928 Moorland Grazinc. [Jan., 



MOORLAND GRAZING: 



ITS IMPEOVEMENT BY HEAVY STOCKING. 

 Captain Anthony Thompson, M.Sc, A.S.I., 

 Assisted by Miss D. Anderson, B.Sc, N.D.A. (Hons.), 

 Armstrong College, Newcastle-vpon-Tyne. 



A study of the measures which have been taken in the past 

 for the improvement of moorland pasture makes it clear that a 

 variety of problems is involved which cannot be solved by a 

 single general remedy, whether manurial or mechanical. 

 Disease, draining, and herbage alone of the many considerations 

 which occupy the hill farmer's mind, may, together or separately, 

 present difficulties which appear insurmountable, and each area 

 needs to be considered on its own merits. The herbage on moor- 

 land is very different from that of the lowland pastures. It is 

 the natural food of the stock and game it feeds, and vast areas 

 in Great Britain are not likely to support any better plants. In 

 such areas it would obviously be unsound to destroy the existing 

 herbage, but there are areas capable of improvement, where 

 the coarser hill plants can be made to give way to clover and better 

 pasture grasses, and which, when improved, are of great value 

 to the hill farmer. How far such improvement ma}^ be economi- 

 Kiallj possible depends on the difference between the original 

 and improved value of the land, together with the cost of 

 treatment and the period required to effect it. 



It appears that much of such herbage has become of a rougher 

 nature since the change on many moors in grazing sheep instead 

 of cattle.* The period during which this change took place 

 varied considerably in different places, but whether it was com- 

 paratively recent or remote, there is no doubt that the effect on 

 the land through the heavier trampling of the cattle tends 

 to fine " the turf and develop superior herbage. It is only 

 necessary to observe the intakes on our moors and the land 

 around gateways for this to be evident. 



In Cumberland and Northumberland considerable areas of 

 moorland are covered with a cloak of slowly decaying organic 

 matter consisting of the remains of the natural herbage and its 

 roots. This peaty covering lies on a variety of soils. In North- 

 umberland it is called "fog," a somewhat confusing name, but 



* Patrick R. Latham, " The Deterioration of Mountain Pastures, and Sug- 

 gestions for their Improvement." Trans. H. d- A. S.. 1883. 



