MR. FORSYTH ON GAME PRESERVES AND FENCES. 219 



for which this part of my article is principally intended — con- 

 vinced as I am, that it is only through model farms, and parti- 

 cularly through gentlemen's farms, that the great and radical 

 changes that I propose can be introduced ; as for example, in 

 the next paragraph I propose to feed cattle on the leaves of trees ; 

 and this brings me to the fodder department of the hedgerow. 



Game are uncommonly fond of the bark of trees and the leaves 

 and seeds of grasses. Rabbits kept in a paved yard will grow 

 fat with willow and fir-branches, and owing to the particular 

 form of the mouth of the rabbit and the hare, they can bark 

 trees more readily when the stick lies horizontally ; and this is 

 important in game preserving and in tree preserving to be un- 

 derstood, since a cart-load of willow or other branches strewn 

 about the haunts of hares and rabbits feeds them with that article, 

 and saves standing timber, and they will never twist their necks 

 to eat the upright bark if they can get it straightforward and 

 lying flat. The Willow-tree is suitable to any farm and to any 

 farmer ; even the tenant-at-will may reap a return from a plant- 

 ation of willows the first year, for he will only have to plant the 

 truncheons a little thicker in the rows than the leasehold tenant 

 does to realise a thick standing crop of willow-herbage, which he 

 can use either green or dried, as any other herbage or hay is 

 dried; and as for hedgerows, few plants. can equal the willow, 

 for it will send up shoots from the stock six feet high in one 

 season, and after the second year a fox-hunter could not cross 

 the hedge of tall stakes ; and I need scarcely add, that the over- 

 grown willows will yield two most important articles, namely, 

 fuel and charcoal, the latter article being equally valuable to 

 agriculture as to horticulture. I'he value of gorse is already 

 well known to agriculturists ; therefore I will pass that over, 

 merely remarking that the spines of the gorse-bush (and be it 

 borne in mind that its leaves are all spines) and the wood of the 

 current year are the eatable parts of that valuable fodder-plant. 

 Here, then, we have the farmer feeding his stock with leaves 

 and sticks. Again, we have the farmer feeding his stock with 

 the leaves and stems of dried grasses and other plants, under the 

 name of hay. Now upon what principle can it be objected to 

 to feed stock upon that far more substantial and nourishing 

 article, the leaves of trees. 



The culture of trees and shrubs is altogether a higher order 

 of tillage than the growing of annual crops, such as corn or tur- 

 nips ; any cottager, even the mere clown, selfish and unedu- 

 cated, will plant a potato-garden when he may reap the fruits 

 in three or four months; but it requires intellect of a superior 

 order to plant a vineyard where a man has to "• cast his bread 

 upon the waters," and wait so many days, nay years, for a return. 



