100 THE RURAL PROBLEM 



their shooting. Then again too much game is preserved 

 for the land in many districts and the damage done to the 

 farming is immense, reducing the value of farms in some 

 cases by quite 4s. an acre.* The economic loss is enormous, 

 because shooting rarely commands an average of more than 

 2s. an acre all round. This damage is done not only by the 

 game itself, but by the fact that all other interests are sub- 

 ordinated to the game. The keeper kills everything that 

 will hurt his young birds and so deprives the neighbourhood 

 of its natural scavengers, who would keep under vermin and 

 pests. Thirdly, the individual farmer often suffers in un- 

 certainty and discouragement, a damage for which nothing 

 can compensate him. Mr. Tumor says : "I have been over 

 farms on which not only a large proportion of the root crop, 

 but every single swede and mangold had been damaged by 

 hares. I have heard landowners, men who ought to know 

 better, say of such-and-such a farm that it was only fit to 

 rear game. There are very few farms of which this could 

 be in any wise true, but there are many which are not 

 fertile enough to support a big head of game as well as to 

 produce paying crops." 



As a matter of fact, the compensation, when paid, is 

 generally inadequate. The damage done by fifty people 

 galloping over a field of wheat in wet weather is irreparable, 

 yet it cannot be fairly estimated or charged for ; and, as a 

 matter of fact, it docs not often occur, as foxhunting people 

 are more careful than they used to be and the farmer is 

 often more frightened than hurt. But the loss of poultry 

 owing to foxes is a serious item in the farmer's budget, and 

 as a rule hunts do not pay adequate compensation. Forty 

 or sixty head of poultry are stolen in a night ; they may be 

 pedigree birds, but the breeder is lucky if a £5 note is paid 

 in settlement of his claim. As for the " reasonable compen- 

 sation " which the farmer is supposed to receive under the 

 Land Holdings Act of 1907 when he holds land adjacent to 

 coverts, that applies only to pheasants. The farmer's 

 chief damage from large coverts, however, arises from the 

 rabbits, which pour out in hundreds on to his land, doing 



* Christopher Tuknor, Land Problems, p. 17. 



