INTRODUCTION 



THE importance of Grouse and Grouse Shooting not only as a 

 form of sport and profit, but also as a means of support to a 

 rural population has long been recognised. 



Grouse shooting is, of all forms of sport, the most profitable 

 to the general population ; it causes little clashing of interests 

 between the sportsman and the pastoral or agricultural tenant, 

 while the policy to be adopted for the scientific management 

 of moorland is equally beneficial to both. It produces a maxi- 

 mum of profit to the wage earner with the minimum of 

 waste, an otherwise unproductive subject is converted into 

 a source of profit, and districts which but for the Grouse would 

 be uninhabited, except by a solitary shepherd, are occupied 

 by shooting tenants and the men employed by them, and the 

 tenure of many small and otherwise uneconomic agricultural 

 holdings is thereby rendered possible. 



In connection with all moorland sport one point stands out 

 prominently the land which is suitable for Grouse is not well 

 adapted for anything else except sheep and cattle. But the 

 pastoral value is in no way impaired by the presence of Grouse, 

 for Grouse and sheep are found to flourish together on the same 

 hillside ; indeed the flockmaster is often under obligations to 

 the sportsman for the labour which the latter expends upon 

 the burning and draining of the moor. 



It has been stated that land which is at present given up 

 to Grouse might profitably be reclaimed and utilised for agri- 

 culture. Experiments have often been made. In the county 



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