LABOURERS THE BEST PRESERVERS OF GAME. 417 



ledge. If the market for game out of season, and especially 

 for live game, is destroyed, one of the main supports of the 

 wholesale poacher is done away with, for as long as he can 

 get 15s. a brace for live birds he will take them in prefer- 

 ence to 4:8. Gd. to 5s. for dead ones, which are the respective 

 prices paid to the poachers for pheasants. 



LABOURERS THE BEST PRESERVERS OF GAME. 



My own opinion has long ago been strongly expressed in 

 favour of encouraging labourers to preserve the game from 

 the poachers. They are of little use in trapping vermin, 

 and wherever a good head of game is required a keeper must 

 be maintained for that purpose and for generally superin- 

 tending the game, especially where pheasants are to be 

 reared ; but for merely protecting partridges and grouse 

 from poachers, commend me to the labourers on the south 

 country farms and to the shepherds in the hill districts. If 

 they are with you all the poachers in the world may be 

 defied, while if they are against you no keeper can be sure of 

 showing you good sport. The following observations on this 

 subject were written five years ago in " British Rural 

 Sports," when my knowledge of preserving was confined 

 to a small district ; but the more I have since seen and 

 known of it throughout England and Scotland the more I am 

 convinced of their truth : 



" With regard to the poacher, everything depends upon 

 the labourers on the farms. If they like to countenance the 

 poacher, or if they unfortunately are poachers themselves, all 

 the efforts of a keeper will be of little avail. The best plan 

 is to make all the labourers feel an interest in the preserva- 

 tion of the game. Let every man receive at Christmas a 

 certain sum proportionate to the head of game killed during 

 the season, and the outlay will be found to be well bestowed, 

 since it will go much further than the same sum laid out in. 

 extra watchers. I have known 650 acres of land preserved 

 entirely, in the neighbourhood of a large town, without any 

 regular keeper, and with an outlay in the shape of presents 

 to labourers certainly not exceeding 201. a year. On this 

 farm hares were as thick as sheep, and partridges sufficient 



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