GROUND GAME 219 



GROUND GAME 



Hares and rabbits comprise ground game, and, as already 

 shown, militate against arboricultural, agricultural and horti- 

 cultural pursuits. The damage inflicted on forest-trees in their 

 early stages of growth accounts in great measure for the indiffer- 

 ent supply and inferior quality of British deal and pine wood as 

 compared with imported ; and even hard-wood is so cross-grained 

 for a considerable length of bole as to be unfit for structural pur- 

 poses. The difference between British and imported timber is 

 readily accounted for, inasmuch as in Britain wild animals, such 

 as deer and hare, have been protected by forest and game laws 

 from the time of the Norman Conquest : whereas in the wilds 

 of Northern Europe and America no such restrictions existed, 

 but any one, as in Saxon times in Great Britain, could help him- 

 self to a meal by the exercise of his skill as distinct from that of 

 the chase : consequently, ruminant and rodent mammals good 

 for food were kept from depredation in cultivated tracts, and 

 even in their native wilds limited in number through the con- 

 comitant and counter-balancing forces of Nature, as well as by 

 decimation increasing correspondingly with the bringing of forest 

 and wild into cultivation by multiplied and advancing mankind. 

 This implies alike forest and chase depletion : hence we get 

 at the root of the Forest Laws of William the Conqueror, and also 

 the Game Laws of the Barons the preservation of game for sport, 

 the production of timber and of food being secondary considera- 

 tions. These, however, always forced themselves to the front 

 as antagonistic to the national aspirations for land to cultivate, 

 and security for the crops from inroads of large and ground game. 

 The large game because the country would not stand its undue 

 keeping at the expense of soil-cultivators and of hindrance to crop 

 production were restricted to forests and deer-parks, though 

 deer at large were not allowed to be killed, but, like stray 

 cattle, restored intact to the owners with or without impounding 

 or recompense for damage. This, however, came to naught, for 

 now large game, except the King's deer, may be destroyed when 

 roaming at large. Ground game, equally with large game, may 

 now be kept from eating the crops of owner and tenant cultivators, 

 inasmuch as the Game Laws in force admit property in hares 

 and rabbits to Ije vested in the occupiers of the land : but under 

 existing laws the woodlands and warrens, which serve as the breed- 

 ing places of hares and rabbits, may not be invaded by tenants 

 or other cultivators not also owning or tenanting the coverts : 

 therefore the ground game is free to sally forth at feeding-times 

 and commit havoc according to number on cultivated crops 

 coming within reach. The ravages of this nature are distinctly 

 encouraged, for no steps are taken to confine the game to the 



