2i6 SHOOTING THE PHEASANT 



though you cannot shoot your pheasants out of them, 

 while to cut down or maim them would be an outrage. 

 But if, as is so often the case, especially if you buy an 

 estate which has not been well looked after, you find 

 many acres of beech in which there are not more than 

 three or four good trees to every acre, then you have a 

 great opportunity. By cutting out — always with an eye 

 to the picturesque appearance of the wood — and leaving 

 the good trees, you will make open spaces, and create 

 a wilder and more broken appearance in the covert 

 than before. These spaces you can either leave alone — 

 in which case no sooner is the shade of the beeches 

 removed than brambles or other form of undergrowth 

 will make its gradual appearance — or you can plant 

 them with any sort of undergrowth suitable to soil and 

 climate, and with a few young trees. Holly and most 

 of the firs look beautiful intermixed with fine beeches. 

 Your wood will really be vastly improved in 

 appearance if this is well done, and the patches cut 

 out are not made square or round, or in any way 

 uniform in shape. And as to your birds, the result 

 will be equally satisfactory. They will still have a 

 goodly proportion of bare ground on which to run and 

 scratch under the great trees, as well as a supply of the 

 beech mast which they love for food. They will also 

 have great spaces where the sunlight will penetrate — 



