TRESPASSING DOGS. 181 



hedge is grubbed, the ditches each side are left, and the 

 interior space is ultimately converted into an osier-bed, 

 osiers being rather profitable at present. But before these 

 are introduced it is necessary that the ground be well dug 

 up, for it is full of roots and the seeds of weeds, which 

 perhaps have lain dormant for years, but now spring up in 

 wonderful profusion. In consideration of cleansing the 

 soil, and working it by digging, burning the weeds and 

 rubbish, etc., the farmer allows one or two of his labourers 

 to use it as a garden for the growth of potatoes, free of 

 rent, for say a couple of years. Potatoes are a crop which 

 flourish in fresh-turned soil, and so they do very w r ell over 

 the arrangement. But unfortunately as they dig and 

 weed, etc., in the evenings after regular work, they have an 

 excuse for their presence in the fields, and perhaps near 

 preserves at a tempting period of the twenty-four hours. 

 The keeper, in short, is quite aware that some sly poaching 

 goes on in this way. 



Another cause of unpleasantness between him and the 

 cottagers arises from the dogs they maintain ; generally curs, 

 it is true, and not to all appearance capable of harm. But 

 in the early summer a mongrel cur can do as much mis- 

 chief as a thoroughbred dog. Young rabbits are easily 

 overtaken when not much larger than rats, and at other 

 seasons, when the game has grown better able to take care 

 of itself, any kind of dog rambling loose in the woods and 

 copses frightens it and unsettles it to an annoying degree. 



