WOODLANDS, GAME, AND SPORT 305 
netting and posts alone comes to sixpence a yard, 
and usually more; but even this low estimate 
means £22, or 42, 2s. per acre, for fencing even 
an absolutely square ten-acre plot. It is, however, 
not only in the woods themselves that damage 
is done by rabbits. They likewise ravage the 
fields surrounding the woodlands, and there, in- 
deed, very frequently commit havoc to such an 
extent as to affect the rental obtained from the 
farming tenants. And even besides this reduction 
in the true agricultural value of the land, there is 
sometimes a heavy bill to pay for specially severe 
damage occasioned in cases where the farmer is 
persuaded, or induced, not to avail himself of the 
only true means of protection, namely, that which 
is afforded by the Ground Game Act, empowering 
him to shoot down the rabbits on the land of 
which he is the tenant. I know a case in which 
a Gloucestershire landowner had to pay £100 
a few years ago for damage done to fields round 
a wood of 464 acres, although there was no in- 
tention of preserving the ground game. Inside 
this wood there is much ground ivy, bracken, 
blackberries, and other weeds now occupying the 
soil which should be producing a good growth 
U 
