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LETTEE IX 



ADVICE IN SELECTING AN ESTATE FOE GAME 

 PRESERVATION, WITH SOME DETAILS OF 

 THE COST OF REARING PHEASANTS, AND 

 HOW TO FEED FULL-GROWN BIRDS IN 

 THE WOODS 



IF an estate consists of light and dry soil, all game 

 flourish on it, and the easier and less expensive 

 it be to rear and maintain a good head of 

 pheasants. The partridges with judicious manage- 

 ment will support themselves ; and as to the rabbits, 

 it will be a matter of killing them down rather than 

 encouraging their increase. The same in a less degree 

 with the hares, if the estate is large enough to permit 

 them to stray without overstepping its limits, and 

 they are not destroyed by the tenants. On the other 

 hand, in the case of hcanj clay land, game preserving 

 is generally a costly failure, for neither pheasants 

 nor partridges will live successfully on such ground, 

 whether wild bred or artificially reared. What 

 pheasants you do kill on heavy land will be very dear 



