246 MR. FOllSYTH ON GAJIE PRESEKVES AND FENCES. 



witness the language of Holy Writ, where the thorn and the 

 thistle are coupled by the Creator after the fall of man with a 

 curse. * 



Although no farmer or other grower of grain or fruit can be 

 expected to grow these for game to feed on, yet the pheasant, 

 the partridge, the bullfinch, and the thrush, do pick the fallen 

 fruit or the scattered grain that would otherwise be lost to the 

 farmer, for he could never afford to pay men to reap so care- 

 fully as not to leave a plentiful feast for game and birds of song. 

 But let it not be forgotten, that when a reasonable provision is 

 made for the live stock on the farm, we shall not hear half the 

 complaints that we hear now. When game are supplied with 

 an article of food more agreeable to their taste, they will not 

 commit depredations on the crops of grain ; and when the fences 

 which I am about to explain are established, there will be few 

 complaints of rabbits, because they cannot enter a field thus 

 fenced ; and when Englishmen can be supplied with plenty of 

 pure unfermented wine made from rich ripe fruit that will cheer 

 and nourish their bodies without intoxicating them, then we 

 shall hear fewer complaints of drunkenness ; for the barley re- 

 quiring a long and expensive process to manufacture it into beer, 

 will find a better market as grain ; for surely it would be a 

 wanton waste and worthy only of a madman, to spoil good grain 

 to encourage drunkenness and its accompanying vices, when 

 the highways and hedges on the farm can be made to produce 

 good wine ; not to speak of the immense resources offered by 

 tiried fruits, not only to the farmer but to the whole community, 

 instead of the everlasting carnival kept in the country by every 

 person whom poverty permits to eat bacon and other flesh-meat 

 with little benefit either to health or morals. 



To dry fruits, or in other words, to preserve them, requires 

 in most instances little else than to have the water evaporated 

 from them by means well known : witness that beautiful article 

 of food, the dried apples, called Norfolk Beeftins, and the end- 

 less varieties of rich sweetmeats that are actually made by ex- 

 pressing the juices of the soft fruits, and simmering them till 

 they arrive at the consistency of marmalade ; or in other words, 

 till they become strong wine, and see what the effect would be 

 upon poor families when they would have at least one half of 

 their dinner every day from fruit in some shape or other. The 

 princes of Germany, with a princely and fatherlike care for the 

 poor, caused the sides of the highways to be planted with fruit- 

 trees, not only to increase the value of the property, but also to 

 afford shade to the traveller, and refreshment on the way. Mr. 



* " Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." 



