174 DEER-STALKING 



rounds, to clear every deer off his hirsel without much 

 effort. 



The other objection (it can hardly be called a 

 grievance) made by farmers to the increased number 

 of deer forests could not be gainsaid. It will be 

 understood easily enough that the high summer graz- 

 ings which were best adapted to hold stags of good 

 quality and in large numbers during the shooting 

 season were not, as a rule, suited for a breeding stock 

 of sheep. They constituted what is technically known 

 as ' wedder ' ground. Now, this ground used to be 

 stocked by lambs bred sometimes by the same farmer, 

 often by other farmers who occupied lands more fitted 

 for breeding ewes. In such cases the latter found a 

 ready market perhaps close at hand for his wedder 

 lambs. But when these high-lying grazings were con^ 

 verted into deer forests the man who used to supply 

 the wedder lambs lost his market, and for some years 

 there was a difficulty in finding a new one. 



But these matters, regulated by economical laws, 

 never fail to right themselves. It was absurd to sup- 

 pose that if a man took the trouble to breed so dainty an 

 article of consumption as a sheep of the mountain black- 

 faced breed, he would not be able to find a customer. 

 The farmer lost one customer, but he soon found another 

 and a better. The consumer of mutton has now dis- 



