agricultural damage. In the present day--partly out of fear of Lloyd
George and all his works--the tendency of landowners is to sell and
make ready money from the old oak and other timber in their woods,
and by planting plentiful spruce and fir to turn the plantations into
pheasant covers. The number of gamekeepers charged with preserving
these plantations multiplies,[7] and _their_ idea of duty consists in
the destruction of any and every winged and four-footed creature that
might possibly be harmful to the pheasants or their eggs. It would
probably surprise the reader to have a complete list of such--and I do
not presume to supply it--but it includes hawks and owls of various
kinds, jays, magpies, stoats, weasels, and even the beautiful and
probably innocent squirrel. All these fall victims to the gun or the
trap, and, needless to say, the balance of Nature is seriously upset
in many directions. For our purpose here we need only point out the
consequent and ruinous swarming of mice and sparrows. The destruction
of hawks and owls in particular has led to this result. Clouds of
sparrows, ever multiplying, occupy the hedgerows and descend upon the
cornfields as soon as ever the corn is ripe, doing countless damage--to
which the mice contribute their share. No one who has not witnessed it
with his own eyes could believe the loss to the farmer from this cause
alone. And again we are struck with the foolishness which allows this
to go on merely for the sake of breeding tame birds for the guns of
very tame sportsmen.
The pheasant is a very beautiful bird, and if allowed to breed in our
woods under natural conditions, would hold its own in a modest way,
and with the other denizens of the woodlands, the squirrels and the
jays and the owls and the hawks, would render these places really
interesting and delightful resorts. It seems sad that all these animal
possibilities should be destroyed for the sake of what is often little
more than human brag and bag! As an instance of the unintelligent way
in which these things are worked, it may be mentioned that even that
stately bird, the heron, is a mark for, and is commonly shot down by,
the gamekeeper. And why? Because, forsooth! it not unfrequently feeds
upon _trout_. The trout is a sacred fish, and therefore the glorious
heron must be shot! Whether the gamekeeper wars upon the kingfisher
for the same reason I do not know. But it seems quite possible that he
does, for beauty and rarity are no defence.
PHEASANT OR PEASANT?
There is another aspect of the subject which must not be passed over.
To-day the small-holding question is coming very much to the fore.
The splendid results obtained by a combination of small farms and
agricultural co-operation, already conspicuous in Denmark, and coming
into sight in Ireland, are strongly urging us in England in the same
direction. A large multiplication of small-holders, with facilities for
their combined action and co-operation, is to-day the one promising
outlook for British agriculture. Yet it is notorious that the County
Councils are much more inclined to hinder than to help this movement.
And why? There may be different reasons; but undoubtedly one of the
most powerful is--sport. It is obvious that a population of small
holders--particularly if associated and combined--would form a very
serious obstacle to the latter. A squire with three or four farms under
him, of 500 acres each, can easily make terms with his tenants, and
persuade or compel them to favour the hunting and shooting; but what
would he do with fifty small-holders? It would be a very different pair
of shoes, and he would have to walk (like Agag) somewhat delicately.
The compensations, and the obstructions, and the complications
generally, would bring the old order to an end.
Thus we come very clearly, I think, to a certain parting of the
ways in the matter of our agricultural future in this country. It
all comes to this: Are we going to continue for ever playing at the
land question--that question whose vitality and importance we daily
more and more perceive--or are we going to be serious about it? We
cannot take both ways. On the one hand, we have the Scottish Highlands
depopulated for the sake of deer; we have English farms more or less
ravaged, and farmers terrorised for the sake of fox-hunting; we have
grouse-moors and pheasant-covers, with their concomitant evils, let to
rich Americans and titled grocers; and, on the other hand we _may_ have
a real live agriculture and a brisk independent rural population. We
cannot have both. If we retain the present system--conducing, no doubt,
to a healthy schoolboy type of squire--it means a downcast, stupefied,
unenterprising peasantry. If we turn seriously to the re-establishment
of agriculture, and of a real live, manly population on the land, that
will undoubtedly mean the abandonment of a good deal that goes by the
name of sport.[8]
The time grows short, for indeed anxious problems lie in the near
future before this country, and a choice has to be made--a choice that
may have a good deal to do with the position of England in the world.
The country-sides have got to stop playing at rural life, and to take
it up seriously. Nor, after all, would the abandonment of sport as the
chief object of the country gentleman’s existence mean the abandonment
or discouragement of all wild life. Rather the contrary. We all in
these over-civilised times appreciate the value and importance of
wild nature; and however effective and widespread we may make our
agriculture, we shall surely also demand the establishment of extensive
natural reserves for all kinds of free plants and creatures. We have
seen that “sport” is not really favourable to wild nature life, but
only to some very artificial and limited forms. With the abandonment
of sport in its present shape, it is possible that the landowners of
the future--whether private individuals or public bodies--will turn
their attention to the making of splendid nature-resorts in wood and
mountain and moor, where every kind of creature may have free access
and free play, unharmed by man, and open to his friendly companionship
and sympathetic study.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] The following is quoted from Mr. Lloyd George’s speech at Bedford
(October, 1913):
“In 1851 you had in this country 9,000 gamekeepers; in 1911 there were
23,000. During that period the number of labourers on the soil went
down by 600,000. The number of gamekeepers went up by 250 per cent.,
and the number of labourers down by 600,000. Pick up a copy of the
_Field_ and look at the advertisements there, and you will realise
the extent of the evil. Here is one advertising shooting rights for
estates where last year 5,000 pheasants were shot. Here is a sportsman
who advertises 1,000 acres, with coverts to hold 7,000 rabbits on his
estate. You try a small holding _there_! Agriculture has had a bad
time. It has had to pass through a time of great crisis. What would
have been done in any other trade if it had to face the difficulties
which agriculture had? A great capitalist would have introduced new
machinery, got the best labour, and would have put the whole of his
energy, brain, and enterprise into restoring that industry. He would
have gone, if necessary, for years without any return, and at last he
would have pulled through. That is what has happened in many industries
in this country. What has happened here? What has the great capitalist
done in agriculture? He has trebled the number of his gamekeepers, he
has put land out of cultivation, he has increased enormously the number
of pheasants which have been turned on to the land.”
[8] See the “Report of the Land Enquiry Committee,” vol. i., 1913,
which in its chapter on “Game” contains a severe condemnation of the
practice of excessive game preserving. “The damage done by game is
too serious to be overlooked. Even when the tenant farmer is fully
compensated the damage amounts to a national loss.… Not merely is land
under-cultivated, but large areas are altogether out of cultivation
owing to the preservation of game. This land, instead of providing food
for the people, provides sport and delicacies for the few, and is the
source of much damage and annoyance to neighbouring farmers.”
THE COST OF SPORT
BY MAURICE ADAMS
“Now Dives daily feasted and was gorgeously arrayed,
Not at all because he liked it, but because ’twas good for trade;
That the people might have calico, he clothed himself in silk,
And surfeited himself on cream, that they might get the milk;
He fed five hundred servants, that the poor might not lack bread,
And had his vessels made of gold that they might get more lead:
And e’en to show his sympathy with the deserving poor,
He did no useful work himself that they might do the more.”
ERNEST BILTON.
In a tract entitled “Sport, A National Benefactor,” dedicated to
the sportsmen of the nation, Mr. Henry R. Sargent gives elaborate
statistics to prove that large sums of money are devoted to the
maintenance of sport, while about £25,000,000 are annually spent upon
it. Of this amount he estimates that wages absorb some £6,000,000.
Rents of shootings and fishings, and the price of race-horses, come to
£5,500,000, which sum, though “going principally to the upper classes,
is recirculated in various ways,” while, “except the few pounds paid
for dead horses, we have from hunting, shooting, and racing, over
£6,000,000 a year paid for oats, meal, hay, straw, beans, and bran;
and let it be understood that it is all British produce. No infernal
foreign stuff is given to our hounds or horses, though we may eat it
ourselves, and thus encourage Free Trade--that curse of our country.”
After we have thus been shown “what a gigantic medium sport is for the
circulation of money--the vertebræ (_sic_) of our common weal,” we are
not surprised that “to these facts and figures, which no sophistry can
dispute and no method of statement darken,” Mr. Sargent should “draw
the attention alike of sportsmen, prigs, prudes, and the public,” and
should “invite the consideration of Radicals and Socialists” to the
subject. For he continues gravely: “Let these political step-brethren
ponder well before they strive to injure the classes who maintain our
sports. Let them recognise the fact that as a universal benefactor in
bringing to the poor the rich man’s money, a substitute for sport can
never be found. These revolutionists should also assure themselves
of the fact that never can they devise a system which will carry
out the principles of Communism as practically and universally as
that which has always been adopted by our resident landlords. Be it
£5,000, £20,000, or £100,000 a year, which may be focussed in the one
individual, he spends it all among the community. Yet these are the men
who are marked for destruction by the Radical, the Socialist, and the
Anarchist; and not the landlords alone, but all moneyed men, no matter
of what class.”
It is small wonder, then, that the heart within him is grieved when
he thinks of those bold bad men, the agitators, for they, he informs
us tearfully, “as a rule, dislike the upper classes,” while those
pre-eminently wicked men, the land agitators, to a man, “hate them with
ferocity.” It was to gratify that hatred, as our author is assured,
“and not so much to benefit either the land tenants or crofters, that
agitation has been got up in Ireland and Scotland.”
“In Ireland hunting was attacked, as was openly avowed, to
drive the landlords out of the country, but happily hunting
is as strong there as ever, except in Waterford; and although
they be not so well off as formerly, we still have the
landlords. In Scotland the same game is being played by the
agitators. Although they strive to hide the motive under the
kilt of the crofter, they have no desire but to injure the
landlords through means of attacking the shooting. Hunting was
also assailed by other parties, in alleging that cruelty was
practised by hunting carted deer! An outcry is also raised
for the tourists, that in pursuit of their vocation they are,
forsooth, to be allowed to disturb the Highland forests, and so
scare away the wild red-deer, animals which the agitators know
well cannot abide the sight of a human being, much less the
slightest noise. What do agitators care for tourists, anyway?
Then comes this raid upon racing. Of a truth, therefore,
it is high time that all sportsmen, from the peer to the
pantry-boy, should coalesce and defend themselves in organised
phalanx against those who, with intolerance and impertinence,
gratuitously assail us.”
For just consider the money spent on racing, and the number of men
employed. Some 8,000 young men, says Mr. Sargent, “are employed in the
racing stables of the kingdom--a number equal to that of more than ten
regiments of the line.”
“When we come to consider what has been spent upon the stables
at Newmarket, and other places … the amount becomes absolutely
appalling! The sum has to be counted in thousands--and it runs
into millions--all of which is spent in labour and material. As
do the other branches of sport which I have dealt with, racing
sends money flowing from the rich to the poor man’s pocket, but
at the same time nearly all classes derive monetary benefit
through this special branch of sport.”
One seems to have heard something of gambling at races, but our
author tells us that “it is the misfortune of racing, and not its
fault, that betting should be connected with it,” but he holds that
“to stop gambling on the Turf, which has existed from time immemorial,
is an impossibility: so no one need attempt to do so.” With the true
democratic feeling engendered by the “principle of Communism” animating
sport, he asserts that “no man abhors gambling more than I do, and I
would, if I could, put a stop upon the shop-boys and humble classes
indulging in the vice, but I would let the others do as they choose.”
For the author is sure that “to interfere with any old-established
institution which is working well is a most dangerous thing.” “God
knows,” he exclaims in despair, “what would be the result, if these
latter-day saints, who are now on the prowl, were to succeed in their
attempt to interfere with racing, even if only so far as betting is
concerned.”
GIVING EMPLOYMENT.
The pamphlet from which the foregoing extracts have been taken is not,
as one might imagine, a huge joke, nor is it a sly attempt to pour
ridicule upon sport. It was published by the Sporting League--on the
executive committee of which we find the names of many noble lords
and distinguished commoners--apparently with the serious intention of
furthering the fifth of the League’s praiseworthy objects--“Generally
to do whatever may from time to time seem advisable for counteracting
the pernicious influence of ‘faddists.’” It seems that we can hardly
reckon a sense of humour among the many “inestimable benefits” that
sport bestows on its devotees, however much food for laughter the
publications of the League may give to “faddists” and the public.
Although this tract was published some years ago, its arguments have
not deteriorated with age, since we find them essentially reproduced in
an address delivered in November, 1908, at the Surveyors’ Institute,
by the President, Mr. Howard Martin, and commented on with approval
by _The Field_. Mr. Martin, like the author of the tract, seriously
insists on the great benefits which agriculture and business derive
from fox-hunting. He estimates that on the upkeep of hunters £3,500,000
a year are spent. Shooting also involves a large outlay for the
feeding and rearing of birds, and attracts much cash to the pockets of
residents in the country. And, further, the prosperity due to sport
radiates in all directions. Not merely farmers and farm-hands, but
local innkeepers, country fly-drivers, and village shopkeepers share
in the stream of wealth which sport pours forth over the country.
There are even tips for the inn-servants and the porters at the
railway-stations! Indeed, Mr. Martin declared that he had taken great
pains to get at reliable facts and figures on which to ground his
arguments, and his conclusion was that not only did hunting and the
preservation of foxes generally benefit agricultural districts, but
that hunting and the exercise of shooting rights indirectly benefited
the country at large “by checking rural depopulation.” _The Field_
is not unmindful of the rich physical and moral gains which the
gamekeepers, beaters, and others ministering to sport, derive from a
shooting-party. “They are all of them fond of sport; they like to see
birds well killed, they enjoy the pick-up, they enjoy (a matter of no
little moment) a good beaters’ lunch, they like a good glass of ale
at the close of the day, and are better off in mind and pocket for a
few hours which interrupt the routine of their ordinary life like a
holiday.”
It is amusing to note how largely the anti-Budget protests of the
distressed Dukes and other wealthy persons were based on the egregious
fallacy that “giving employment” is conducive to the welfare of the
community, without regard to the character of the employment given.
Nothing, for instance, could be more absurd than the remarks made by
Lord Londonderry on August 23, 1909, and solemnly reported in _The
Times_:
“What was his position if he had to curtail his expenditure, as
he was told by his Radical friends that he must do? The great
interest in the property to him was the shooting and gardens,
which gave employment to a large number of men. Could it be
said that these two enjoyments were to him absolutely selfish?
He was able to send out large consignments of game as presents,
and was also able to benefit those out of employment in times
of depression. Therefore that amusement was not a selfish one.”
The fact that Lord Londonderry’s shooting gives employment to a large
number of persons is in truth its greatest condemnation; for though
the individuals employed may be glad of the work, the community loses
by the waste of time, labour, and money involved in such a perfectly
futile occupation as that of game-preserving, in which every pheasant
killed has cost far more than its own food-value.
Here, again, is a delightful extract from a sporting paper, October 6,
1909:
“Rearing of pheasants is a very costly matter, and one
which I anticipate will be seriously curtailed in the near
future if this so-called ‘Working Man’s Budget’ is passed.
County gentlemen will be very hardly hit if this iniquitous
Bill becomes law, and they will consequently have to effect
economies in every direction. One of the very first will be
in reducing their shootings, or in giving up rearing birds
altogether. Pheasants which are hand-reared cost about 4s. each
to feed, from start to finish. Thus it is easy to understand
what sums of money find their way into farmers’ and tradesmen’s
pockets for the purchase of food alone, for hundreds of
thousands of pheasants all over the kingdom have to be fed
for months every year. The money which is expended one way
or another over shooting is quite enormous, for it must be
remembered that, in addition to the purchase of eggs and food,
there are wages, clothes, and fuel for keepers; there are also
endless expenses in connection with rearing. When the shooting
commences, there are beaters at 2s. 6d. and 3s. per day, with
meat, bread, cheese, and beer. And there is the expense of
hospitality to guests. Take it all in all, the old saying that
each pheasant shot costs, one way and another, a guinea, is not
far wrong.
“Now, who benefits from all this? The poor owner certainly does
not, for it is all pay, pay, pay with him, and if he does sell
his surplus birds, he will only get back 2s. to 2s. 6d. a bird.
But the public gets the benefit, for they can purchase these
costly-reared birds for the price of chickens. One day those
people, the farmers, tradesmen, working-classes, and labourers,
will wake up to what they have lost, when they find the country
house shut up, and shooting, as it used to be, a thing of the
past.”
No doubt all these crumbs of blessing fall from the rich man’s pocket
on the happy gamekeepers, beaters, and others who are employed by
a shooting-party. No doubt the country lads, servants, and porters
rejoice in the tips they receive. Much money is spent on sport, and a
great deal of it finds its way as wages and gratuities into the pockets
of dependents, but to contend seriously that sport checks depopulation
is ludicrous. It is an insult to our intelligence to argue that the
country is more prosperous and supports a larger population when the
land is portioned out in great estates, many of which are only farmed
to the degree necessary to keep the game on the land; when the people
are driven from the country-side into the town; when in Scotland whole
counties have been cleared of inhabitants in order to form vast deer
forests for the sport of a few rich men.
THE REALITY.
Of the 56,000,000 acres in Great Britain something less than 15,000,000
are actually cultivated, although there are 35,000,000 acres of
cultivable land. Thirty years ago there were more than 2,000,000
agricultural labourers in Great Britain, but in 1907 they had decreased
to 1,311,000. In the same year there were more than 17,000,000 acres
of pasture. In “Fields, Factories, and Workshops,” Prince Kropotkin
estimates that the soil of the United Kingdom would produce enough food
for 24,000,000 people, instead of for only 17,000,000 as at present, if
it were cultivated as thoroughly as it was only thirty-five years ago,
while if it were cultivated as thoroughly as Belgium it would produce
enough to feed 37,000,000.
Take, again, the question of Afforestation. The Report of the Royal
Commission, issued on January 15, 1909, is a most important paper
in many ways. Of special interest are the references made by the
Commissioners to the responsibility of blood-sports for much of the bad
condition of our woodlands.
“Considerations of sport have played an important part in
determining the method of management of our woods. Clean boles,
with high-pitched crowns, the exclusion of the sun’s rays,
and ground destitute of grass, weeds, and bushes, are not
conditions favourable to either ground or winged game. On the
contrary, trees that are semi-isolated, and with low-reaching
branches, and a wood that is full of bracken, brambles, and
similar undergrowth, present conditions much more attractive to
the sportsman, and it is these conditions that many landowners
have arranged to secure. Ground game, too, has been the cause
of immense destruction amongst the young trees, and thus it
has, in a measure, directly brought about that condition of
under-stocking which is so inimical to the growth of good
timber and to the successful results of forestry. Nor is it
possible in the presence of even a moderate head of ground
game to secure natural regeneration of woodlands, the young
seedling trees being nibbled over almost as soon as they appear
above ground. So intimate is the association in the United
Kingdom between sport and forestry that even on an estate
that is considered to possess some of the best-managed woods
in England, the sylvicultural details have to be accommodated
to the hunting and shooting, and trees must be taken down in
different places to make cover for foxes, and so on.”