344 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



to show how blind but intelligent experiment has slowly been 

 working its way towards comparative hygienic success ; to see 

 where methods have failed through incorrect deductions from 

 observations of natural phenomena ; to indicate broad precepts 

 of moor management in accordance with our present standard 

 of knowledge ; and lastly to lay down lines on which further 

 experiments can be made with reasonable prospects of success. 



In the early days of Grouse shooting, when shooting rents 

 were low or non-existent, and the Grouse was an appanage of 

 the sheep farm, not the main rent producer of a hill property, 

 the moorland in the majority of cases was burned by the farmer 

 and his shepherds. The methods used were rough and ready, 

 but effective. The object, as set out in the tack or lease, was 

 to burn one-tenth of the moor ; the driest and most windy days 

 were chosen, and, provided the hirsels were burned approxi- 

 mately in the authorised proportions, the matter of a few acres 

 more or less in a single burning was not considered of much 

 importance. 



Judging from occasional bags recorded it is probable that 

 during this period the actual stock of Grouse throughout the 

 country was often very considerable, but they were seldom 

 fully shot so that the recorded bags are so scanty that an exact 

 comparison with the results of the present day is impossible. 



In the middle of the last century in England, and in Scotland 

 a few years later, railway facilities, improvement in guns, 

 increase of wealth, and, more than anything else, fashion, 

 made the sporting value of the Grouse moor gradually approach 

 the grazing value of the farm. 



The Grouse, up to then the occasional victim of the landlord 

 and his friends, or of the poacher for the pot, became all at once 

 a saleable article, for which there was, and has been since, an 

 ever-increasing demand. The moor-owner was quick to realise 

 the enhanced possibilities of his property, keepers were appointed 

 to even the smallest areas of moorland, and the rights of burning 

 the moor were transferred from the shepherd to the keeper, 

 under the mistaken idea that the policy of burning to benefit 



