STOCK 429 



would be gained by increasing the number of these minor 

 driving days, and this might be done without disturbing the 

 centre of the ground, for the off days might be devoted to the 

 driving of outlying beats and high ground which at other 

 times are never touched. 



If then it be admitted that, by means of driving, Grouse 

 may be killed down to the required limit, the question arises 

 as to the exact stock which should be left on each moor. 



There are certain general axioms which may be laid down Stock mi 

 with absolute confidence. The first and most important is ^nter 

 that on a badly-burned moor, where the supply of good winter feedin s- 

 feeding is small, the stock to be left on the ground for the winter 

 must be a light one. By good winter feeding is, of course, 

 meant the close grown six-to-ten years old heather which has 

 already been described in an earlier chapter. 1 Conversely on 

 a moor where the heather has, by dint of severe burning, been 

 brought into such a rotation as gives the largest possible pro- 

 portion of winter feeding a much heavier breeding stock may 

 be safely left. 



On Broomhead Moor, which may be taken as a typical Proporti* 

 example of a moor where the heather has been systematically stockto 1 

 burned for many years past, the ground is now capable of carrying s u n ner 

 a large winter stock without risk. On this moor of 4,000 

 acres from one thousand to one thousand five hundred brace 

 is regarded as a fair breeding stock from which to obtain a 

 bag of three thousand brace in the following season. 



In estimating the number of Grouse that should be shot, 

 the bags of previous years should be disregarded ; a moor 

 which in the past has yielded an average bag of five hundred 

 brace may in a big year produce one thousand five hundred 

 brace and still be dangerously overstocked. It is the number 

 left alive, not the number killed, that should be considered. 



It will be urged by many moor-owners that it is impossible Difficult^ 

 to regulate the Grouse stocks with any precision, owing to the migration 

 migratory habits of the birds. The objection is a pertinent 



1 Vide chap. iii. pp. 83 et seq. 



