HEATHER-BURNING 369 



that the turf dug out is thrown away not less than 6 feet from 

 the drain. Shallow drains made in this way reduce the danger 

 to the young Grouse, and are also less liable to choke and flood 

 the moor. Drains should be made on the herring-bone pattern, 

 and begin with wide arms high up the hill face to catch the 

 surface water. Special care must be taken that the central 

 drains are sufficiently large to allow the water collected to run 

 off easily into a main burn. The ground that it is desirable 

 to drain is not the flat sodden bog or sour flow land, but the 

 ground on which the fog or moss has only recently begun to 

 choke the heather. 



Draining, when undertaken, should be thorough. It is 

 better to confine the area of work and watch results, with an 

 occasional clearing of the drains, than to spread the work over 

 a great extent of country where little immediate result is seen, 

 no attention is paid to upkeep, and the lie of the drains is soon 

 lost. On most moors money would be well expended in drain- 

 ing, for not only would the risk of infection be thereby lessened, 

 but the total yield of heather would be increased. The supply 

 of grit which drain-making often exposes is not a trifling con- 

 sideration to the general health of a moor, as will be seen in 

 chapter iii. 1 



1 Vide, p. 107. 



2 A 



