SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL ASPECTS 169 



CHAPTER IV 



DEER FORESTS : THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL 

 ASPECTS 



Ix view of the long and heated controversy which 

 has raged between the advocates and opponents of 

 the system of converting large areas of pasture land 

 into deer forests, it seems not only proper but almost 

 essential that in a treatise like the present one some 

 reference should be made to the preservation of deer 

 from an economical aspect. To deal comprehen- 

 sively with this branch of the subject, bringing out all 

 that has ever been said for and against the system, 

 analysing the evidence and going minutely into facts 

 and figures, would alone fill a volume of the 'Fur 

 and Feather ' series, and is here out of the question. 



I propose, in the following pages, to deal briefly 

 with first, the origin of the attacks made on deer 

 forests, and the various quarters whence such attacks 

 have proceeded ; secondly, the judgment pronounced 

 on them after hearing evidence on both sides by 



