HEATHER-BURNING 345 



Grouse, not sheep, would at once increase the yield of 

 birds. 



It is a curious fact that, while the average man can predict 

 with some degree of certainty the immediate result of any change 

 in the existing order of things, the correct calculation of even 

 secondary consequences requires the attention of brains of a 

 very different calibre. When the landlords in their wisdom 

 appointed the keeper to the role of moor-burner they achieved 

 their immediate aim better cover for shooting over dogs ; 

 but they gained also a second and not less noteworthy result, 

 a drop both in the average bag of Grouse and in the grazing 

 value of the hill-ground, a thing neither foreseen nor in any 

 way desired. 



Founded on latter-day experience the reason for this is 

 not far to seek. In the dogging days long heather was the ideal. 

 " Keepers' delight," when applied to 3-foot heather, is still 

 a recognised and but too often well justified term. The keeper, 

 acting up to his lights and wishing to show the best sport on 

 the Twelfth, not only stopped the shepherd from burning big 

 stretches of heather, but stopped him from burning the heather 

 at all. In books of sport in the year 1863 places are mentioned 

 as splendid Grouse ground " fifteen hundred acres of heather 

 without a single break ! " This method of heather culture was 

 admirable for approaching wild birds ; in these jungles a covey 

 once settled could be massacred at ease with " snap-hance " 

 or breech-loader. Unfortunately, the change of methods was 

 not equally satisfactory with regard to the health of the moor, 

 and a very rude awakening was not far distant. 



A few lucky seasons, with a heavy crop of heather seed for 

 food in winter and early ripening shoots in spring, gave in certain 

 favoured districts an increase of bags by improving the con- 

 ditions for approaching the birds ; then a cold summer followed 

 by a winter with late spring frosts, and a seasonal shortage 

 of food intensified by an overplus of old stick heather, led to 

 the inevitable result a general outbreak of disease. 



As early as 1857 there were reports of heather on certain 



