THE MANAGEMENT OF DEER FORESTS in 



heads of the season or with half a hundred. If the 

 latter be the number adopted, it will be difficult to 

 maintain that the heads of fifty years ago would stand 

 comparison with those of the present day, seeing that 

 the number of stags killed now is far in excess of what 

 was formerly obtained in a season. It stands to 

 reason that, the larger the number of specimen heads 

 which are taken, the more unfavourably must the test 

 operate on the period when the total number from 

 which they are selected is relatively small. 



At the present day it is calculated that about 

 4,000 stags are killed annually. Fifty years ago, owing 

 to various causes besides the smaller number of deer 

 forests then in existence, it is probable that not more 

 than one stag was shot for every six at the present 

 time. Now if fifty stags' heads be taken for pur- 

 poses of comparison, that number will form about 

 one-thirteenth of the total killed in 1845, and only 

 one-eightieth of the bag of 1895. 



But if ten or a dozen be the number adopted, 

 there are reasons for supposing that the heads of former 

 times were the best. If they were not, and this as has 

 been said is difficult to prove, they ought to have been. 

 It has been already mentioned that land which is now 

 cleared was then in a large measure utilised as sheep- 

 walks. This land was, for the most part, remote, 



