THE MANAGEMENT OF DEER FORESTS 127 



every respect, is so obvious that it is unnecessary 

 to enlarge upon it. Independent beats and separate 

 responsibility induce a spirit of emulation among the 

 stalkers, the effect of which is to correct many faults 

 which a different system is apt to produce. Take one 

 instance of this. Suppose you have a stalker who 

 thinks the chief end of life is to give his ' gentleman ' 

 a ' chance,' and having accomplished this goes con- 

 tentedly home with a feeling of duty performed and 

 without any twinge of conscience as to what kind of 

 a chance it was, or whether a long shot fired perhaps 

 in the dusk was likely to be equally satisfactory to 

 the gentleman out on that beat next day, or for the 

 interest generally of the ground under his charge. Is 

 it likely that the man in charge of a beat, who is 

 anxious to make at the end of the season a good 

 record of stags killed on his ground, would encourage 

 random shooting at long range in the dusk ? Assur- 

 edly not, but on the other hand if he refrains too 

 much from giving shots it is of course impossible to 

 produce as good a record as he would otherwise do. 

 On the whole, it seems tolerably certain that a man 

 in a position of responsibility will work his ground 

 fairly and properly, just as his employer would wish 

 it to be worked, so as to give sport to his friends 

 without injury to the forest. 



