190 SHOOTING THE PHEASANT 



The fact that the whole thing becomes more 

 popular, because it circulates more money, in the 

 neighbourhood, may also be held to weigh somewhat 

 in this connection. I have always noticed that where 

 game is very extensively reared, and the whole thing 

 done on a liberal and plenteous scale, it is more 

 popular with the humbler surroundings. Poaching is 

 less, for the game is looked after in a thorough and 

 business-like manner, while the minor offences by 

 those who are not professional poachers are more 

 frequently and readily condoned. Everyone benefits 

 somehow by the result in the neighbourhood of a 

 great game estate,' and it is consequently to every- 

 one's interest to be friendly with the keepers, and 

 assist rather than thwart them in their duty. 



This brings me to the second important point : 

 the character and capacity of your keepers. I have 

 already suggested in a former chapter that the game- 

 keeper of the future will have to be a man of a superior 

 class to the majority of those this generation has been 

 used to. But this may not insure his honesty, and 

 there is no department of themanagement of an estate 

 in which the owner may be more easily robbed than 



' I am not here, of course, advocating the over-preservation 

 of ground-game. Rabbits should never be kept in large quan- 

 tities, excepting on ground that is warrened, or in the owner's 

 own hands. 



