BEATERS AND STOPS 21g 
when I don’t know where to look.’ ‘But,’ the 
beater told me, ‘I casn’t see why ’e should be 
so mighty pertickler, for he don’t shoot no better 
for seein’ what ’e shoots at.’ 
I often have heard discussed the question of 
employing as beaters men with a taste for poaching. 
Of course, no one with any pretension to sanity 
would dream of importing poachers into a district 
for beating. But if there are local men who do 
their ‘little bit’ more from love of sport than of 
gain, and all your keeper-strength is occupied 
with the day’s shooting, I think it certainly is 
wiser to employ the doubtful ones as beaters. 
Then you do know where they are and what 
they are doing. Each of such men is worth, as 
a rule, two or three of the ordinary type, and 
will spot game that has carried on and dropped 
(and probably would be lost) more than ten 
times sufficient to pay his wages. Besides, being 
a local man, he is not likely to learn much about 
your woods and their contents that he did not 
know before. But should a man be a professional 
poacher—if he is not beating with you, he is certain 
to be poaching by himself. 
There always will be beaters who are not above 
stealing game if they see a promising chance, 
But it is not right, in any case, to expose the 
men more than is necessary to what must be a 
strong temptation. Here is an incident that 
