Feb. 10. 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
173 
Game Here and in England 
By H. HICKMOTT 
T hat is a very interesting article by Mr. 
Chase, of Vermont, in your issue of Dec. 
30 on game preserves, but according to 
our system of game preserving here in England, 
the first and most important item of all is not 
mentioned, and in all the very good articles I 
have read in Forest and Stream for the past 
twenty-five years on game birds and the pre¬ 
servation of game generally, I have been sur¬ 
prised that very few articles have referred to it 
—that is, killing down vermin of all kinds and 
descriptions. The first thing any experienced 
gamekeeper does in this country is to clear 
the estate he has under charge of all kinds of 
noxious animals and birds. 
Our experience is that the vermin will do far 
more harm in the nesting season than all the 
poachers combined. Of course, the time of in¬ 
cubation is the most dangerous for the game- 
keeper, as it regards wholesale losses. It is 
no unusual occurrence for a vixen fox with 
cubs to take several young birds off their nests 
in one night. This would apply to both pheas¬ 
ants and partridges, also wild ducks, young 
rabbits and hares and poultry. They will also 
carry off newly born lambs and fawns. Self¬ 
hunting dogs and cats are almost, if not quite 
as bad. Stoats, weasels, rats, hawks, owls, 
crows, jays, jackdaws, magpies, snakes and 
adders are passionately fond of all kinds of 
young game birds and never require the second 
invitation to kill and destroy them. 
No gamekeeper in his right senses would ever 
think of trying to raise game birds of any kind 
unless he had previously killed the vermin well 
down. It would be his first and only thought. 
It does not matter where, or on what system 
game is going to be raised or who the owners 
are, continuous trapping is an absolute neces¬ 
sity to keep the vermin down. It does seem 
most absurd to me to spend large sums of 
money on game preserving and then to lose 
fifty per cent, of them through noxious animals 
and birds, which, I fear, has too often been the 
case. Kill your vermin first, that is the first 
and most important consideration. Raising 
your game either as wild birds or by propaga¬ 
tion (hand rearing) is a second consideration. 
Enforcing your laws for illegally killing and 
destroying game birds and fish is a third con¬ 
sideration. 
What Mr. Chase has said concerning the game 
laws of England, of course, is quite true; but, on 
the other hand, things of importance are gen¬ 
erally governed by circumstances. In course 
of his remarks, Mr. Chase says the game is 
owned in trust by the State for the benefit of 
all its people, which is also quite true, but as 
far as America is concerned, circumstance has 
always permitted this system of liberty of spirit 
and free principles, and as far as the game is 
concerned, it originated when the Mayflower 
landed its first consignment of Pilgrims on the 
coast of New England, A. D. 1620. Of course, 
as they met with no opposition, except by In¬ 
dians, the Pilgrim fathers naturally took it for 
granted that they were the owners of the game, 
and according to the circumstances they had a 
perfect right to it and unquestionably their bill 
of fare generally consisted of wild game and 
fish, and as the same constitution of spirit and 
liberty and free principles has been handed 
down from generation to generation for hun¬ 
dreds of years, and with the advantage of an 
immense extent of country, with boundless re¬ 
sources and enormous supplies of wild game, 
and thinly populated up to within comparatively 
recent years, circumstances were able to permit 
of free hunting with little or no expense. There¬ 
fore, it is not difficult to understand the feeling 
of spirit and conception of principles that is 
still retained by the sportsmen of the United 
States at the present day. 
Referring to the game laws of England, cir¬ 
cumstances are very different. We have never 
had the extent of country or the resources. Ac¬ 
cording to history, the game belonged to the 
people prior to the Norman conquest, but after 
the battle of Hastings, Oct. 14, A. D. 1066, the 
game laws of England underwent an universal 
change. William I. The Conqueror appeared 
to have been as keen a sportsman as he was 
an ardent warrior, for he established the New 
Forest in the county of Hampshire as a hunting 
preserve, which is retained by the government 
to this day for the same purpose, and thus com¬ 
menced in England the feudal system, and the 
preservation of game generally. 
In a country like England, limited both in size 
and resources as regards a natural supply of 
wild game, with an ever-increasing population, 
how would it be possible to provide free hunt¬ 
ing and shooting for all? As the law now 
stands, many people benefit by it, for it gives 
employment to thousand's of men as gamekeep¬ 
ers, and it causes large sums of money to be 
circulated. Of course, large quantities of game 
are killed every season all over the country, 
but, note this, on many estates where a large 
head of game is reared it cannot be done and 
never is done, without considerable expense, for 
the preservation of game and everything con¬ 
nected with it, and, taking the sum total for 
the whole country combined, it must range up 
into the hundreds of thousands of pounds an¬ 
nually. For example, the licenses that are pur¬ 
chased for every sporting dog, and all the game 
certificates that are taken out for the killing 
and selling of game, it must benefit the inland 
revenue many thousands of pounds also. 
There are still other items of benefit connected 
with it, gunsmiths, ammunition and cartridge 
manufacturers, game and dog food manufac¬ 
turers, game salesmen of London, and all other 
large towns in Englind, all benefit by it also. 
Several sporting journals devoted to the in¬ 
terest of sportsmen, gamekeepers and proprie¬ 
tors of game preserves all find a revenue more 
or less in publishing their papers. Proprietors 
of game farms, who annually sell hundreds of 
thousands of eggs and many young game birds 
to owners of game preserves, all get a living 
out of their occupations. Bootmakers and 
tailors, who make and furnish sportsmen and 
gamekeepers with their clothing and sporting 
suits, also drop in for a share. Corn merchants 
often get large orders from gentlemen to sup¬ 
ply them with different kinds of grain for feed¬ 
ing the adult birds. They also appreciate the 
private preserve. 
Circumstances will never permit of free, hunt¬ 
ing and shooting in this country for the above- 
mentioned reasons. I consider the game laws 
of England are both reasonable and satisfactory 
AFTER THE HUNT. 
From the County Gentleman. 
