HEATHER - BURNING 409 



2nd. To burn average foot and a half heather in strips and patches of one 



fourth to one half of an acre. 

 ^rd. To burn patches and strips on the steep faces of the wintering ground 

 in small blocks of not more than one fourth to one tenth of an acre 

 each. 

 Aih. To burn the burn-sides, knolls and nesting grounds of Grrouse, in even 



smaller plots. 

 5th. To burn the wet flow ground in big patches of 1 to 10 acres. 



{N.B. — This should be done so as to cover the flow ground every 

 six to nine years.) 

 Qth. To burn the high ground with a northern exposure in large 3 acre 



blocks. 

 7th. To burn good broad strips round each of the boundaries. 

 8^^. To treat specially those portions of the moor which have a tendency to 

 revert to grass. 

 By adopting these methods with, say, three keepers (watchers to count as 

 keepers), each in charge of two parties of two or three men each — a total of from 

 fifteen to twenty-one burners — it may be possible to get the work done. The 

 burners will have to fire twenty patches of 1 to 5 acres, say a total area of 50 

 acres, 300 patches of from one fourth of an acre to one acre, making, say, 150 

 acres, two hundred patches of from one fourth to one tenth of an acre, say 50 

 acres, i.e., about 500 burns with a total of between 250 and 300 acres. 



Taking the average as four parties burning a day, for it must be borne in 

 mind that on very dry or windy days the keepers will often have to use the 

 whole of their posse as one burning party, it will require about ten days or 

 twenty half days to get through the work, calculating that each party burns 

 an average of fourteen patches a day. 



This is a fair statement of what ought to be done on a 4,000-acre moor ; it 

 probably exceeds by a very considerable amount what is done on many moors of 

 double that size. 



If the number of men for the burning parties cannot be got the area of 

 the fires must be bigger ; but the ratio of heather burned to total area of the 

 moor must be maintained at all costs. 



In considering the general question of heather burning, undue Arguments 

 weight must not be attached to arguments such as the following : — lenJvl ^^ 

 (1) That the expense is too great. bummg. 



