402 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



While it is necessary to burn off blocks of old heather in strips, it is advisable 

 at the same time to get a considerable area burned on one beat of the moor. 



Sheep always rush to the newly burned ground for the sweeter grasses 

 that grow there, and unless there are good stretches of burned ground for 

 Danger them to feed on, they will concentrate on the small isolated patches 

 from sheep. an( j p u jj U p a ^ ^he young heather plants as they spring from seed. 

 Every one who is acquainted with a moor in autumn must have observed 

 the hundreds of little brown shrivelled-up heather seedlings pulled up by 

 the sheep's teeth on every patch of newly burned ground. 1 To obviate this 

 wholesale destruction it is sometimes considered advisable, where the sheep 

 stock is heavy and the moor has a tendency to go back to grass, to fence off 

 areas of old stick heather for two or three years after burning. This gives 

 the young heather a chance of coming away, and once rooted it can defy 

 the efforts of the stoutest-toothed "black-face." 



Old heather should, whenever it is possible, be burned " against the grain," 

 Burning that ^ s * Sa 7> a g a i ns t the lie of the heather sticks. " Back-firing " 

 'against^ or |j urn i n g against the wind gives a very clean burn, the fire 

 travels slowly, and destroys not only a larger percentage of the 

 stalks of the heather, but also burns into the "fog" or moss which surrounds 

 the roots of old stick heather. Owing to the shortness of the time available 

 for burning in an average year, dampness of the soil, etc., "back-firing" is 

 not always possible. In the case where an overcrop of partly charred sticks 

 have been left it is advisable to run a fire through the burned ground a second 

 time if possible in the second or third year following the first burn. This 

 Second second firing has the effect of clearing the ground of the charred 

 burning, heather sticks and burning off the moss which, having been exposed 

 to the air, is drier than at the first time of kindling. This affords 

 a good clear seed - bed on which the wind - borne heather - seeds rapidly 

 establish themselves. 



The very greatest care must be taken of steep banks, especially those 

 _,,. , facing south, as these are the places that in time of snow give shelter 



Steep faces. 



and food to the Grouse. It must be understood that careful 

 treatment does not mean allowing such places to run into old stick heather. 

 Many keepers are so frightened of touching these winter feeding - places 

 that on many moors the heather in these places has become rank, and is 



1 Vide PI. LVII., Fig. 2. * Vide chap. xxii. p. 501. 



