STOCK 457 



No. 2 Moor. An improving moor apparently able to carry three hundred 

 to five hundred pairs of March stock in a normal year. 



No. 3 Moor. A very typical dogging moor with four hundred pairs of 

 breeding stock a safe limit. 



No. 4 Moor. A small well-burnt moor note the rapid recovery from disease ; 

 also that it is dangerous to approach five hundred pairs of breeding stock. 



No. 5a and 56 Moors. The records begin with the year 1866, and the 

 disastrous character of the outbreaks in 1867 and 1873 are reflected in the 

 bags. 1 The figures in column 5a fluctuate so greatly from year to year that 

 it is difficult to estimate a safe limit for the winter stock probably about 

 four hundred pairs. 



Column 56 represents the bags on the same moor from 1894; in this year 

 driving was adopted as the only method of shooting the ground. The results 

 of better stock regulation under the new conditions are shown by the figures. 

 While there are no individual bags as large as in 1866 and 1872 the 

 average bag has increased from four hundred and fifty-eight brace to seven 

 hundred and six brace in spite of two very bad seasons. 



No. 6 Moor. A breeding stock of about six hundred brace would probably 

 be a safe limit, quite favourable conditions in spring. 



No. 7 Moor. This is a large moor extending to about 25,000 acres, and 

 probably capable of carrying a larger stock than might be supposed from the bags ; 

 probably one thousand five hundred pairs would not be too large a winter stock. 



No. 8 Moor. Another large moor, or strictly speaking a collection of moors, 

 on the same estate, extending altogether to 34,000 acres ; about one thousand 

 five hundred to one thousand seven hundred pairs would probably be a sufficient 

 breeding stock according to the condition of the heather in the early spring 

 months. 



No. 9 Moor. About five hundred to six hundred pairs. 



We find that on each moor so examined there is a very clearly defined limit 

 of winter stock which it is dangerous to approach and almost certain disaster to 

 exceed, and that while in occasional years, owing to unusually favourable con- 

 ditions, an exceptional stock of birds may be reared, there is a constant tendency 

 for the stock to revert to the normal ratio for the district. The whole art of 

 moor management depends upon a proper appreciation of this tendency, for if 

 the stock be not reduced to the safety limit by artificial means, nature will 



1 Vide also p. 477. 



