VERBUM SAP, 24t 
Good farming and a large stock of partridges are 
absolutely compatible conditions, and are often seen 
together, as witness the Wold beats of the East and 
North Ridings of Yorkshire, on such estates as Lord 
Londesborough’s, or Sir George Wombwell’s at 
Newburgh, and many properties in the lowlands 
of Scotland. This the farmers cannot deny. If 
they do, depend upon it they are discontented men 
and bad farmers, and consequently not worth having 
as tenants. 
Again, the egg-stealer or bird-poacher is always 
a bad character, and, as a rule, a stranger to the 
locality. His trade is a nefarious one, and he there- 
fore defrauds even those who are weak enough to 
supply him with his contraband goods. It should be 
easy by liberal treatment to make the labourers under- 
stand that collectively they can make more money 
by helping the game than by destroying it or surrep- 
titiously conveying it away, in which case only a few 
of the least reputable among them make any profit. 
But if, as I regret often to have seen, .they are 
treated as mere machines for beating or driving, 
whom their landlord only sees during the one or two 
weeks’ shooting in each year, if they are never ad- 
dressed, or in any way taken into their superior’s con- 
fidence on the subject, while they are rewarded for 
R 
