RABBITS AND WOODS. 173 



RABBITS AND WOODS. 



This sad subject has been kept for the hx.'^t, as the only disa<i;ree- 

 able one in connection with the wihl garden. All I have to say of 

 it is, there should be no rabbits in the wild garden ; but the following 

 suggestions may prove useful. 



The subject should be presented in a practical light to landowners 

 and preservers of game, and if it can be shown that the preservation, 

 or rather toleration, of rabbits on an estate is a dead loss both to the 

 proprietor and his tenants, probably more active measures would l)e 

 taken for their extermination. It is incalculable the injury they do to 

 young trees alone ; indeed, where they j^revail there is no chance of 

 getting up cover except at an exti'avagant cost. Hares are less 

 destructive, if they damage trees at all ; and it is said by experienced 

 gamekeepers that they never thrive so well where rabbits abound. 

 And as regards pheasants, they drive them away by eating down the 

 evergreen cover so necessary to their existence in the way of shelter in 

 winter. Pheasants will not remain in a wood where there is not 

 shelter of this kind ; and nothing are they more partial to than the 

 Holly, which ought to abound in every wood, but which the ralibits 

 destroy first. Here are two sorts of game — hares and pheasants — which 

 many can never have enough of, and the existence of which is directly 

 interfered with by the rabbits ; they should be encouraged at the 

 expense of the latter — not to speak of the expense incurred year after 

 year making up losses in plantation, and the expense of wire-netting 

 and labour, etc., in protecting the trees. The extermination of rabbits 

 in this country is not such a difficult matter as might be imagined. 

 When it was determined here a few years since to reduce their numbers 

 to a minimum on the farm lands and woods, it did not require more 

 than a couple of years to do so by shooting and ferreting during the 

 season ; and they are now principally confined to one part of the 

 estate — an extensive tract of waste land not of much use for any other 

 purpose. I feel pretty certain that a few active poachers would under- 

 take to clear an estate of its rabbits in a marvellously short time, and 

 would be glad to pay a handsome consideration for the privilege of 

 loing so. In whatever degree rabbits contribute to our food supply — 

 and it is not much — they certainly destroy a great quantity of our coin 

 crops, and are no profit to gentlemen or game preservers, and there is 

 therefore no excuse for their existence. 



Hungry rabbits, like hungry dogs or starving men, will eat almost 



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