

GRASS-CUTTING. 83 



(c) The place where the swine pass the night should be 

 carefully selected. In such places scarcely a root escapes 

 injury. 



(d) The number of swine to be allowed in a forest must 

 depend on the quantity of mast available. Each full-grown 

 animal requires from two-and-a-half to seven- and-a-half 

 acres of forest. 



(e) Limitation of pannage to the period of the year from 

 the middle of October till the end of January. It should not 

 commence till sufficient mast has fallen, as otherwise the 

 swine become thin from much wandering about, are not 

 easily kept together, and do much mischief. On the other 

 hand, it must cease when the mast is no longer sufficiently 

 plentiful, and it is in the spring that the greatest damage is 

 done by peeling the bark and roots. During the aftermost, 

 after Christmas, the acorns become more digestible, and are 

 specially suitable for breeding- animals. 



(/) The admission of swine into a forest should be granted 

 only on condition that they are perfectly healthy, and guarded 

 by trustworthy swineherds ; two hundred swine for each man, 

 and an assistant for every hundred additional swine. 



(g) The owners of the swine should be made collectively 

 responsible for all damage which may be done to the forest. 

 In Epping Forest all swine admitted to pannage are ringed. 



6. Grass and Herbage. 



Grass and herbage, dry ferns, heather, etc., may either be 

 cut and removed from the forest and used for fodder or litter 

 for cattle, or, with the exception of the ferns, may be utilised 

 on the spot as pasture by grazing animals. 



A. Grass-cutting. 



Grass and herbage may be cut for fodder, or to form 

 thatching material, paper-pulp, etc. Dead ferns, especially 

 bracken, are largely used for litter, and heather for litter or 

 thatching, 



F.P. D 



