688 The yotirnal of Forestry. 



at the same time will not be so liable to be smothered as when the 

 layers are laid along on the top of the stools ; but here again the 

 " game " consideration comes in, and where it is plentiful it is advisable 

 to protect young shoots by laying the "brush " along exactly in the 

 old line of fence. Such work in this district costs about two and 

 sixpence per chain; and although I do not recommend it as a necessary 

 part in the management of good hedges, still I have often found it 

 useful in making the best of a previously neglected hedge. 



A hedge properly trimmed year by year is a long time before it 

 requires any severe cutting back. But if it is done in a rough and ready 

 manner by any sort of labourer, with the first implement that comes 

 to hand, it soon gets bulged out, and not only looks slovenly, but if 

 treated for a few years in such a fashion the fence will be ruined, and 

 require no end of patching when it comes to be cut back. Tenant 

 farmers, whose interest it is as much as their landlords to have good 

 fences, are often very careless about the treatment of their hedges^ 

 although many of them are quite the reverse. Now I would suggest that 

 when a farmer has not a qualified hedger among his own labourers, 

 he should employ the best hedger in the district, and let him do the 

 work by contract, at so much per chain, and not only so, but let the 

 contract be for a certain number of years, say seven or ten, I have 

 known such an arrangement succeed very well, and the result will 

 certainly be more satisfactory than sending, say, some Irishmen with 

 their reaping-hooks (as I have seen farmers do in wet weather during 

 harvest) to hack and smash at the hedge in any sort of fashion. 



I have also seen others than Irish harvest-men making very 

 rough work at hedge trimming. Imagine a man armed with an 

 implement like the reaping-hook stuck on the end of a handle six 

 feet long, and swinging round his head with both hands, operating 

 on hedges seven or eight feet high and nearly as broad, and getting 

 over something like fifteen chains per day, and you will be able to 

 form some idea of the quality of work done. 



Where a hedge has been roughly treated for several years the best 

 thing to do is to cut it close back, and a good hedger in doing so will 

 take care to put it into proper shape, keeping it straight liotli along 

 the sides and top, the height depending on what is required of 

 the fence. If between arable land, or a plantation and arable land, the 

 fence may be cut considerably lower than if next pasture land grazed 

 with cattle : in the former case both sides may l)e done in the same 

 season ; in the latter it will be found best to do one side one year, and 

 the other two years afterwards. Such work is here called "scotching," 

 and costs from a shilling to eighteen-pence per chain. 



Where from one cause or another a hedge gets very bare at the 

 bottom, it is sometimes advisable to cut it over six or eight inches 



