VERBUM SAP. 241 



Good farming and a large stock of partridges are 

 absolutely compatible conditions, and are often seen 

 together, as witness the Wold beats of the East and 

 North Ridings of Yorkshire, on such estates as Lord 

 Londesborough's, or Sir George Wombwell's at 

 Newburgh, and many properties in the lowlands 

 of Scotland. This the farmers^ cannot deny. If 

 they do, depend upon it they are discontented men 

 and bad farmers, and consequently not worth having 

 as tenants. 



Again, the egg-stealer or bird-poacher is always 

 a bad character, and, as a rule, a stranger to the 

 locality. His trade is a nefarious one, and he there- 

 fore defrauds even those who are weak enough to 

 supply him with his contraband goods. It should be 

 easy by liberal treatment to make the labourers under- 

 stand that collectively they can make more money 

 by helping the game than by destroying it or surrep- 

 titiously conveying it away, in which case only a few 

 of the least reputable among them make any profit. 



But if, as I regret often to have seen, they are 

 treated as mere machines for beating or driving, 

 whom their landlord only sees during the one or two 

 weeks' shooting in each year, if they are never ad- 

 dressed, or in any way taken into their superior's con- 

 fidence on the subject, while they are rewarded for 



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