HEATHER-BURNING 353 



food for Grouse after the area burned has passed through suc- 

 cessive stages of grass and cross-leaved heather varying in point 

 of time from six to twenty years. If the soil has a tendency to 

 grow bracken the heather may be lost for ever. That is to say, 

 in a fifty years' rotation moor, probably 20 per cent, of the moor 

 is either black ground, bracken, grass, or cross-leaved heather, 

 and is not yielding its proportionate quota of food. When we 

 consider this loss of food area as well as the generally recognised 

 fact that on a frequently burned moor the heather grows thicker 

 and more luxuriantly than on one that is badly burned, it is 

 no exaggeration to say that the food-bearing capacity of a 

 moor at its best and worst is as ten to one. 



This change in the flora of a moor after burning is specially 

 noticeable in the case of accidental fires, such as occurred on a 

 large scale in Yorkshire in 1887 and 1893. Accidental fires are 

 commonest in very dry weather, and thus there is a danger of 

 the peat and soil being burned to a depth of several feet, thus 

 destroying the roots of the heather. 



The second reason for burning is to keep the birds at all 

 seasons split up over the ground. Grouse frequently get 

 together into big packs for purposes of safety after frequent 

 disturbance, or for shelter on the approach of storms, or in search 

 of food, or to avoid snow or drought, or to prepare for migration, 

 but, once the immediate cause of packing is removed, their 

 instinct is to get away from their brethren and take up their 

 family life apart. To help the birds to develop this instinct, 

 the patch or strip method has been advocated in the past, 

 and, provided always the strips and patches in their totality 

 suffice to maintain the food yield of the moor at its highest, 

 no better system could be adopted. 



The minor point of whether narrow strips or square patches 

 are advisable is not worth discussing ; keepers have their fancies, 

 self-appointed authorities will air their views ; it is probable 

 that both methods can be used with effect, each to suit the 

 special circumstances of individual moors. 



The object to be aimed at is clear, that every bird should 



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