The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-12-06
tFrom Turf, Field and Farm.l
The Economic Value of Game.
RUTLAND. Nov. %. 1879

RUTLAND, Nov. 90, 1875.
Editors Turf, Field and Farm The |
question is often asked, when discussing |
the matter of game laws for this country, |
how much of wealth could be added to our |
land and water products by the adoption of |
game codes The question is difficult, be- |
cause, even in England where game is per-
haps best preserved, the data for framing
an answer to the query are somewhat
vague and mostly matter of estimates.
The quantity of fish and game sold in
the markets in England is not recorded
What is imported and what is exported is
easily learned from custom house returns,
but what is reared and sold for consump-
ton in Great Britain cannot be accuratei
ly determined. Very much of that which
is consumed is not sold. This remark ap-
plies very unevenly to various kinds of
game. Very little of the venison Is sold at
all. 1t is mostly consumed in the region
where it is killed, or is given away. Even
in this country the quantity sent to market
is no admeasurement of that killed. Of
grouse, partridges and pheasants larger
proportion than of the venison finds its
way to game dealers shops. Of these
much that is killed is consumed at home or
sent away to friends. A large game dealer
in London states, in his testimony before
the select committee of the house of COM
mons, that very little game is sold by the
| dealers to the upper classes in London, be-
cause these people have their supplies sent
| to them either from their own estates or
from their friends in the country.
OF all the game KILLED in the British
Isles, rabbits come in greatest numbers to
the dealer, and in the proportion greatest
as to the quantity killed, and for these
reasons rabbits are not eaten by the upper
so much as by the working classes. A
rabbit is not the ''nobby" thing at a game
dinner, but it is the constant Sunday dinner
| and indeed out of it, in 30 far as the heat
of summer will permit. From the miser-
the British nobility and their followers, the
rabbits 60 in carloads to the dealers,
while the winged game slaughtered is
packed in hampers to fill nober stomachs
the surplus only going to the poulterer
The head and antlers Of the royal stag go
to adorn the masters dining hall, while the
carcass, minus, perhaps, the saddle, is dis
tributed among his retainers, so that, with
the exception of rabbits the number OF the
different kinds of game sent to the dealers
is no more certainly the number killed
| than is the number sent to market in this
country the number killed.
1t so happens in regard to rabbits that
their skins are utilized for various purposes
They are dyed. aud cheap furs are manu-
featured from them. They are sent to
Russia and Northern China, where, among
other uses, they are made to cover the
walls of the living rooms of houses. They
are worked up furriers. OF those manu-
featured into furs-i. e., muffs, collars,
capes, etC.-nO estimate can well be made
OF those sent to Russia aud to China the
number is not published; but of those
finding their way annually to the furriers it
is known that there are at the lowest esti-
mate 10000, 900. That this is not the
whole rabbit crop may be easily believed
when it is stated by the game dealers that
to them the skins are worthless, or, in other
words, that a rabbit with skin on is not
sold for any more than one with the skin
off, that the skin when taken off is worth
only about cent and a half or two cents
at most, and that therefore they are hardly
worth the trouble of saving, stretching and
drying; that skins are valuless to the fur
res when taken from rabbits killed out of
season, and that great numbers of rabbits
are taken by pOachers and from servants,
where to sell the skin might act to disclose
the poaching.
Rabbits weigh from two pounds to two
pounds and half apiece, and are sold at
Wholesale for at least twelve cents a pound,
Taking the 10000, 900 of skins sold to fur
riers and manufactured or exported as the
measurement of the crop. the meat pro-
duced is 10000 tons and is worth 0,000,-
900. The fur obtained is worth SO, $50, 900
making the crop produce $13, 1901 900.
1t appears also that there arc sold by the
game dealers something like one hare for
!
our list 2, 200, 900 hares, and would repre-
sent about 10000, 900 more pounds of meat
worth, as near as can be reckoned, So. $780,
900.
The supply of grouse is about one grouse
for every ten rabbits This would give
8, 100000 grouse, worth about 81, 0O0,O0
more.
1t IS impossible to form an estimate of
the number of pheasants and partridges and
other winged game. The rabbits, hares,
and pronse may be safely put down at $l6-
QUO, 900 annually. When you come to add
to this the other game of the country and
give the best heed to the considerations
mentioned above, ii will be evident to the
most cautious observer that the game pro-
duct of the British Isles exceeds rather
than goes under $50, 900, 900 annually ,reck-
oning the product as food alone. The
reasonableness of THE estimate is attested
by another series of facts.
1t may be safely assumed that the land
in Great Britain is made to bear all the
game which can be borne upon it without
prejudice to the farmers crops. Now it is
In evidence before the select committee
that one hare to every four acres is very
common stock. The smallest number
named by any of the witnesses as being that
which could Re borne by the land without
damage to crops is one hare to every ten
acres. The area of the British Isles is, in
round numbers, 10, 900, 900 acres. This would
allow, according to the lowest estimate,
1900, 900, or allowing ror the area of cities
1000, 900 of hares to be produced annually
without damage to crops.
1t is also in testimony by too many wit
nesses to allow of doubt that the poorest
land, mere drifting sands, will bear ten
rabbits to the acre, and, of course, that
good lands produce much more. One rab-
bit TO the acre would seem to any one who
has travelled In that country ridiculously
small estimate to be borne through the
Winter and landed safe and sound on the
first of March. Each pair of rabbits will
produce at least thirty young In the season.
II this Is true then the rabbit crop killed
ought TO be $40, 000, 900, sum of course
Tar too large for the actnhl nroflunt II