PANNAGE. 563 



lierfectly sound in water, a large proportion of them usually 

 rots after the seed has been sown. This method may, how- 

 ever, be adopted for acorns stored for feeding game. Alder seed 

 taken out of ponds, &c., also keeps very badly in the winter. 



Section III. — Pannage. 

 1. General Account. 



Acorns and beech-nuts are the chief forest fruits used for 

 feeding swine or deer, which also eat chestnuts, hazel-nuts, 

 blackberries, &c. This kind of fodder is collectively termed 

 mast, a word connected with the German maatiuKj (fattening) ; 

 it is chiefly utilized by driving swine into the forest to feed, and 

 the usage is termed pannage.* Less frequently, mast is collected 

 and used to feed pigs or deer. [Thus, near Windsor Forest, 

 one shilling a bushel is paid by farmers for acorns collected 

 in October by women and children.— Te.] 



In earlier times, pannage in the then extensive oak and beech 

 forests of Europe, was, next to hunting, the chief forest usage. 

 [Very prevalent in English forests from Saxon times. — Tk.] 

 The records of pannage in Germany date from the 12th cen- 

 tury, t Later on, the people living near forests divided the 

 pannage among their numerous herds of swine, and, especially 

 in the 16th and 17th centuries, rearing swine had attained 

 great importance in most forest districts, and produced consider- 

 able wealth. Paimage is still extensively followed in Servia, 

 Hungary, Galicia and other countries.! 



* Batlcu-PowL'll states that pannage is derived from a middle-latin woid 

 paniia/jiK/ii, feeding swine on fallen acorns, said to be further derived from 

 ])asfu)n, feeding. The double n marks some contraction, as if it yverki pastimi- 

 (jium ; tliis is somewhat confirmed by tlie old French word "^a.SHrt^c," jiayment 

 to a lanillord for the right of feeding swine. — Tr. 



t The abbot of Mauermiinster issued a forest legulation in ll.'.S, in which mis- 

 appr<)])riation of acorns was considered a forest offence. 



J [In Britain, pannage is chiefly exercised in the New Forest, where, according 

 to the Dcimty Surveyor, in an ordinary good mast-year, about 5,000 swine are 

 admitted. The numbers in the last five years were 



1890 4204 1893 4S6 



1891 684 1594 1235 



1892 1030 



The small number in 1890, the last good mast-year was owing to the pre- 

 valence of swine-fever. In Epping Forest, only about 50 swine are admitted 

 annually and a few in the Forest of Dean, being ringed in both forests. — Tr ] 



O O 2 



