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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



than plants of a similar kind, which are 

 not equally protected, although the natural 

 quaUties of the soil, and the system of culti- 

 vation pursued may not be materially dif- 

 ferent. Even the existence of a good stone 

 wall, or a well-grown hedge, will make a con- 

 siderable difference in this respect, and we 

 have seen crops growing luxuriantly within an 

 enclosure, while those outside were stunted 

 and worthless; the distinction arising, not 

 from any difference in the soil or culture, but 

 simply from the fact that in one case the crops 

 were sheltered, while in the other they were 

 exposed to bleak winds. The grasses grown 

 under shelter are also strong, of good kinds, 

 and nourishing, but those which are not pro- 

 tected are short, coarse, and of little value. 

 By means of draining and shelter it is in our 

 power to make a climate, and thus we find 

 pastures and crops grown at a comparatively 

 high but well sheltered elevation, bulky, pro- 

 ductive, and early, while in> a lower but open 

 and bleak locality, they are scanty and poor. 

 The late Mr Thackeray was certainly not an 

 agricultural writer, but in his " Sketch-Book 

 of Ireland," there is a passage which sup- 

 plies a good illustration of the point we are 

 discussing. " On the road from Cork to 

 Bantry," he says, " the character of the land- 

 scape is for the most part bare and sad, 

 except here and there in the neighbourhood 

 of towns, where the people have taken a 

 fancy to plant, and where nature has helped 

 them, as it almost always will in this country. 



If wc saw a field with a good hedge to it, we 

 were sure to see a good erop inside ; hut many 

 a field was there that had neither hedge nor 

 erop." 



But illustrations of this kind are to be 

 found in almost all parts of the country, and 

 there are few who have not experienced a 

 a grateful change after travelling over a low, 

 but quite unsheltered district, under a biting 

 north or east wind, on ascending into a 

 higher country, where plantations screened 

 the road, and caused a very sensible altera- 

 tion in the temperature, and consequently in 

 the comfort under which the journey was per- 

 formed. To say that the value of shelter is 

 unknown, would be saying too much, 

 but it is nevertheless true that in many 

 districts it is evidently not appreciated 

 as it deserves. Other modes of ameUorating 

 the natural state of soil and climate have re- 

 ceived due attention, and been undoubtedly 

 productive of vast benefit to the country, but 

 it is not unusual to find that the advantages 

 expected from such modes of improvement 

 have not been fully realized, which may be 

 traced to the fact that they have not been 

 preceded by or accompanied with that which 

 is calculated to give them due effect — namely, 

 shelter from biting, 'bleak winds. With this 

 addition, draining, trenching, liming, manur- 

 ing, &c., become much more effective ; let it 

 be neglected, and those important means of 

 improvement are frequently deprived of more 

 than half their value. 



BURNING ON RAIL WA V BANKS. 



THE clouds of flame and smoke on 

 burning railway banks and adjoining 

 grounds, as well as the fire-wasted appearance 

 which they everywhere presented during the 

 past almost unprecedentedly dry summer, 

 until quenched, and again rendered ver- 

 durous by the Lammas floods, will long be 

 remembered by railway travellers. Owners 

 of fields and plantations adjacent to railways 

 are not likely soon to forget the con- 



stant anxiety which they then experienced, 

 lest their pastures, or grain crops, and grow- 

 ing timber should become a prey to that 

 prevailing and erratic fire-plague, the numerous 

 sources of which were emitted from locomo- 

 tive engine furnaces, and the records of their 

 devastating spread filled large portions of the 

 daily newspapers, to the truth of which, testi- 

 mony is still borne by numerous existing 

 remnants of burnt railway, hedges, as 



