THE MANAGEMENT OF DEER FORESTS 85 



advantage is- taken of the experience acquired by 

 others, is rare. 



Thus, no one ought to think of making a deer 

 forest on ground which is completely surrounded by 

 sheep. To begin with, the amount of fencing would 

 be enormous ; without fencing the sheep would crowd 

 in on every side, and it would then be useless for 

 your purpose. Nor is it easy to see how such ground 

 is to be stocked, or if at length it were to be stocked 

 with deer, how long the process would last. 



It is essential to make sure that there is good 

 wintering ground belonging to your proposed forest, 

 otherwise you will never get the best heads or the 

 heaviest bodies, while if you trust to your neighbour 

 to winter your deer, you ought to be sure of him. If 

 of a jealous disposition, he may give trouble, forgetting 

 that though wintering is all-important, still the growth 

 and well-doing of a stag depend to some extent on 

 his condition at the beginning of winter, and that the 

 migration of a certain proportion of the deer that 

 wintered with him to the newly made forest in the 

 early summer relieves his own ground, and thus im- 

 proves its capabilities to keep them all in good con- 

 dition in winter. 



Hut supposing a case where the above may not 

 apply, or where your neighbour will not see it in that 



