i8oo. StriSlures on Hedge-Management, 3-1 



TO THE CONDUCTORS OF THE FARMEr's MAGAZINE. 

 Striclures on Hedge- Managemetit. 



Gentlemen, 



In feme late journles through feveral Engllfh counties 

 north of London, I have obferved frequent and fhameful ne- 

 glect, in the flate and management of the hedges in many 

 places ; I may almofl fay everywhere. Should the follow- 

 ing curfory remarks on the fubjecl merit infertion in your 

 Mifcellany, they are offered as my mite to the treafury of 

 hufbandry, the moR ufeful of the arts. 



The firft circumftance that ftrikes an obfervant ftranger, 

 accuftomed to the regularity of modern inclofure, is, the 

 great inequality in the (izes of fields, in the anciently inclofed 

 diftrifts of England, the crookednefs of the hedges, and the 

 flrangely irregular fhapes of the inclofures. But the object 

 which I have particularly in view, in thefe ftri6lures, and 

 ■which merits the fevered reprehenfion, is, that almoft every- 

 "where the hedges have been permitted to run wild, overfpread- 

 ing an irregular breadth of furface with a belt of ufelefs and 

 cumbrous brufh-wood, while they fcarcely half fence the 

 fields, which they disfigure greatly, and the value of v/hich 

 they leflen very materially. 



In very extenfive, old, and inclofed diftri£ts, I am fully 

 convinced thefe crooked belts of brufh-wood, improperly 

 flyled hedges,- occupy a breadth of not lefs than eighteen or 

 twenty feet, on every fide of all the fields, one with another. 

 Allowing confiderably lefs than this fuppofition, as the waile 

 of land beyond what ought to be occupied by a ftraight-lincd 

 and properly drefled hedge, and fuppofing the old inclofed 

 fields fo confift of ten acres each, on the average, which I be- 

 lieve is rather above than below the truth, this lofs of pro- 

 du£tive furface will amount to about half an acre in each 

 fitrid, or five acres in the hundred, upon the whole extent of 

 fuch inclofed diftridis. When in palture, thefe belts produce 

 little or nothing to the cattle in the fields, befides tearing off 

 a great deal of valuable wool from the fheep ; and, when the 

 fields are in hay, or under aration, they preclude the employ- 

 ment of the fcythe and plough, from a much larger pi'opor- 

 tion of the land than has been ilated above. 



The 



