574 



Heather Burning. 



[OCT., 



grouse, and action that might at the outset seem to have a 

 favourable effect on grouse-breeding might ultimately end in 

 disaster in the shape of a general outbreak of grouse disease. 

 This being the case, considerable interest attaches to the 

 chapter on heather-burning contributed by Lord Lovat to 

 the Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Grouse 

 Disease,* in which the subject is dealt with at some length. 



Briefly, it may be stated that the Committee are distinctly 

 of opinion that the interests of the farmer and the sportsman 

 are identical, and that the burning of the heather is equally 

 advantageous to both. In the past the use of many moors for 

 grazing has been subordinated to their employment as a 

 breeding-ground for grouse, but now that it has been shown 

 on such high and unimpeachable authority as that of the 

 Committee referred to that the two purposes are in no way 

 inimical, the Board hope that landowners and the owners of 

 shooting rights will endeavour to encourage the regular and 

 systematic burning of the heather, and thus enable the moors 

 to carry more sheep than they do at present. The following 

 is a summary of the Committee's Report: — 



Decrease in Heather-burning during the Last Century. — 

 In the early days of grouse-shooting, from about 1800 to 1850, 

 the heather of the moorland was in the majority of cases 

 burned by the farmer and his shepherds, the methods being 

 rough and ready, but effective, the object being to burn one- 

 tenth of the moor annually. During this period shooting 

 rents were low. Subsequently, when the value of grouse- 

 shooting became enhanced, the rights of burning were trans- 

 ferred from the shepnerds to the keepers. The result was 

 that, while better cover for shooting over dogs was obtained, 

 there was not only a drop in the average bag of grouse, but 

 also in the grazing value of the hill-ground — a result neither 

 foreseen nor desired. The reason was that long heather was 

 aimed at, and the keeper not only stopped the shepherd from 

 burning big stretches of heather, but from burning the heather 

 at all. 



The procedure followed ended in the whole effect of the 

 earlier burning being lost by the 'sixties of last century, and 

 in many districts where non-burning was at its height not 



* The Grouse in Health and Disease : being the Final Report ol the Committee 

 of Inquiry on Grouse Disease. 2 Vols. Smith, Elder.& Co. 191 1. £2 is. net. 



