178 GORSE COVERTS 



much prefer to have two small separate gorses on the 

 same land ; this, for a variety of reasons which have 

 appeared to me since I have been in charge of a 

 district. In light land, for one thing, where the gorse 

 covert is thriving, the ubiquitous rabbit is pretty sure 

 to appear. This is by some considered to be an advan- 

 tage as providing food for the foxes, but to my mind 

 the rabbit is ever the bane of the gorse covert and 

 the curse of fox-hunting. When once even a few 

 rabbits make their appearance in a gorse, if half or 

 any portion of the covert has to be cut down, that 

 portion must be most carefully wired round with a 

 three-foot rabbit-netting — here extra expense comes in 

 — and every rabbit-hole dug out, for there is nothing 

 the dear little bunnies love better than the tender 

 sprouts of gorse ; they nibble these off with marvellous 

 assiduity as soon as the green tit-bits appear. Half a 

 dozen rabbits will do more damage to an acre of sprout- 

 ing gorse than any one would believe who had not seen 

 their depredations. This wiring-in of the cut-down 

 portion of the covert to protect it against rabbits is 

 absolutely necessary, but it is a terrible disadvantage, 

 for it causes foxes to be chopped when hounds are 

 drawing the standing part. I have seen this happen 

 more than once in the same covert. Now, with two 

 separate coverts you cut the whole of one down, and 

 getting fairly to work at the rabbits, ought easily to 

 be able to exterminate them. When gorse likes the 

 soil it will grow so strong in twelve months as to be 

 quite safe from the attentions of the rabbit who only 

 cares for the young shoots. With all the gorse down 

 and the fences clean, it should not be a difficult matter 



