304 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
destroy, such as oak, ash, sycamore, maple, 
beech, and hazel. The soft-barked ash they 
attack most of all, and this tree is never at 
any age safe from their onslaught during snowy 
weather. Often they almost clear the ground 
of seedlings and young coppice-shoots in the 
open woods, while natural regeneration and 
reproduction are vigorous in adjoining patches 
protected for experimental observation. Coni- 
fers are on the whole less liable to be damaged 
than broad-leaved trees owing to the resin they 
contain, but larch, spruce, and silver fir are 
the most toothsome among them while still 
young and smooth in the bark. Pines gene- 
rally, and the Corsican pine especially, are less 
liable to be attacked than any other trees. 
It is questionable, indeed, if many landowners 
have ever calculated, in cold blood, and without 
any sort of preference or prejudice whatever, the 
true debit and credit of their rabbit account. It 
would be interesting to know how much the 
rabbits actually do cost on many estates in loss 
of income from and damage to woodlands, and 
in expenditure for wire fencing and maintenance 
of rabbit-proof fences. The first cost of wire- 
