H 



THE NEW FORESTRY. 



right way to work. The German system of dense cropping 

 is being put into operation in the Crown forests and on 

 private estates. According to Dr. Adam Schwappach, professor 

 of forestry, Eberswald, Prussia, " the most extensive as well 

 as the most scientific system of forestry," according to German 

 notions, is now being carried out in the large pine forests 

 belonging to the Countess of Seafield, in Scotland, where game 

 is also expected to abound ; and also in the Raith forests, Fife, 

 belonging to R. C. Munro Ferguson, Esq. With, regard to the 

 latter, it has been publicly stated that ' the woods are now to 

 be worked with a view of profit, and that questions of sport 

 and aesthetic considerations would have to take a back seat.' " 

 In this chapter, however, we have suggested a plan of laying 

 out young dense woods and planting up old ones that gets 

 rid of the keeper's objections to density without sacrificing 

 the timber crop, and it will be apparent, we hope, to sportsmen, 

 that if a keeper cannot put up his game in such a covert it will 

 be his own fault. A good rabbiter with two or three well-drilled 

 fox terriers could certainly accomplish the last successfully. 



A diagram of a combined timber forest and game preserve, 

 showing how this covert may be formed, is given towards the 

 end of this section. 



All that is needed in this country to insure heavy timber 

 crops and plenty of underwood or low bush cover is a slight 

 modification of the German forestry methods by which clumps 

 of coppice might be introduced here and there in small clear- 

 ings in conjunction with the rides arid paths, and so laid out as 

 to admit sportsmen with the gun to every part of the wood. 

 When traversing great tracts of dense forest in the Hartz 

 Mountains and elsewhere in Germany, it occurred to the writer 

 that clearings might be introduced frequently where a great 

 variety of coppice bush (including a large number of species that 

 produce fruit freely, almost anywhere in Britain, and that is 

 greedily eaten by pheasants,) might be grown in far greater 

 abundance than has yet been attempted in a systematic way 

 in this country. Much expense is incurred on estates in provid- 

 ing artificial food, which is by no means so necessary as the 

 artificial breeder imagines who slings his bag or bucket of food 

 nearly every day in the year for birds that wait for his coming 

 like domestic fowls, without trying to find their natural food ; 

 whereas it is perfectly well known that the wild pheasant can 

 provide for itself all the year round, and has to do on some 

 estates, where it thrives and affords good sport. The pheasant, 

 indeed, displays a remarkable ability in catering for itself and 



