t 304 ] 



" tempt the idle to break down and defiroy mf 

 " fences." Believe me, my dear Sir, it is the cry 

 of ignorance. Were every field furrounded with 

 fruit, no one would heed to trample over hedges for 

 an handful^ and no one would grudge his neigh- 

 bour or the thirfty traveller a gratification fo eafily 

 fuppliedj the farmer would hardly turn his head to 

 look at a perfon gathering a fevv apples, or picking 

 a handful of plumbs; it is the fcarcity of the com- 

 modity that fills the mind of the farmer with thefe 

 puerile fears.* I know a very fmall parifh in the 

 caftern part of England, where the fruit in a fa- 

 vourable year brings into the parifli a thoufand 

 pounds fterling ; a fum till lately (if not now) equal 

 to the rent of the land; and miuch of this fruit 

 grows along the hedge-rows, not in hedges planted 

 in the manner herein defcribed, but from trees 

 planted alongfide the hedges, which are continually 

 extended by frefh plantations every time the hedges 

 are new made. A thoufandth part of a thoufand 

 pounds will repay the expence of repairing many 

 fradtured hedges ^ and twenty or thirty bufhels of 



* A member of the Society who has pertifed this article remarks, 

 that he knows an eftate in Wales, which a few years ago contained 

 a fine fruitful orchard near the farm-houfe ; but on account of the 

 miferable fcarcity of orchards, the owner thought himfelf obliged 

 to dcllroy this, to prevent the depredations of his neighbours. 

 Wretchetl ftate of a country ! where the very fcarcity of a Valuable 

 article muft occafion its total anniliilation! 



fruit 



