Boggis and Bunce and Bean/ One fat, one short, one lean/ These horrible crooks/ So different in looks /Were nonetheless equally mean.
-- Local children (Chapter 1)

Importance: The bad reputation of the farmers in the valley is so bad that even the local children make up rhymes about them. While the farmers may look different, and while they may have different kinds of farms, they are all very mean. Here, Dahl sets the stage for the kind of men that Mr. Fox will have to deal with in coming chapters. Their meanness will challenge Mr. Fox in ways he has never had to deal with before.

But Mr. Fox was too clever for them. He always approached a farm with the wind blowing in his face, and this mean that if any man were lurking in the shadows ahead, the wind would carry the smell of that man to Mr. Fox’s nose far away...
-- Narrator (Chapter 2)