138 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



knock down one stem in three, evenly, all over 

 several fields? and suggested that the true cause 

 was want of firmness of ground the essence of 

 wheat's prosperity. There were no more complaints 

 about hares. 



I had only one other skirmish with this bailiff 

 quite a friendly one between ourselves. There was 

 an isolated field of kale and swedes half a mile from 

 the nearest wood. In this wood the bailiff himself 

 admitted there were no rabbits, but he would have 

 it that there were ' a tidy few ' in the root-field. I 

 knew that I had failed the previous afternoon to 

 find a couple in the whole field. Partly out of 

 curiosity, and partly to avoid a possible court-martial, 

 I asked the bailiff what evidence he had to prove 

 there were 'a tidy few' rabbits. He could see, he 

 declared, where they had gnawed the swedes. 

 Whereupon I inquired if he knew whether there 

 was any difference between the gnawing of rabbits 

 and the gnawing of rats, and, if so, what it was. 

 He could not say that he did. So I took the 

 trouble to show him. A rat chisels even-sized pieces 

 off roots, eats the flesh, and leaves the rind. A 

 rabbit gnaws away at a root, and eats the rind and 

 flesh as it comes. I took this opportunity to repeat 

 a suggestion that some rat-infested stacks should 

 be threshed. 



A keeper never must consent to be lorded over by 

 a bailiff. Bailiffs are inclined to be unwarrantably 



