HEDGEROW AND FIELD TIMBER. dil 
appearance of the country as well. To those who are unacquainted 
with the area of ground taken up by old-fashioned hedges that are 
practically of no value as fences, as well as hedgerow trees, and 
such as are injudiciously placed in clumps, the following, as one 
out of many cases which came under the writer’s notice in North 
Wales, may be pointed out. Three small fields of, on an average, 
3 acres each, contained no less than 2233 yds. of 9 ft. wide fencing ; 
or, in other words, the fields were surrounded by hedges of mixed 
quicks, hazel, elder, and blackthorn, placed on the top of raised 
mounds or dykes of soil, the whole taking up an average width ot 
about 9 feet of ground. The combined length of fencing in the 
three fields was 2233 yds., which, multiplied by 3, the yards 
in width, gives a total of 6699 yds., or nearly 14 acres of good 
arable land taken up by trees and fences which were worse than 
useless for the purpose intended, being in truth what the farmer 
described, a harbour for vermin, and as occasioning too dense a 
shade for the successful cultivation of crops in their immediate 
vicinity. These fences have now been removed, the three fields 
thrown into one, and other fencing substituted, the result being a 
gain of about 1 acre in 9 acres, not to speak of the advantages 
accruing to the farmer thereby. 
Similar instances of large clumps of trees exercising like mischief 
might also be pointed out, and that where one-fourth of the 
number, if judiciously placed, would not only have been more 
ornamental but of advantage to the farmer for both shade and 
shelter. These old-fashioned fences have, however, this much in 
their favour, that, owing to the raised mound or dyke on which 
both quicks and trees are planted, the roots are not nearly so 
injurious to the herbage in the adjoining field sides as such as have 
been planted on the level, but, as before stated, this seeming benefit 
is far more than counterbalanced by the extra width of ground used 
in making the dyke. With the modern system of farming and 
managing hedges, tree planting cannot very well go hand in 
hand, a fact that is every day becoming more and more apparent in 
the improving and laying out of farmers’ fields and fences. A 
well-formed, well-managed quickthorn fence should not occupy more 
space than 3 feet in width ; indeed hundreds of such on the home farm 
at Penrhyn, as well as on several of the lately improved farms on 
the same estate, are of such dimensions, they being well suited in 
every way for preventing the ingress or egress of cattle and sheep. 
Now in such fences we find it almost an impossibility to have trees, 
