Land Problems and National Welfare 



ment to the farmer and the harm done to the 

 routine of a farm by having a considerable 

 number of acres of barley destroyed by 

 game. I have been over farms on which not 

 only a large proportion of the root crop, but 

 every single swede and mangold had been 

 damaged by hares. I have heard landowners, 

 men who ought to know better, say of such and 

 such a farm that it was only fit to rear game. 

 There are very few farms of which this could be 

 in any wise true, but there are many which are 

 not fertile enough to support a big head of game 

 as well as to produce paying crops. 



The argument is often put forward that it is ex- 

 pedient to keep up a large head of game, as with- 

 out good shooting the place would be difficult 

 or impossible to let. While this is undoubtedly 

 often true, there are, however, many exceptions ; 

 and not seldom it would pay the landowner 

 better greatly to reduce the head of game 

 and to ask more rent per acre for his farms. 

 It takes very good shooting to bring in a rent 

 of 2s. an acre all round, but I know many 

 estates where the amount of game preserved 

 makes quite 4s. an acre difference in the rental 

 of the farms. 



But I must deal in more detail with the ques- 

 tion of estate duties, that sword of Damocles, to 

 which a passing reference has been made. 



There seems little doubt that a section of the 



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