LINNEAX SOCIETY OF LONDON. 27 



ourselves the practical mau leaves tliis stud_y largely to experts ; 

 his interest is satisfied with an empirical knowledge as to how 

 some special ' cultivated kind ' may be grown and what the 

 mai'ket-price of its product is Hkely to be. A fair estimate of 

 Ids conception of ' differences ' may be forjued from his attitude 

 towards the two recently introduced root-crops which now plaj^ 

 so important a role in his economy. 



Notwithstanding tlie dependence of husbandry upon natural 

 history, our pursuits cannot be looked upon as derived from the 

 practice of their respective crafts by the herdsman and the acreman. 

 If the righteousness of the first ' keeper of sheep ' may not be 

 imputed to our studies, they do not bear the mark of reproach 

 which was set upon the first ' tiller of the soil.' 



The craft which enabled man to find food before husbandry 

 began was not abandoned when herds were kept and the soil was 

 tilled. The old and the new activities often went on side by 

 side. At times the chase remained the chief means of livelihood; 

 herding and tillage were only ancillary. Even in well-cultivated 

 regions the need to safeguard fold and field kept the hunting 

 instinct alive. 



With increased knowledge of natural history the chase under- 

 went developments as striking as any that husbandry can show. 

 Man invented the snare and the lure; he enlisted the aid of 

 hoi'se and hound and hawk. The later evolution of the craft 

 proceeded on divergent lines under different circumstances. 

 Where man remained primarily a hunter he perfected his skill ; 

 when he became essentially a husbanduian he placed more 

 reliance on stratagem. But in either case improvement in 

 practice and device depended upon more complete acquaintance 

 with the habits of the quarry. 



Sometimes a special relationship grew up between the old and 

 new vocations. Lands devoted to husbandry were liable to 

 periodic attack by tribes inured to the chase. Occasionally the 

 aggressor absorbed in perpetuity the earned increment of his 

 victim arid rooted himself as a commensal in the invaded region. 

 An assertive ethnic strain developed into a ruling caste among 

 whose members a firm grasp of the ' mystery of hunting ' 

 remained an essential accomplishment, mastership in which was 

 an ambition worthy of kings. The survival of this habit 

 was made to serve political ends ; the satisfaction of this instinct 

 helped to secure the position of a dominant class and to maintain 

 unimpaired its capacity to exercise acquisitive propensities. The 

 fulfilment of this policy involved the reservation and, at times, 

 the forcible creation of wastes and forests. The existence of 

 such enclosures has never in itself been repugnant to the 

 ' keeper of sheep ' or the ' tiller of the soil ' ; the original 

 home of the parents of both is known to us by the name 

 appropriate to a deer park of the Grreat King. But the 



