GAME ANIMALS 133 



patches in a plantation and may even destroy the 

 greater part of it. 



The recommendations already made aboVe for the 

 protection of woods from infection from neighbour- 

 ing areas apply to these pests. 



Protection against Game Animals 

 There will be few possessing a knowledge of the 

 facts who will gainsay the fact that sport as it has 

 been carried on during the past half-century has 

 had an adverse effect on the growth of woods as a 

 commercial proposition. In the majority of cases 

 the wishes of the gamekeeper have been paramount, 

 and the forester and his management have had to 

 take a second place. This is not to say that of 

 necessity the woods were wrongly utiUzed. If the 

 object of management of the proprietor in the growth 

 of his woods was primarily for sporting purposes, 

 to afford areas of retirement for breeding and rearing 

 purposes, and in the case of pheasants high rises 

 when the birds came to be shot, it became the duty 

 of the men he employed to carry out these wishes. 

 The fact, however, remains that they were detri- 

 mental to commercial forestry. In the case of deer 

 also, the maintenance of a large head of these 

 animals militated against the possibility of woods 

 of any size being grown on the portion of these areas 

 suitable for the purpose, the plantable lowlands, 

 since they were required to provide wintering for 

 the animals. 



An afforestation scheme on any scale in the 

 country will therefore necessitate a change to some 

 extent in the methods under which sport lias been 



