FOREST RIGHTS. 89 



/. Collecting Berries, etc. 



The right is always unlimited in amount, and cannot be 

 limited, as the produce is generally collected for sale. Except 

 in the case of digging up truffles it is quite harmless to the 

 forest, and need not be interfered with beyond fixing dates for 

 its commencement and termination in any year. 



Truffle-hunting, which is carried on with the help of a 

 special breed of dogs resembling poodles, must be prohibited 

 on the site of fellings, or amongst young growth. 



k. Shooting and Fishing. 



The right to kill game on another's property has been 

 abolished by law in Germany. There, this right is not bound 

 up with the ownership of the land, but is permitted only to an 

 owner when his estate exceeds a certain area. It frequently 

 happens, therefore, that the right of shooting on a number of 

 small estates is leased in one lot, and the proceeds divided by 

 the owners. In England, the Crown possessed rights to the 

 game in certain manors, after it had parted with the other 

 manorial rights, or actual property of the land, but these 

 rights have now been surrendered, as in the Epping Forest. 

 Baden Powell* states that in India no prescriptive rights to 

 hunt in the State forests have ever been admitted ; though 

 people have always killed game in the forests, no right can have 

 ordinarily become customary, for it is not necessary to the 

 existence of agricultural villages, or communities, as is the 

 case with grazing or wood rights. The question of hunting, 

 with rules for the protection of game during the breeding 

 season and when immature, is dealt with in different countries 

 under special laws. 



Fishing rights t in forest streams may exist, and are dealt 

 with by special laws regarding fisheries. These have chiefly 

 reference to close-times during the breeding season ;. and to 

 protecting immature fish by fixing a minimum-sized mesh 

 where nets are allowed ; also to prohibiting the poisoning of 

 streams, and other unsportsmanlike ways of catching fish. 



* " Forest Law," pp. 338, 364. 



f Regulations for the protection of game and fish in the State forests of India 

 have been framed by the Local Governments of the different Provinces. 



