MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 159 



where such have to be herded and kept in proper bounds, that a hedge such as 

 I have now described would greatly enhance the value of all such property, and 

 would be among the first steps of progress to a more perfect settlement of the 

 country. Tliere is no question, therefore, that if a system of hedging were in- 

 troduced in the way I have mentioned, that not only farmers and all others in- 

 terested in landed property, would derive a benefit in tlie first place, but through 

 them the whole community would be gainers. Everything that gives labor and 

 employment cannot fail to benefit the general community, and this growing 

 and keeping up of live fences would be of a special advantage to many of our 

 rural population in giving them employment at that season of the year when 

 so many of that class have a difficulty in finding out-of-door work. In Scot- 

 land and England hedging is a profession, and on many of the large farms 

 and estates a man is engaged for the season whose special business it is to see 

 that all the fences are kept up in their proper order. 



I now conclude this communication with an assurance to every farmer and 

 citizen that the growing of hedge fences and the keeping of them in the way I 

 have described will not only repay for the labor and capital expended, but will 

 also piove a most profitable investment on the value of all landed property, and 

 would at the same time be an immense saving of valuable timber, which would 

 be available for every purpose for which it is so indispensable ; and more especi- 

 ally so, when we think upon the extra amount that will be required to meet the 

 wants of our vast country with its fast increasing population. 



