WOODLANDS, GAME, AND SPORT 297 



Where a large head of ground game is main- 

 tained, careful fencing with wire partly buried in 

 the ground is the only practical means of keeping 

 rabbits inside a warren, or of keeping them out of 

 plantations, and preventing them doing great 

 damage if they abound in large numbers. But 

 such fencing soon runs into a lot of money, if 

 done on any large scale. Where rabbits multiply 

 greatly, stoats and weasels would soon also mul- 

 tiply and maintain the balance of nature, were it 

 not the gamekeeper's duty to prevent that. 



Sport and Forestry are, I hold, by no 

 means incompatible with each other. The only 

 proviso is that the preservation of game must 

 not be on too large a scale if the forests are 

 intended to be worked commercially. I think 

 ample proof of this is given in the forests of 

 France and Germany, those owned by private 

 landholders as well as those belonging to the 

 State, where excellent sport is obtained in con- 

 junction with economic forestry conducted more 

 scientifically, and with greater financial success, 

 than in any other countries in the world. But 

 sport does not necessarily mean rabbits, which the 

 forester is forced to class as * vermin ' when they 



