WOODLANDS, GAME, AND SPORT 307 



per acre, at 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 years 

 respectively ; and this is of itself no inconsider- 

 able charge against the rate of profit yielded by the 

 crop of timber. But, heavy though this item be, 

 it represents nothing like the monetary equiva- 

 lent of the actual damage done by the rabbits in 

 literally eating away the value of the crop. 



Often, too, the conditions under which timber 

 and coppice are sold clash with the possibility of 

 obtaining the full market value for the produce. 

 On estates where game preservation is one of the 

 main objects in view, the forestry work is ex- 

 pected to be carried out between the end of the 

 shooting season and the beginning of the nesting 

 period, so that all thinning, felling, and planting 

 operations have to be crowded into about six 

 weeks of February and March, quite regardless of 

 whether or not that may be the most suitable 

 time for doing the work. It is not the best time, 

 but it is the only ' seasonable ' time from the 

 gamekeeper's point of view. As the trees are 

 felled when getting beyond their dry winter con- 

 dition (the best time for felling), and as he is 

 forced to remove the timber immediately, the 

 buyer will not give as much for it as might other- 



