2l6 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



away ; but if you continually disturb this 

 home cover by shooting or with dogs, they 

 will soon, if there is any left of them, 

 leave, their place being taken by strangers, 

 after a while. 



It will be seen from this that the hare 

 becomes rather a formidable enemy to the 

 farmer, if not kept under proper control by 

 the keeper, as regards feeding, locality, and 

 keeping down the young. As to this, by 

 particular feeding, you will be able to domicile 

 the animal in certain fields, and make certain 

 wooded localities its home cover. I have 

 frequently had a matter of ninety hares in a 

 small copse, not more than an acre-and-a-half 

 in extent, and, what is more, little or no 

 complaint about it from the tenant farmer; but 

 then the cover was favourable to hares, they 

 remaining in it a good deal, and so doing no 

 damage worth speaking of. If hares are not 

 properly looked after by the keeper, the tenant 

 farmer is injured by the destruction of his 

 newly-sown wheat, barley, and other seeds 

 that compose a winter or summer crop. 



