134 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



plant wood, and his object be simply game, the keeper is 

 of opinion that the somewhat stiff and trim plantations 

 are preferable. They are generally of fir ; and fir is the 

 most difficult of trees to slip past, being decidedly of an 

 obstructive turn. The boughs grow so close to the 

 ground that unless you crawl you cannot go under them. 

 The trunks — unlike those of many other trees — will 

 flourish so near together that the extremities of the 

 branches touch and almost interweave, and they are rough 

 and unpleasant to push through. To shoot or trap, or use 

 a net or other poacher's implement, is very difficult in a 

 young fir plantation, because of this thickness of growth ; 

 so that in a measure the tree itself protects the game. 

 Then the cover afforded is warm and liked by the birds ; 

 and so for many reasons the fir has become a great 

 favourite, notwithstanding that it is of very little value 

 when finally cut down. 



For fox preserving firs are hardly so suitable, because 

 the needles, or small sharp leaves, quite destroy all under- 

 growth — not only by the turpentine they contain, but by 

 forming a thick mat, as it were, upon the earth. This 

 mass of needles takes years, to all appearance, to decay, 

 and no young green ' blade or shoot can get through it ; 

 besides which the fir-boughs above make a roof almost 

 impenetrable to air and light, the chief necessities of a 

 plant's existence. Foxes like a close warm under-growth, 

 such as furze, sedges when the ground is dry, the under- 



