2. To retain his moorland, and nurse the birds until the moor is full,
and then let at a higher rent either for one year or more.
Any other course is suicidal to him in the long run; he may deceive his
client, and perhaps himself, and get a heavy rent for one year and then
he is done.
In the season of 1883, with a full knowledge that the moor has been
cleaned out with disease and over shooting in 1882, I was asked, will
you let me Rumsdale with a limit of 150 brace for £100.
My reply was, that firstly there was not 150 brace upon the moor, and
that if I let it I should be cheating him, and that if I did, shooting
the little there was would do me far more damage by the loss of the
breeding stock than the value of the £100, or three or four times the
£100.
It is difficult to educate people to the knowledge of the fact that the
breeding of grouse is like the breeding of other animals or birds, and
that grouse are not in some mysterious way showered down by Providence
like manna in the desert.
It is appreciated as regards pheasants, but appears that it has yet to
be learned as regard grouse.
I have remarked that as a rule moors are more readily let, and higher
rents are obtained in the disease year, the year following the cycle of
three or four big years, than at any other period.
Men are jubilant and excited over the successes of the three or four
previous years, the prestige and the glamour are fostered by those in
the interest of letting, and folks are unwilling to believe, as I was
in the season of 1866, that such magnificent sport can collapse almost
at once to nothing.
Disappointments result for a couple of years or more, and then moors
become very unsavoury, and really good places are on hand, and at
moderate rents for the ensuing three or four years.
It is evident that if history is to repeat itself, that, looking at the
cost of keeper and other expenses, it is cheaper to rent for three or
four years at a high rent than to take for seven years at a low rent,
taking your chance, or, more properly speaking, the certainty, of the
fat and the lean.
Anyone about to take a moor of fair repute may, by taking the necessary
trouble before he signs the agent's agreement to pay £500 or £1000 for
what Providence may send him, ensure himself the sport represented by
the high rent.
According to the amenities of the place--for the number of brace to
be killed is not the only factor in fixing the price--the rent will
vary from 10_s._ to 20_s._ a brace, and an intending tenant should not
grudge it if he gets the sport.
Let the moor be run with dogs by a competent keeper, and he will tell
you if there is sufficient breeding stock to breed the promised 1000
brace.
Then ascertain, _positively and absolutely_, when the last attack of
disease occurred; it will be the year after the last successful season.
Then take the moor for a term of years, ending in the seventh year from
the date of the disease year.
Those moors that suffer the most in their disease year, like the moor
in Strathspey, referred to in Season 1871, will probably afford the
heaviest shooting in their good years.
Grouse, of course, have other drawbacks besides disease.
If the moors are on high ground, they are liable to have eggs frosted
in late frosts, or young grouse killed by late snowstorms, as occurred
in Season 1864 on Glenshee. Again, you may have a lazy, whiskey
drinking keeper, who neglects vermin-killing; but, as a rule, once out
of the egg, the young bird is safe.