372 StriBuycs on Hedge- Management. 0£t. 



The wafte or lofs produced by thefe hedges, is ftill far- 

 ther and largely enhanced, by giving fhelter to an imnicnfc 

 number of fmall birds and other vermin, which deltroy con- 

 iiderable. quantities of the growing crops, efpecially when in 

 corn. This fpecies of lofs cannot be appreciated : But as 

 rents are always calculated upon fome pra61:ically known, 

 or eilimated average produce, it mud proportionally dimi- 

 nifli the rents which the lands would otherwife yield to the 

 proprietors. 



In many places, the originally dividing hedges of two or 

 more fields have been altogether neglected, allowing wide 

 gaps to form in many places, fo that catti,^ can pafs freely 

 through them : But thefe hedges are flili allowed to remain, 

 ferving no other purpole than to occupy, ufelefsly, a confi- 

 derable portion of ground, and add to the fnelter for vermin 

 of all kinds. 



Every where, thefe old hedges feem to have been originally 

 formed of a great variety of different kinds of plants, befides 

 the white thorn, taken indifcriminatcly ; many of which are 

 very ill fuited to the purpofe. The confequence of this, and 

 of neglect in training, has invariably been, to produce a great 

 number of weak places and gaps, which are obliged to be 

 perpetually mended up by various unfightly and expenfive 

 contrivances \ fuch as hurdles, pales, flake and adder, and fo 

 on. 



On an eftate not fifty miles from London, which I had oc- 

 cafion to examine minutely lad year, befides the evils already 

 noticed, I found vmiformly a good ridge-breadth left unculti- 

 vated, next the hedges, round every held under the plough. 

 In this inftance, (and ray information was, that the practice 

 was univerfal for many miles round), the lofs of productive 

 furface was not much iefs than ten per cent, of the whole in- 

 field fertile land. On that eftate, I obferved one folitary in- 

 ftance, of having recently grubbed up a ufelefs broad crofs 

 fence, w^hich was then carrying a much heaVier crop of hay^ 

 than the reft of the field. I had the fatisfaclion to convince 

 the occupying proprietor of that eftate, of the great wafte of 

 good land, .by thefe cumbrous broad belts and uncultivated 

 ridges ; and have reafon to believe, they are all now in courfe 

 of being extirpated, and the ground cultivated. 



I do not pretend to be a political arithmetician ; but, from 

 %vhat I liave obferved, I cannot eftimate the lofs of valuable 

 land, in confequence of the negledled ftate of old hedges in 

 .Enghnd, at Iefs than an hundred thoufand acres : b; fides 



the 



