GAME LAWS ABROAD. 303 



if a minimum of from three hundred to four hundred acres 

 were fixed, instead of fifty. 



It may here be observed, that the land in most parts of 

 Wurtemberg, is split up into small freeholds, the property 

 of yeomen, who till these plots themselves, and who cannot 

 be reimbursed, as most British farmers are where game is 

 preserved, by holding their farms at a lower rent than they 

 would have to pay were the game killed down and a re- 

 valuation of the farm made ; and the small amount of shoot- 

 ing-rent which the Wurtemberg yeoman might get on the 

 division would not compensate him for any great .damage. 

 I am told, however, that no great damage is done by the 

 game in Wurtemberg, though it sometimes happens that the 

 roe are obliged to be shot pretty hard in some places where 

 there are young plantations, as they eat off the tops of the 

 young silver fir trees. The wild boars, which did most 

 damage, have not existed outside game parks since 1848, 

 when all game was destroyed to a great extent ; nor have 

 fallow deer, though I am told there is an attempt to get the 

 latter up again in one .district, and there are not many red 

 deer, so that the number of the large game roaming about, 

 and likely to do damage, is not excessive. As to the smaller 

 game, there are occasionally complaints that hares bark the 

 young fruit trees, of which there are great numbers in 

 Wurtemberg; but this damage can be avoided if the trees 

 are properly bound up, or smeared with a preparation ; there 

 are no wild rabbits, the soil not suiting them, and pheasants 

 only in the royal pheasantry ; so that the actual amount of 

 damage done must be very small. Altogether, I am told that 

 the game has greatly decreased since 1848, and that one 

 hundred to one hundred and eighty hares are perhaps killed 

 now, where four hundred to eight hundred were killed before 

 that year. 



As regards the fence months during the breeding seasons 

 of the different kinds of game existing in Wurtemberg, 

 a translation is annexed of the Royal Ordinance referred to 



