MOOR MANAGEMENT 383 



Bolton Abbey Moors, Yorkshire. 



These are high well-burned moors with good grit ; they are well watered and 

 considerable attention has been paid to draining; the patches burned on the 

 moors every year are very large ; they have probably not always been so well 

 burned as they are to-day, and the older heather takes three or more years to 

 spring from seed after burning. The average annual rainfall is about 38 inches. 

 The record given below is a very remarkable one, extending as it does over 

 a century. The following points should be noted : 



(1) That the yield of Grouse has increased from two hundred to over three 



thousand brace. 



(2) That for the first twenty years any year in which over three hundred 



brace was killed was invariably followed by disease, that is to say, 

 that the same land which now carries three thousand brace with 

 safety, could not then stand a bag of more than two hundred brace 

 without risk from disease. 



(3) The difference is very marked in the time required for the moors to 



recover from the epidemic under the new and old conditions. When 

 the moors were badly burned it used to take three to four years to 

 get over a bad outbreak of disease ; in the last two outbreaks the 

 season following the attack has given an average yield. 

 These moors are still improving from the effect of years of regular and heavy 

 burning and draining. There is every reason to suppose the rate of heather 

 growth will increase, thus affording an extended area of ground bearing a full 

 crop of food. 



An analysis of results is given in chart form on p. 384. 



