PRESERVATION * 



live on the best of terms ; the keepers can 

 do them many a good turn in the year, 

 and in return the farmers lend us their 

 aid when most required, studying the 

 interests of the game at all times, and 

 most materially forwarding our efforts in 

 a hundred different ways, by looking after 

 their dogs, cutting their hay and corn 

 with regard to the birds in it, and keeping 

 their men from disturbing the fences all 

 helping to produce that extra fifty brace 

 in October, which they are as proud as 

 any one to see killed off their land. 



After the corn is cut, the stubbles and 

 grass fields are ' bushed ' with thorns, 

 more as a precautionary measure than for 

 actual prevention, for where the ground 

 is so well watched and the labourers so 

 friendly, poaching is at a discount. 



Before September comes each keeper 

 has to furnish some estimate of the 

 number of birds on his ground, from 

 which data the amount of shooting can 

 be anticipated. In a good year ten days' 

 driving can fairly be reckoned on in 



