Practical Game-Preserving. 2 



Without going very far back, it may be safely averred 

 that the great sportsmen of two generations ago could, for 

 the most part, have possessed very little idea of the limits 

 to which game-preservation would reach in the present day. 

 Originally, game-preserving meant merely the reserving of 

 the game on an estate to the owner or tenant of that estate. 

 It was restricted to protecting the game from poaching 

 and the attacks of predatory beasts and birds. A certain 

 limited knowledge was possessed by gamekeepers as to the 

 control of the game, the assistance to be extended to the 

 birds and animals in their breeding operations, the regula- 

 tion of the respective quantities of the different sexes, and 

 the best means of bringing them within reach of the gun. 

 To-day everything is changed. What may be described as 

 the experimental period has been passed, and from a vast 

 quantity of knowledge gained, a system or. rather a 

 series of systems has been evolved which, if it does not 

 reach perfection, goes very near to its attainment. 



Modern game-preserving may be defined as the produc- 

 tion, maintenance, and delivery before the gun of the 

 largest head of furred and feathered quarry which a pre- 

 serve is capable of producing. To achieve this end the 

 modern gamekeeper must of necessity be a man of many 

 parts, and the preserver of many resources. In the old days 

 the owner of the manor left everything to his keeper, merely 

 asking that a certain quantity of game should be pro- 

 vided, and being satisfied if it were forthcoming, taking 

 no stock of the methods employed. To put it mildly, the 

 requisitions were upon a moderate scale. Nowadays, the 

 maximum of possibilities is demanded, and the gamekeeper 

 must possess the ability to provide it. If he do not, the 

 preserver is sufficiently master of the situation to be 

 cognisant of the reason. Thus it comes about that, where 

 in the past the gamekeeper was able to maintain a sort of 



