CHAPTER XL. 



POACHERS AND POACHING. 



AFTER one has killed off all the vermin and reared a 

 good head of game, it is no use expecting to find it there 

 available for sport when the shooting-season comes on 

 unless vigilance and attention are given to the prevention 

 of poaching and the detection of poachers. Poaching is 

 essentially of two kinds, and poachers of many ; but very 

 much less of the real business goes on than is generally 

 supposed, and a great deal more game-killing is practised 

 by non-professional poachers. Strict preservation rarely 

 leads to the prevention of poaching so effectually as when 

 the labourers, &c., are treated fairly as regards the game. 

 The most advisable way is to get all the men who are 

 likely to go astray to take an interest in maintaining a 

 good head of game, and the coverts should go poacher- 

 free. There used to exist, and in many parts of the 

 country there exists still, a feeling amongst the labouring 

 men, skilled workmen, and others, on an estate, that the 

 game on the squire's land should be respected so long 

 as the squire respected them; and, if this feeling be 

 encouraged, there is no necessity for the unpleasantness 

 and rancour existing between some owners of preserves 

 and the people upon them. If the owner will instil into 

 his labourers and all the men working upon the farms, 

 &c., the idea that he trusts to them not to interfere nor 



