337 



IMPROVEMENTS OF GROUSE MOORS. 



J. A. IIARVIE-BROVVN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S., 

 Lat-bevt. 



The recently-issued pamphlet on ' The Improvement of Grouse 

 Moors,'""" calls for some remark, as the views gfiven differ some- 

 what from those held by some naturalists who live on the 

 moors. The author also tells us much, I think, certainly not 

 known before ! 



One thing' I utterly disapprove of, viz., the introduction of 

 ' all-Yorkshire stock ' to a place like Shetland, where 300 brace 

 were put down upon the recommendation of an Eng-lish specialist 

 for, I am told, a fee of ;^5o or g"uineas. All were Yorkshire 

 birds, brought from the finest treated heather in England to 

 the rank old unprepared heather-ground of Shetland, and put 

 down there en masse. I do not know positively who the 

 specialist was ; but the writer of the pamphlet would do well if 

 he would record the results of that introduction ! It would 

 distinctly have been wiser to have gradually introduced birds 

 from Caithness, or the West of Scotland, with possibly a few 

 Yorkshire cocks besides, than to have put down a ' pack ' of 300 

 brace of Yorkshire ' high-flyers.' Where are those 300 brace of 

 Yorkshire grouse now which were introduced a year or two ago? 



At the present day miles of old heather are burned — and it is 

 not 'a forgotten thing of a barbarous past,' but a 'modern 

 improvement' of 'modern specialists.' It makes deer-grass for 

 two or three years, and for ever destroys all future growth 

 of heather, as it is burned down to the roots, and the roots no 

 longer give off" the young shoots which the writer of the 

 pamphlet erroneously calls ' seedlings ! ' (p. 13). And sheep are 

 called the 'greatest enemies the grouse have to contend with.' 



I could write much more as a Scotsman writing for Scot- 

 land's interests, against crude ideas of a few year's experience. 



Burning to the root makes g^rasses grow first, on such 

 ground, which are sweet and succulent for deer for a very few 

 years. Then, up springs the first seedlings of the bracken, 

 which in turn will seed and sow up the hills, until there is no 

 ' deer-grass ' left. The chain of destruction is as follows : — 



(i) Burned old heather root and branch — not left with root, 



* Rural Studies Series, No. 3, by Rev. E. Adrian Woodrufife Peacock, 

 L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S., M.C.S., Vicar oi Cadney, Soil, Grass, and Game 

 Specialist, 16 pp., Louth, 1903. 

 1903 September i. x 



