Excerpt from The Balance of Nature and Modern Conditions of Cultivation: A Practical Manual of Animal Foes and Friends for the Country Gentleman, the Farmer, the Forester, the Gardener, and the Sportsman
The Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1907, practically the first recognition by the legislature of the national right to use of the land for the benefit of the whole community, appears opportune for referring to the natural and nurtured creatures, called wild, that roam over the British Islands, and concomitantly with mankind and domesticated animals derive their subsistence directly or indirectly from the products of the soil. Some of these, by their habits and nature of food, make for (called beneficial)-others exert no decisive influence on (termed neutral), and others again militate against (called hurtful)-the successful cultivation of crops, as represented in yields of animal and vegetable produce, upon which depend the stamina and life of the nation.
The object, therefore, of the present volume is to treat of the chief wild and semi-wild vertebrates - mammals, aves or birds, reptiles and amphibians - found in the British Islands in relation to the cultivation of crops, and in accordance with observation and experience from 1845 to 1907 inclusive. These embrace the garden, allotment, small holding, farm, and estate - its woods, commons, moors, mountainous tracts, and the waters of all to the foreshore of the sea. The cultures adopted are gardening, farming, foresting, sporting, and fishing.
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