Gents Mag 1891 part 2 p.131
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Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.131
[advertise]ment which he forwards to a suitable paper. This advertisement intimates that a good price will be given for hares of a certain age. The appeal is well responded to, and forthwith a colony of hares are "taken, and brought, and clapped down upon the land," to use the elegant words of a friend. The entire crop is thus devoted to the feeding of these strange hares, in which he has not the slightest interest; not as much as the value of the seed is produced from the field. It must be remembered, too, that a hare will sleep on the moors, and come down daily from his couch, miles away, to eat from any crop which is specially pleasant to his taste. It may be thought that the farmer has himself power to destroy the hares which infest his wheat. He has this power, but the landlord has also an out-balancing power of finding another tenant if the hares suffer. Most of the farmers to whom I allude are on the annual tenancy system, and the tenant is, as a matter of fact, entirely in the gamekeeper's hands. One of the items, therefore, in out northern paradise is wanting: the game is entirely the property of the landlord, and is in his eyes the most valuable living thing upon the estate, not excepting the tenant himself. In any northern paradise this cannot be: the farmer must have entire control over the game, and must be able to deal with it as he thinks best. Without a doubt he will take care of it within due limits, and re-let or sell the shooting to the best bidder or to his favourite sportsman. The keeper will be the servant of the farmer, not his enemy and tyrant; and probably a more scientificl method of preserving some of the rare species will arise; sport will become a better test of skill, poaching will be less possible; while shooting will give health to greater numbers of workers than it does at present. It is curious to note how the older men are much more nervous about their landlord's displeasure than the younger ones are. The older Israelites longed more ardently for the flesh-pots of Egypt than the younger ones, and the generation of Aaron had to die out before the generation of Joshua and Caleb could enter the promised land. The farmer may not dispose of certain of his crops without his landlord's leave, and consequently a dull, monotonous routine is necessitated, which is good for no one. The man who has to contend with American wheat and beef, with Australian mutton, with foreign hay and oats and beans, cannot do so with shackled hands, nor by means of a cut-and-dried system which is supposed to safeguard the interests of the landlord; but he can only survive by means of keen |
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l Much might be added here as to the great
variety of game which could be encouraged on the land by
using the different kinds of ground available.
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