FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 277 



there is very little friction on the score of 

 damages. 



As to all the elaborate plans for the registration 

 of provender in the hands of farmers, they are, in 

 my opinion, simply useless. In the first place, 

 many hunting men have no knowledge of the 

 quality of corn and hay, or of their value, and it is 

 equally true that there are some farmers who are 

 ignorant of what is really required in the way of 

 provender to keep hunters in the highest state of 

 efficiency. Neither can a groom be well spared 

 to run about the country looking for hay and corn, 

 and a man may be the best stud groom in the 

 world and have no knowledge of the value of 

 provender. But there is a very simple plan by 

 which the farmer and the consumer may deal directly 

 — one which has been practised in more than 

 one country I know of, which works smoothly and 

 is less expensive and less troublesome than any 

 system of registration. The hunting man employs 

 a dealer to buy his corn, hay, and beans, directing 

 him to buy the best and give the top market price 

 and to buy from a farmer resident in the country 

 in which he hunts, or if he cannot be supplied in 

 that hunt, then from a farmer in the neighbouring 

 one. The farmer delivers his provender direct to 

 the consumer, and is paid by him the full price ; 

 there is no groom to tip, and the farmer receives 

 the top value for his produce, the dealer charging 

 the purchaser the usual commission. Nothing can 

 work more smoothly than this plan, and it is 

 certainly the cheapest way of bringing consumer 

 and producer into direct contact. 



That fox-hunting only exists by reason of the 

 goodwill of the owners and occupiers of the soil is 



