the birds, which, reared 

 in this way, require comparatively little attention. 



" If this plan be compared with the usual method of 

 shutting the hens up with their young charges for several 

 weeks, shifting the coops daily, feeding entirely on artificial 

 food, not allowing the old birds to scratch for ants' eggs, or 

 obtain insects and other natural foods, the saving of trouble 

 and labour is manifest ; and as to the success, it would be diffi- 

 cult to find its parallel amongst those who pursue the old 

 system. You wander about in this covert, and you find ants' 

 nests scratched up, and doubtless other insects are obtained in 

 large numbers, and the birds are now flying out over the four- 

 feet boundary, seeking natural food for themselves in the fields 

 of clover, wheat, and mangold which surround it." 



SECTION VI. RABBITS. 



RABBITS. In our little book on " The Wild Rabbit," which 

 has had an extensive circulation, it is shown how hopeless it 

 is to rear plantations wherever rabbits abound ; and it is there 

 suggested that the only plan of dealing with these vermin, on 

 estates where rabbits are wanted for sport or profit, is to 

 provide warrens of sufficient extent and keep the rabbits there, 

 and exterminate them everywhere else. This can be done, 

 is being done on many estates now, and where intelligently 

 carried out is successful, at least as many rabbits being got 

 as before, and usually more. Instead of shutting the rabbits 

 OUT of the woods, as heretofore, by expensive fencing and 

 protections of woods and single trees, it is proposed to shut 

 them IN, and keep them in. We need hardly say that the 

 worst opponents to this plan, that we have found, have been 

 gamekeepers, whose stock arguments on the subject may, 

 however, soon be disposed of. We never met a keeper yet 

 who had any correct idea how many rabbits could be produced 

 by good management in a warren, his idea of such an enclosure 

 being a piece of poor waste, where the rabbits were expected 

 to breed and thrive, year after year, under conditions that are 

 known to exterminate every other kind of live stock in a short 

 period. We have probably seen and known more rabbit 

 warrens than any other single forester or keeper ; and this, 



