22 THE GAME QUESTION. 



Hares, brown and blue, although less likely than 

 rabbits to be a serious menace, may also be very injurious 

 to young plants if not kept down to reasonable numbers. 

 This can be more easily done than in the case of any of 

 the previously named pests, and drastic treatment should 

 be required only on rare occasions. 



Grouse, stated by some to be addicted, like black-game, 

 to picking the buds of young plants, although to a lesser 

 degree, may safely be given reasonable scope as a game- 

 bird for sport. They are comparatively harmless, because 

 they frequent mainly land which to a large extent will be 

 only partially useful for timber production, but which as 

 grouse-moors may bring in substantial rents.* 



Other game-birds, so far as experience shows, are not 

 in themselves prejudicial to the interests of forestry. 



Deer have been placed last on the list of the young 

 plants' enemies, not because they are by any means the 

 least harmful, but because they form a class by themselves, 

 and are not usually classed as game. They may be more 

 correctly designated beasts of the mountains in the case 

 of red deer, and of low ground and plains in the case of 

 roe deer. Fallow deer may be left out of consideration in 

 Scotland. Roe deer may cause great damage to young 

 plantations, and will necessarily have to be allowed only 

 in very limited numbers, if at all, in the neighbourhood of 

 the afforestation area during the initial stages. Red deer, 

 being more numerous, are likely to demand stringent 

 measures, and their proclivities for damaging agricultural 

 crops will require consideration. Red deer, like grouse, 

 may, however, prove to be a useful adjunct in many dis- 

 tricts of the Highlands where the greater portion of the 

 land which is their chief haunts will be outside the plant- 



* This is submitted as an alternative use to which the poor upland 

 excluded from the planting area may be put. The question of using 

 such land for grazing has been treated in a previous chapter. Sport and 

 grazing may also be combined 



