THE FOX 83 



expressly for the purpose of holding foxes, I 

 would not have it less than five acres or more 

 than twelve. Anything under five acres cannot 

 be depended on with any degree of certainty, 

 and anything over twelve gives a fox, unwilling 

 to go away, too great an advantage over hounds. 

 Of course I am speaking of a thorn or gorse 

 covert, and not a place that is planted with trees. 

 If the field you intend to plant is not naturally 

 sheltered by the lie of the land or by trees, I 

 advise you to put in, all round the outside, a 

 double row of Austrian pines, as they grow very 

 quickly and make a splendid break for the wind. 

 It is a good plan to have a whitethorn barricade 

 of about ten yards deep all round the covert, 

 the thorn to be layered and then kept cut. The 

 object of this is to prevent people and ^cattle 

 from getting in and disturbing the foxes, but 

 whitethorn does not make good covert of itself 

 unless mixed with privet. Blackthorn makes 

 the best covert, though there are times when 

 gorse is preferred. 



If I were going to make a covert I would 

 choose, if possible, that it should be about ten 

 acres and, if there was any slope, that it should face 



