The Keeper's Book - A Guide to the Duties of a Gamekeeper

A. Stodart Walker

Description

First published in London 1904. This is the revised and enlarged edition of 1906.Contents Include: The Ideal Keeper Relations with Farmers Points in Law The Poacher Vermin The Dog The Moor The Partridge Deer Stalking Rabbits Pheasants Wild Duck Wildfowling in Scotland The Gillie Angling Law Diseases of Game Loaders and Gun Cleaning Various Duties etc. An ideal book for the apprentice keeper, but also one which should be in the book room of all who shoot and fish.Keywords: Wildfowling In Scotland Wild Duck Deer Stalking Gun Cleaning Poacher Pheasants Vermin Angling Partridge Loaders Rabbits Apprentice Moor Farmers Diseases Fish

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528761024
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE KEEPER S BOOK
A GUIDE TO THE DUTIES OF A GAMEKEEPER

Dedicated
TO ALL GOOD KEEPERS
WHO KNOW THEIR WORK
AND TO
ALL INDIFFERENT ONES
WHO DO NOT
PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.

T HE call for another edition has proved the necessity for The Keeper s Book .
The reception of the first edition at the hands of the press, led off by an enthusiastic notice in the Times - We have seldom read a better, more succinct, or more practical treatise. . . . It is an acquisition to the keeper s bookshelf which should be in every gun-room -has, on the whole, coincided with the response given by the public to the book.
Of course, there were a few reviewers who were disappointed because the book was not perfect. This disappointment can only be regarded as an indirect compliment. One critic hinted that the book was a compilation rather than an original work. It is neither, but it is both. Any man who would attempt to write an entirely new book on sport, without consulting the material that has already appeared in the works of experienced authorities, would be acting contrary to all the accepted traditions of scientific literature, and while one may, in reading The Keeper s Book , recognise much that is already well known, yet facts have an awkward trick of deserting the memory just at the moment we require them most, and in this way the present volume may not only add to our storehouse of knowledge, but refresh the memory with ideas long forgotten, as well as assist the intelligent keeper to investigate the many problems waiting solution, instead of accepting as gospel old women s stories of fifty years ago.
Keepers are too prone to think they know everything. There is no standing still, except in stupidity; it alone refuses to advance. If they would only remember, there must be a reason for everything, and a cure for everything, if such can only be found.
The reception of the book at the hands of the keeper is exactly as expected; it has been welcomed by the men who take their profession seriously, and avoided by the lazy, who are suspicious of anything that may multiply their duties.
The latter have sent us various effusions, generally anonymous. A few choice extracts will prove instructive-
I am a keeper s son, and my grandfather was a keeper. I have not read your book, but I know it is full of d d rubbish. The gun is the proper instrument for the keeper. Gentlemen who write books are not supposed to know a keeper s work; they were not brought up to it. Keepers have neither time nor inclination for books. No man likes to work more than he can. Nature rules all; you can t help nature or improve it. Books do a deal of harm, I don t like yours, and so on. All of which rather indicate that there are certain raw places in the hides of keepers of the indifferent and inefficient classes which have been touched.
In this thoroughly revised edition will be found many corrections, some omissions, and numerous additions. One point not touched upon in the body of the book may be noted. Since we first went to press, there has appeared an extensive correspondence on the subject of Heather-burning, Mr. Christopher Wilson advocating burning in autumn, instead of early spring. It is hardly necessary at this point to recall the fact that the law, as far as it affects Scotland, forbids burning before 1st November. The present writers have tried autumn burning, and after a spell of dry weather, they confess to find it a great improvement. The burning seems to be more effective. There appears to be an oil in the green heather which prevents the fire from spreading as rapidly as in spring. In the autumn it burns evenly and against the wind, and the work can, on the whole, be carried out much more thoroughly than in the spring. We certainly advise Scottish keepers to start burning in small patches on the first possible day after 1st November, and continue to do so on every opportunity until sufficient is burnt.
It has been the fashion for many landed proprietors to affect a total ignorance of business methods, with results that are so apparent, that the fashion is likely to change; only in Britain does this exist.
Upon one point all sportsmen must congratulate themselves,-that is, the present tendency of shooting proprietors to take a really intelligent interest in developing the sporting capacities of their estates. Lochs once neglected are being restocked and enriched with food and plant life; moors are being more carefully drained, burnt, and freed from vermin; with the result of largely increased bags. The slackness of many keepers is owing to the want of interest and supervision by the master, who should have a monthly return of all vermin killed, and see the heads regularly, and otherwise supervise the work of game preserving.
We have been accused of being rather hard on the West Country keepers. With every wish to be just, and after careful observation, we see no reason to alter our estimation of his character. We know many who for eight months in the year do nothing for the good of the shoot under their charge.
A commission of inquiry into the grouse disease is sitting, but as yet has discovered nothing new; it is to be hoped its efforts will be crowned with success.
Socialistic legislation in the shape of Land Tenure, Crofters and Small Holdings Bills, together with increased taxation on land, make it necessary for proprietors to manage their properties on businesslike principles, which have been so absent in the past, and thus bring their shooting and fishings up to the highest and most efficient capacity.
From an economic standpoint, our present fiscal policy is unnatural and unbusinesslike,-excluding aliens (a protective movement), yet admitting free the product of aliens work, is inconsistent and unjust to the nation as a whole. Such tinkering will never restore the economic equilibrium, and is at best a quack palliative to certain classes.
The cry of back to the land seems to be no cure for rural depopulation, so long as home prices are kept at an unpayable figure, by our providing the foreigner with a free market for his grain and beef, and paying all the rates, taxes, and upkeep for him. The return on land is smaller than that from any other kind of investment, including Consols, yet a man can never live on a small holding without extraneous work.
In large towns the trade unionists, who are the strongest protectionists of their own interests, uphold Free Trade, and want cheap food at the expense of the agricultural districts. If the country districts are to supply this, they should be freed of taxation by the populous centres, and not made to provide there a free market for the foreigner. In fact, the rural districts are sacrificed to provide cheap food for the large manufacturing centres.
There is no earthly reason why landed property, where the margin of profit is so small, should not be managed with ordinary intelligence like any other commodity.
P. JEFFREY MACKIE.
G LENREASDELL , July 1906.
CONTENTS

I. I NTRODUCTION
II. T HE I DEAL K EEPER
III. R ELATIONS WITH F ARMERS, ETC .
IV. T HE A PPRENTICE K EEPER
V. P OINTS IN L AW A G AMEKEEPER SHOULD K NOW , BY J OHN L AMB , A DVOCATE
VI. T HE P OACHER
VII. V ERMIN , BY T OM S PEEDY
VIII. T HE D OG - FROM A G AMEKEEPER S P OINT OF V IEW , BY D R . C HARLES R EID
IX. T HE M OOR -G ROUSE , B LACK G AME , P TARMIGAN
X. T HE P ARTRIDGE
XI. T HE D EERSTALKER , BY C APT . H. S HAW K ENNEDY
XII. T HE R ABBIT
XIII. T HE P HEASANT
XIV. W ILD D UCK , BY L ORD D OUGLAS G RAHAM
XV. W ILDFOWLING IN S COTLAND , BY J. S. H ENDERSON
XVI. M ISCELLANEOUS S PORT -S NIPE , W OODCOCK , C APERCAILZIE , P IGEON , P LOVER , R OE D EER , H ARES
XVII. T HE G AMEKEEPER AS A F ISHING G ILLIE , BY P. D. M ALLOCH
XVIII. S OME B ROAD F ACTS IN S COTTISH A NGLING L AW , BY H ENRY L AMOND
XIX. D ISEASES OF G AME
XX. L OADERS AND G UN C LEANING
XXI. M ISCELLANEOUS D UTIES
XXII. B AKSHEESH
INDEX
THE KEEPER S BOOK

CHAPTER I
I NTRODUCTION
S OME years ago one of the present writers visited a school in the West Highlands, and having listened for some time to a cross-examination of one of the senior classes in History, he expressed a desire to present a prize to the boy whose powers of observation and definition were the best, apart from mere book learning. Amongst the questions addressed to the class was the one, What is a gamekeeper? and an answer he received from a bright-eyed, sandy-haired Celt of about ten years of age was, A big man who goes about in a braw suit of tweeds, wi a dog and a gun, and does naethin . Now, though out of the mouths of babes and sucklings we are apt to perfect wisdom, we must not, of course, attempt to justify humour at the expense of justice. The little Highlander s answer was very much on the line of the street boy s definition of a Club as A house where gentlemen read newspapers on Sunday, although there is more of real truth in the latter than in the former reply. Both, however, indicate a real impression that had been made upon two fairly observant youngsters, and both replies are not to be despised as suitable texts for reflection.
It must be admitted that there are many keepers whose chief occupation up till the 12th of August, or even till the 1st of September or the 1st of October, seems to consist in going about with a dog and a gun and in virtually doing nothing-that is, nothing of real value to the shooting under their control. In no other class of men do we find such extremes, on the one hand of skill, energy, and efficiency, and on the other of stupidity, laziness, and incapability. Taking the profession