DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 93 



Silver Fir suffers most, but is at the same time the best endowed 

 with recuperative capacity, whilst the Scots Pine, which is much 

 less liable to be injured, is speedily interfered with in growth 

 and development by being nibbled. Although in 'general more 

 liable to be bitten and grazed on, the broad -leaved species of 

 trees possess at the same time a superior reproductive power : 

 Oak, Maple, Sycamore, Ash, and Beech are for the most part 

 grazed on, whilst softwoods suffer more from rubbing with the 

 antlers during early and late summer. Alder and Birch suffer 

 least of all in either respect, as they are only exceptionally 

 selected by deer for either purpose. Subordinate species of trees, 

 merely sprinkled or interspersed among other ruling species, are 

 most exposed to nibbling, as, for example, conifers, even including 

 Scots Pine, scattered throughout seedling crops of Beech. 



The succulent stoles and stool-shoots in coppice-hags are specially 

 liable to be browsed on during the winter months; but, on the 

 other hand, they grow beyond the reach of the deer much sooner 

 than the seedling growth of young high-forest, so that any 

 j damage inflicted on the shoots hardly affects their quality as fuel, 

 whereas high-forest is the method of treatment most likely to 

 suffer permanently from any injuries received. 



But in addition to the above-named direct results of injuries 

 to the woods, there are also certain indirect consequences. Among 

 these are the necessity for protecting the acorns and beech-mast 

 by storing them throughout the winter, which cannot be done 

 without some outlay, the impossibility of reproducing the Oak by 

 the dibbling in of acorns, which necessitates a heavier outlay for 

 [planting, the hindrance occasioned by red-deer to the artificial 

 linterspersion of Silver Fir throughout crops of Spruce, owing to 

 jtheir being sought out for nibbling, &c. The extent, to which 

 these dangers exist, varies so much with circumstances, that it is 

 (equally impossible either to estimate the indirect consequences or 

 jto express the direct results numerically. 



(50.) Preventive and Protective Measures. 



The means through which injuries to woodlands by the above- 

 mentioned animals of the chase can be, so far as possible, hindered, 

 }r at any rate minimised, are partly of a preventive nature, having 

 Deference to adequate nourishment of the herds, or to keeping 



