366 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



the areas of the fires are reduced in size as the patching 

 and stripping of the moor progresses. By large fires a 

 moor can be easily burned out, but no area of heather 

 is so small that a smaller patch cannot be taken out of 

 it and the moor be thereby improved. 



Certain moors or portions of moors have a tendency to go 

 back to grass, and therefore require special treatment. The 

 most common reasons for this reversion from heather to grass 

 is lack of attention during the period from 1850 to 1900, over- 

 stocking by sheep (especially of the black-faced variety), and 

 big fires after the heather has got old. In practice it is found 

 that these causes often work in combination. 



The attention of gamekeepers should be directed to the 

 burning of " white grass " as well as heather. By doing so 

 they provide directly for the sheep and indirectly also for the 

 Grouse ; for, so long as they are plentifully supplied with grass, 

 sheep will not draw heavily on the heather. " White grass " 

 can be burned in large stretches and consequently more rapidly 

 than heather, and advantage should always be taken of any 

 specially dry season to burn the low, damp hollows where this 

 grass chiefly abounds ; in four seasons out of five such places 

 are too damp to burn. 



To bring green ground back to heather is always a slow 

 and often a costly business. 



Control of the sheep stock to prevent an over-cropping of 

 the heather seedlings, fencing of the newly-burned patches, 

 sowing of heather seed in specially prepared ground are all 

 methods that may be found useful. 



The laisser faire argument that the change from heather 

 to grass or bracken depends on the seasons, and that nothing 

 should be done is one that the Committee view with suspicion. 

 Putting off burning where old heather exists only means putting 

 off the evil day, and it is probably correct to say that for every 

 year that the old heather is left unburned after maturity, at 

 least one year is added to the time required for the young 

 heather to replace the grass after burning. 



