THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



501 



advantageously applied to the extirpation of this manufac- 

 ture. If a person sells one-half hog's lard and one-half but- 

 ter for whole butter, he is just as criminal and punishable 

 as if he sold one-half sand for sugar, or chicory for coftee. 

 Perhaps it would be inconsistent with the principles which 

 govern relations of buyer and seller to enact that no person, 

 subject to a heavy penalty, shall mix any ingredient with a 

 genuine article, which will lower the price, if fraud be not 

 intended. If a person buy a mixed article at a lower price, 

 knowing it to be mixed, and where no dishonesty has been 

 practised by the seller, we do not see how the law can in- 

 terfere between buyer and seller, prohibiting the one from 

 selling at a cheaper price what he states to be impure. But 

 what the interposition of the law can accomplish is this— 

 that no person shall sell as butter a vile compound of yellow 

 fat, farina, and soda. The Irish members will take a deeper 



interest in Mr. Scholefield's bill after the very important 

 facts communicated by the London firm, who have done 

 excellent service in calling public attention to a matter 

 which so vitally concerns Ireland. It should be remem- 

 bered that very little Dutch butter is consumed by the Eng- 

 lish working classes. It is generally used by the higher, 

 and for pies and all kinds of pastry is superior. The Irish 

 is the favourite of the working classes, and in its pure state 

 will always command the superiority, even at the enhanced 

 price of 2d. or more in the pound. At present the impure 

 stuiTis sold as Irish firsts or seconds, and thus the ch.arac- 

 ter suffers, while the palate grows accustomed to the in- 

 ferior article. The Irish members should " take counsel " 

 on this vital matter. Three millions sterling a-year repre- 

 sent the value of Irish export trade in butter. It is worth 

 looking after.— The LaucV, 



THE OVER-PRESERVATION OF GAME. 



It must be a very bad squire who does not do more 

 good than harm by living in a country village. But there 

 are verj' bad squires, and the owner of the Grange is one of 

 them. He is, however, for the most part, an absentee, so, 

 that we are little concerned with him, and, in fact, have 

 only to notice this one of his bad habits, that he keeps that 

 long belt of woodlands which runs into Englebourn parish 

 and comes almost up to the village, full of hares and phea- 

 sants. He has only succeeded to the property some three or 

 four years, and yet the head of game on the estate, and 

 above all in the woods, has trebled or quadrupled. Phea- 

 sants by hundreds are reared under hens, from eggs bought 

 in London, and run about the keepers' houses as tame as 

 barn-door fowls all the Summer. When the first party 

 comes down for the first haliue \ early in October, it is often 

 as much as the beaters can do to persuade these pampered 

 fowls thst they are wild game, whose duty it is to get up 

 and fly awaj-^ and be shot at. However, they soon learn 

 more of the world— such of them at least as are not slain 

 — and are unmistakeable wild birds in a few days. They 

 then take to roosting further from their old haunts, more in 

 the outskirts of the woods, and the time comes for others 

 besides the squire's guests to take their education in hand, 

 and teach pheasants at least that they are no native British 

 birds. These are a wild set, Uving scattered about the wild 

 country ; turf-cutters, broom-makers, squatters, with indefi- 

 nite occupations and nameless habits, a race hated of 

 keepers and constables. These have increased and flourished 

 of late years; and, notwithstanding the imprisonments and 

 transportations which deprive them periodically of the most 

 enterprising members of their community, one and all give 

 thanks for the day when the owner of the Grange took to 

 pheasant breeding. If the demoralization stopped with 

 them little harm might come of it,«s they would steal fowls 

 in the home-steads if there were no pheasaiits in the woods 

 — which latter are less dangerous to get, and worth more 

 wlien gotten. But, unhappily, this method of earning a 

 livelihood has strong attractions, and is catching; and the 

 cases of farm kbourers who get into trouble about game are 

 more frequent season by season in the neighbouring 

 parishes, and Euglebourn is no better than the rest. And 

 the men are not likely to be much discouraged from these 

 practices, or taught better, by the farmers; for, if there is 

 one thing more than snother that drives thst sturdy Bet of 



men, the Englebourn yeomen, into a frenzy, it is to talk of 

 the game in the Grange covers. Not that they dislike 

 sport ! they like it too well, and moreover have been used 

 to their fair share of it. For the late squire left the game 

 entirely in their hands. " You know best how much game 

 your land will carry without serious damage to the crops," 

 he used to say. " I like to show my friends a fair day's 

 sport when they are with me, and to have enough game to 

 supply the house and make a few presents. Beyond that, it 

 is no affair of mine. You can course whenever you like; 

 and let me know when you want a day's shooting, and you 

 shall have it." Under this s}'stem the yeomen became keen 

 sportsmen ; they and all their labourers took an interest in 

 preserving, and the whole district would have risen on 

 a poacher. The keeper's place became a sinecure, and 

 the squire had as much game as he wanted, without ex- 

 pense, and was, moreover, the most popular man in tho 

 county. Even after the new man came, and all was 

 changed, the mere revocation of their sporting liberties, 

 and the increase of game, unpopular as these things 

 were, would not alone have made the farmers so bitter, and 

 have raised that sense of outraged justice in them. But 

 with these changes came in a custom new in the country— 

 the custom of selling the game. At first the report was not 

 believed ; but soon it became notorious that no head of 

 game from the Grange estates was ever given away ; that 

 not onlj' did the tenants never get a brace of birds or a 

 hare, or the labourers a rabbit, but not one of the gentlemen 

 who helped to kill the game ever found any of the bag in 

 his dog-cart after the day's shooting. Nay, so shameless 

 had the system become, and so highly was the art of turn- 

 ing the game to account cultivated at the Grange, that the 

 keepers sold powder and shot to any of the guests who had 

 emptied their own belts or flasks, at something over 

 the market retail price. The light cart drove to the 

 market town twice a week in the season, loaded heavily 

 with game, but more heavily with the hatred and 

 scorn of the farmers ; and if deep and bitter curses could 

 break patent axles or necks, the new squire and his game- 

 cart would not long have vexed the country side. As it 

 was, not a man but his own tenants would salute him in the 

 market-place ; and these repaid themselves for the unwilling 

 courtesy by bitter reflection on a squire who was mean 

 enough to pay hi» butcher's nnd poulterer's hill out of thej? 



