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 
