396 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



were taken into the hands of owners and shooting tenants, the patch method 

 2nd Period ^f burning came into fashion, and tlie proportion burned, as far as 

 i8oOtoi8/3. i-gcords show, dropped from one-tenth to one-hundredth part of the 

 moor burned per annum. 



In this period great strides were made towards fitting out shootings with 

 lodges, approach roads, and other conveniences. Large sums were paid out in 

 the wilder and poorer districts, and a great deal of employment was given. 



Moors were let for sheep and Grouse at about the same figure. It is 

 instructive to note that to-day on many of the same moors sporting rents 

 represent five, in cases ten times the value of the grazing rents. 



The third period begins with the years of disaster 1872 and 1873, which were 

 followed by four years of recovery and very restricted bags. These lean years were 

 3rd Period ^^^ immediate cause of the study of Grouse pathology. The iuA^estiga- 

 1873 to 1910. ^-Qjj has continued more or less ever since, and after passing through 

 the vicissitudes customary to research in a new field, has culminated in tlie 

 comparatively extensive knowledge of the present day. 



Notwithstanding the fact that Cobbold had indicated in 1873 that the cause 

 of the great outbreak was the Strongyle worm, the first move towards an im- 

 proved system of management was not in the right direction. The moors had 

 been indifferently burned so long that in order to catch up the rotation, recourse 

 should have been had to big fires rather than to the patch or strip system of 

 burning. This, however, was not realised. 



Many land-owners, seeing that "patch-burned" moors were less afiected by 

 the disease than moors on which no heather had been burned, jumped to the 

 Burning in conclusiou that it was the smallness of size of the individual patch, and 

 'jaUihes ^^^ ^^^® total area of the burning that was all-important. This belief 

 introduced, jg prevalent in mauy localities to-day, and it is no exaggeration to 

 say that to this error, more than to any other cause, is due the persistent 

 recurrence of disease. 



From the foregoing history of past failures, and the knowledge scientific 

 Conclu- investigation has given us, we can proceed to lay down with some 

 sions. approach to certainty the following rules of heather-burning, and the 



reasons on wliich they are based : — 



(l) That, in order to maintain the vitality and therefore the power of 

 resistance of the Grouse, the moor must be so burned as to keep 

 the food-supply at its highest. 



