HEATHER-BURNING 365 



and will often say and believe that they burn one- 

 tenth part of the moor when one-hundredth is nearer 

 the mark. 



(3) The argument that the existing method of burning has 



produced good results in the past. 

 This may be admitted, but with the reservation 

 that good results in the past have almost invariably 

 been followed by disease in the following year. It 

 is to avoid disease and heighten the average yield 

 of the moor that the progressive landlord will see 

 that it is worth while to limit the food crop for a 

 few years in the attempt to get the moor into good 

 " heart." 



(4) The old-heather argument that it is dangerous to burn the 



old heather as birds will have no food in winter. 

 Three things should be remembered in this 



connection. 



1st. That on some of the most heavily stocked moors 

 no old heather exists, yet there is enough 

 winter food. 



2nd. That in time of snow the medium-sized heather 

 can be raked with little labour and thus afford 

 abundant winter food should the moor be 

 buried in snow, especially if the longer heather 

 is destroyed by frost. % 



3rd. That long heather is valuable only as long as it 

 gives food Grouse eat heather shoots, not wood. 

 Much of the heather in England and Scotland 

 that has been left for winter food has been 

 steadily going back for twenty years, and it 

 now produces barely one-tenth of its proper 

 food yield. 



(5) In a good burning year keepers often wish to knock off 



" work " under the plea that enough burning has been 

 done for a single season. It is very doubtful if too 

 much burning can ever be done in any season provided 



