138 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



which might have grown large enough to form part of a 

 ship's timbers is sold for a shilling. 



Holly is another favourite wood for sticks, and fetches 

 more money than oak or ash, on account of its ivory-like 

 whiteness when peeled. To get a good stick with a knob 

 to it frequently necessitates a considerable amount of 

 cutting and chopping, and does far more damage than the 

 loss of the stick itself represents. Neither blackthorn nor 

 crabtree seem so popular as they once were for this 

 purpose. 



In the autumn scores of men, women, and children 

 scour the hedges and woods for acorns, which bring a 

 regular price per bushel or sack, affording a valuable food 

 for pigs. Others seek elderberries to sell for making wine, 

 and for a few weeks a trade is done in blackberries. 

 Chair-menders and basket-makers frequent the shore of 

 the little mere or lake looking for bulrushes or flags : the 

 old rush-bottomed chairs are still to be found in country 

 houses, and require mending ; and flag-baskets are much 

 used. 



Hazel-nuts and filberts perhaps cause more trouble 

 than all the rest ; this fruit is now worth money, and in 

 some counties the yield of nuts is looked forward to in 

 the same way as any other crop — as in Kent, where cob- 

 nuts are cultivated, and where the disorderly hop-pickers 

 are great thieves. I have heard of owners of copses losing 

 ten or fifteen pounds' worth of nuts by a single raid. 



