AFFORESTATION. 329 



lose a good deal more than a shilling an acre 

 in having a large number of rabbits and 

 pheasants about his corn-fields and meadows ; 

 and the owner of woodlands would find it more 

 profitable to convert his copse into high forests 

 or even to retain them, if he cuts them at 

 regular intervals, than to let them run to 

 economic waste pure and simple. 



The Ground Game Act does not give the 

 protection to the small farmer that it is said 

 to give. You can shoot your rabbit, it is 

 true, as it comes out of the wood, after 

 sacrificing perhaps half an hour of your 

 valuable time waiting for it at sundown with 

 a gun in your hands ; and you may kill one, or 

 even a brace, but that will be the end of your 

 sport, for the rabbits will then retire into the 

 woods until it is dark. The small farmer 

 cannot afford to employ a rabbit-catcher, or 

 even to snare rabbits, which often means 

 spending time and trouble for the benefit of 

 some one with a virtuous aptitude for early 

 rising exceeding his own — some one who will 

 find a use for those capacious pockets which 

 are made in the lining of rustic coats. Even 

 ferreting on a wet winter's day is not a very 

 profitable manner of employing time, for 



