346 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



moors " man high " by the sixties the whole effect of the 

 shepherds' burning had passed away, and in many districts 

 where the non-burning practice was at its height, not only were 

 there few birds and disease frequently recurrent, but the graziers' 

 complaint became more and more common that there was 

 not enough young heather and grass to feed the sheep-stock. 

 At this period the relations between sporting tenants and sheep - 

 farmers became so strained that big sheep-farmers, then a 

 well-to-do class, used in many districts to rent the shooting 

 as well as the grazing of their holdings, and so get the control 

 of heather-burning into their own hands. 



In 1871 and 1873 the Game Laws Commission investigated 

 the relations of the sporting and farming interests, and some 

 very interesting facts were elicited. Not the least important 

 of these facts was the similarity of heather conditions required 

 for sheep and for Grouse. This was brought out by the evidence 

 of farmers who had leased the sporting rights of their farms, 

 and who spoke of doubling and trebling the bag of Grouse by 

 burning tracts of ground in order to get the land back into the 

 proper rotation for sheep, viz., one-tenth of the moor burned 

 per annum. 



The reports of these and other successes obtained by heavy 

 burning were not long in being spread abroad. Partly from 

 increase of knowledge, and partly to satisfy the sheep interest, 

 more intelligent methods were pursued. On many estates the 

 principle was adopted " The shepherds light the fire, the 

 keepers put it out." As a principle rather than as a practical 

 usage this is not far from the ideal. The shepherd wants the 

 acreage burned for food, the keeper wishes the patch or strip 

 method maintained for the segregation of birds. 



Matters in the early seventies were thus proceeding through 

 the usual course of friction and inquiry towards mutual under- 

 standing and settlement, when in 1872 and 1873 the great 

 disease year occurred. 



Just as 1881, by the introduction of the Ground Game 

 Act, may be described as the Jena of the rabbit, so for a very 



