THE INCREASE OF ENGLISH GAME.
[TO THE EDITOR,Or THE "SPHOTATOR.".] SIR,—Few, with the exception of those who are practical farmers, realise the harm which the increase of game is doing to this country. The squire too often looks at farming through the eyes of his keeper, and thinks the bailiff and tenants talk interested nonsense. Indeed they do not. Land cannot grow sheep, cattle, and corn as well as game. And where corn and meat are not grown men are not grown either. High farming requires men of brains, energy, and character, men, that is, who will only be kept from flocking to urban districts by the good wages and regular employment that high farming alone can afford. If you, Sir, would go over some estates where there is but a moderate amount of game, and compare the men you meet in the fields, farmyards, and sheepfolds with those who are as a rule to be found where large bags of game are made, you would appreciate the protest of those who see the "other side" to the increase of English game. To those who do see this other side the increase of game is a blight which stunts the growth of agriculture and rural life, a growth which you and others are now endeavouring to encourage. Some day Britain may need all the corn and meat and men it can produce. May that day be far off ! but should it ever come, heaven help the game preserver, for his fellows will not. —I am, Sir, &c.,
E. H. R.
We certainly do not want a land where game accumulates and men decay. But is it not a fact that the great game preserves are generally in places unsuited for high farming, but well suited for wild life P—ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
