54 The Gamekeeper at Home, 



when taken finally to the sawpit, some three or four 

 feet of the very ' butt ' and best part of the trunk will 

 be found useless. No sawyer will risk his implement 

 — which requires some hours' work to sharpen — in 

 wood which he suspects to contain concealed iron. 

 So that, besides the injury to the appearance of the 

 tree, there is a pecuniary loss. Even when the wires 

 are not twisted round, but merely rub against one side 

 of the bark, the same scars are caused there, though 

 not to such an extent. Rough and strong as the bark 

 seems to the touch, it speedily abrades under the con- 

 stant pressure of the metal. 



The keeper thinks that all those owners of pro- 

 perty who take a pleasure in their trees should see to 

 this and prevent it. There is nothing so detestable 

 as this wire fencing in his idea, You cannot even sit 

 upon it for rest, as you can on the old-fashioned post 

 and rails. The convenient gaps which used to be 

 found in every hedge at the corner are blocked now 

 with an ugly rusty iron string stretched across, 

 awkward to get over or under ; while as for a horse- 

 man getting by, you cannot pull it down as you could 

 ' draw ' a wooden rail, and if you try to uncoil it from 

 the blackthorn stem to which it is attached the jagged 

 end is tolerably certain to scrape the skin from your 

 fingers. 



