THE GAME QUESTION. 21 



destruction of game ; but the interests of sport and game, 

 in so far as they clash with the national interests of 

 forestry, must be relegated to their fit and proper place. 



Different classes of game in the forest area will require 

 different methods of treatment. Rabbits are the greatest 

 enemy to plants, although they may not always be the 

 most difficult pest to deal with. They must be extermi- 

 nated wherever there are young plants, if the young plants 

 are to have a reasonable chance of success. Nor would 

 this be without advantage in other respects, because in 

 many parts of the rough grazings throughout the country 

 the best land is so overrun by rabbits that farm stock 

 cannot live on it. If owners of lands adjoining newly 

 formed plantations will keep a stock of rabbits, power 

 must be obtained to compel them to confine the rabbits to 

 their own land. It is unfair that a proprietor, whether a 

 private individual or a public body, should clear ground 

 of these pests for the cultivation of timber for the benefit 

 of the country, and also be expected to fence out his 

 neighbour's stock of rabbits. 



Black-game may be placed as a good second to rabbits. 

 The recommendation in the report on the proposed planting 

 scheme for Glen Mor, ' that they must be reduced from 

 their status of game to that of vermin/ will require to be 

 legally enacted to enable forestry to be established satis- 

 factorily. Black -game will be more difficult to deal with 

 in some respects than rabbits. The latter may be fenced 

 out ; the former cannot. To save the plants in a compara- 

 tively small area it may be necessary not only to ex- 

 terminate these birds in the neighbourhood of young 

 plantations, but also to have them reduced to an absolute 

 minimum over a very wide district. 



Capercailzie, where numerous, may require similar treat- 

 ment to black-game, but this bird has a less evil reputation 

 for causing damage to young plants, and is neither so 

 plentiful nor so widespread. 



