CHAPTEE XVII 



MOOR MANAGEMENT 



By Lord Lovat 



Before going into the question of moor management and the various suggestions 



that have been brought forward from time to time with the object of 



of this maintaining the health of Grouse, it seems advisable to give a brief 



resume of some of the more important hygienic and economic facts 



established in the preceding chapters. 



New data, intelligently apprehended, must of necessity entail a regrouping 

 of ideas, and it is therefore expedient, in the light of a heightened standard 

 of knowledge, to re-examine old assumptions, sift the good methods from the 

 bad, and look into the why and the wherefore of recognised specifics, before 

 embarking on suggestions as to the lines on which further developments 

 should best proceed. 



It is not only in the advancement of abstract knowledge and the co-ordina- 

 tion of existing practice with scientifically established fact that progress is to 

 be made. The results on the practical side should be no less important. In 

 the first place, the keeper is by profession a trained observer, and, as far as the 

 consideration of natural phenomena is concerned, an educated man. Nothing is 

 more likely to act as a stimulus to jaersonal exertion, and therefore to increased 

 attention to the moor, than a clear understanding on his part, not only as to what 

 should be done — of which he has already a pretty thorough grasp — but also as 

 to the reason why a given action is taken about which he has but too often the 

 most vague ideas. Again, if any advance is to be made in methods of moor 

 management, it is obvious that the details must be worked out by the practical 

 man on the spot ; this can only be done if the keeper realises the nature of the 

 difficulties to be met, and the reasons for which the suggested remedies are put 

 forward. 



In recapitulating certain findings of the Committee it will not be necessary to 



372 



