GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 235 



seriously. I should add that the ground was very 

 damp, and that the weather had been very wet for 

 some weeks previously. 



I believe that no remedy has ever been hit on 

 or tried with any satisfactory result. Rock salt has 

 been suggested ; but this does not appear to commend 

 itself to the grouse. I have always thought that if it 

 were practicable and not too expensive the heather 

 might, as an experiment, be sown with salt, in case the 

 parasite is really generated first upon the ground. I 

 am sure that very little would suffice to kill worms such 

 as I found on the occasion mentioned, and it might 

 prove beneficial as against tapeworms in their young or 

 embryo condition. So far as we know at present, we 

 can only fight against the disease, or ward it off, by the 

 common-sense practice of regular heather burning, and 

 maintaining a vigorous race of birds by the methods 

 and management I have mentioned above, aided by 

 such suggestions as those who have long and practical 

 experience of moois and moor-game can furnish in 

 addition. 



I have alluded above to accidental fires. These 

 may do no harm, possibly some eventual good, when 

 the ground is somewhat damp and the weather broken, 

 as in spring ; but in very hot dry weather in the 

 summer they may prove very serious. At such times 



