450 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



given in the Xlth volame of the " Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society," in explaining and illustrating 

 the varions essays which were sent in to compete for 

 the prize offered by the Society for the best plan. The 

 essays were preceded by a letter from Mr. Thompson 



to Mr. Pusey, then editor of the'' Journal," in which 

 were given a few practical hints which cannot fail to be 

 useful to those consulting them. Space forbids us giving 

 them in extenso ; but in returning to the subject we 

 may possibly give a brief abstract of them. M. 



ON THE RE-FORMATION AND RE-CONSTRUCTION OF FENCES 



ON THE TILLAGE FARM. 



The Viola-tiox of the Latvs of Vegetative Natuee, 

 especially as respects tillage cliops, caused by 



OVEB-GEOWN AND O YEE-CEOWDED HeDGE-EOWS J AND THE 

 PeiNCIPLES, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL, TO BE 

 OESEEVED IN THE CONSTEUCTION OF LiVE-FENCES 

 EPITOMIZED. 



It may seem incredible, yet undoubtedly it is true, 

 that a very considerable proportion of tho existing fences 

 of England date back, in point of laying-out and con- 

 struction, to the earliest eras of hsr agriculture. Nay^ 

 more — those who have sought to discover the motives 

 which induced our rural forefathers to adopt such won- 

 derfully devious field-boundaries, have, with one assent, 

 referred them to the original enclosing of the space 

 from the then exposed waste — the bend outwards em- 

 bracing the adjacent good soil and the inward one ex- 

 cluding inferior spots. In those primitive days the 

 spade and mattock prevailed much more as implements 

 of field-labour than now ; and hence, irregularity of 

 outline in the then tillage enclosure was attended with 

 comparatively little cultural inconvenience. 



Again, at the early period at which we are glancing 

 back, and for many centuries after, the succour of 

 shelter to cattle was pre-eminently desirable ; because, 

 unprovided as the husbandman was with that abundance 

 of succulent provender in winter which the roots of 

 modern agriculture afford, he had no choice but to leave 

 his beasts in the pasture field or meadow at all seasons. 

 Hence, for their better protection from the winter 

 blasts, the farmer of former days was excusable in 

 giving full licence of growth to the plants constituting 

 the boundaries around his closes. In this manner it ori- 

 ginated, and at first and for long without any violation 

 of convenience or economy, that hedges became the 

 informal and over-grown and over-crowded feature in 

 the landscape which, even till now, has unfortunately 

 been perpetuated in a great majority of the counties of 

 England, in the face of the strongest objections of 

 modern husbandry to their continuance. Assert at any 

 market-table that most of the gentlemen present habi- 

 tually pursued methods of farming inherited by them 

 without improvement since the days of their grand- 

 fathers, what lively disclamations would the allegation 

 elicit ! Yet, probably, not one present should be able 

 to claim for his holding a single fence which, in point of 

 date, was not centuries old, and in point of laying-out 

 and construction did not more or less impede all the 

 most improved tillage expedients of the last fifty years. 

 In our former two papers we have shown the great 

 hindrance to the thrifty execution of the prime opera- 



tions of cultivation occasioned by mii-shapen and under- 

 sized arable fields ; and reminding the reader, that 

 shelter to live stock on the corn farm has come in these 

 latter days to be of much less consequence than of old, 

 let us present an epitome of the physical consequences 

 inimical to the physiological well-being of growing crops 

 pent up within lofty hedges surrounding diminutive 

 fields. 



1 . The quantity of aliment abstracted from the soil 

 by the roots of every species of plant is proportionate 

 to the development of the parts. A timber tree, like 

 the oak or pine, will draw off much more than the haw- 

 thorn or hazel bush, and an un-trimmed quick-set, 

 growing to its full size, more than one pruned down to 

 four or five feet in height. " Look at those thieves," 

 said a Devonshire farmer to the Times Commissioner, 

 pointing to three stately elms growing in the hedge of a 

 turnip field : " I warrant there is not a root as large as 

 an apple within many yards of them." On measuring 

 the ground, they found that for forty feet out into the 

 field from the hedgerow opposite those three elm trees, 

 the crop was quite diminutive, while immediately beyond 

 their influence the size of the turnips was quadrupled. 

 To maintain unnecessary ranks of overgrown and anti- 

 quated live fences is no less irrational in the farmer, in 

 a sumptuary point of view, than in the squire to feed 

 and lodge a troop of idle and pilfering servants, simply 

 because it had always been the fashion at the hall to 

 maintain a large body of retainers. The harbourage 

 which ill-conditioned and unnecessary fences give to 

 four-footed vermin and destructive birds and insects as 

 well as to weeds of the worst kind, forms another 

 palpable reason for their extermination. 



2. An early seed-time is generally the forerunner of 

 a seasonable and plentiful harvest ; and since the proper 

 conjuncture for the process of sowing entirely depends 

 on the dry condition of the soil, how can a small field 

 screened from the passing winds by high hedges throw 

 off by evaporation its superfluous moisture ? So in like 

 manner of all the operations of tillage, whether pre- 

 ceding or following seed-time. To work the land whilst 

 it is wet, is simply suicidal ; but to wait till a field, in 

 the condition we are here speaking of, shall become dry, 

 is to run the risk of a fresh rainfall. Even in feeding 

 off turnips great inconvenience and loss may accrue to 

 the farmer from the continued wet state of the land 

 occasioned by over-shelter. 



3. On a general average at least nine-tenths of the 

 dry matter of all plants is composed of elements ob- 



