140 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



Any shooter who intends to hire land for game pre- 

 serving, and wishes to conduct his sport with success 

 and economy, had better bear the few hints given 

 below in mind, and he may as well know that the 

 larger the extent of land under preservation the 

 smaller in proportion the expense of keepers and 

 watchers, and the less game will be lost by straying. 



WHEN YOU INTEND TO HIRE AN ESTATE FOE 

 GAME PRESERVING 



Choose one with : 



1. Light soil (sandy for preference) ; this is the 

 first and grand desideratum for all game preserving. 



2. Woods well inside the boundaries. 



3. Small woods; the pheasants can then be readily 

 driven over the guns from one wood to the other, and 

 all the game in any covert can be easily shown. 



4. A variety of trees in the plantations, with open 

 spaces here and there ; pheasants will rarely drive 

 well out of a dense fir wood, as they are apt to run to 

 its end before they are able to rise and fly. All 

 woods should have open spaces for hand feeding, and 

 also to enable the birds to sun themselves after wet 

 inside the coverts instead of outside them. 



keeper who is keen and jealous wants all England to himself for 

 preserving pheasants, and even then he would sulk for a week if one 

 bird flew over to France I 



