GAME AND FISHERIES. 58 



that dry up easil.y ; stones retain moisture in the soil. Phices 

 must be assigned where the stones may be stored and roads 

 designated for their removal. 



Pits of sand, clay and gravel, that have been abandoned, 

 should be levelled or sloped-off to prevent accidents, and 

 if possible planted. This rule is specially applicable to 

 experimental pits abandoned as not sufficiently profitable. 



10. Collection of otlicr Items of Minor Produce. 



Collecting berries, such as bilberries, wild strawberries, 

 raspberries, etc. ; edible fungi ; empty cones lying on the 

 ground ; grass-seeds ; medicinal herbs or fruits, and other 

 such produce, the collection of which is not worth the trouble 

 of the forest owner, must be so regulated that only persons 

 provided with formally written or printed permits should be 

 admitted, and the period of collection fixed. In hot countries, 

 some of those products attain a much greater importance than 

 in temperate regions, and certain special rules may be neces- 

 sary, as in the collection of wild honey and wax in India, where 

 care must be taken to prevent the collectors from firing the 

 forest, so that it may be necessary to prohibit the collection 

 altogether except during seasons when the grass or other soil- 

 covering in the forest will not burn. 



11. Game and Fisheries. 



Leases in forests of the right to hunt or shoot game, and of 

 fisheries, frequently produce considerable annual revenues, but 

 whilst little or no damage is done by pheasants and other 

 birds, deer and ground-game (hares and rabbits) may do a 

 great amount of harm to a forest. The measures to protect 

 forests against these animals will be given further on. 



The protection of game and fisheries is dealt with in special 

 treatises, and would take up too much space in the present 

 book. In most civilised countries there are special laws 

 relating to game, and these should be so framed as not 

 only to prevent wholesale destruction of useful wild animals, 

 especially during their breeding season, but also to atl'ord 



