66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



practised with thorns, but where the hedge is of hazel, as it often 

 is, this operation is carried out, and a splendid fence is the 

 result, forming one continuous living hurdle, very dense, and 

 almost impassable by a rabbit. In mid Wales, layering or 

 " pletching '"' is, as a rule, systematically carried out. 



On the estate where the writer was employed, the plantation 

 hedges are pletched every ten years by the woodmen, the 

 farmers being supposed to keep their own hedges in repair. 

 After a hedge has been pletched it is left for one year, and 

 afterwards brushed every year for six years ; any gaps are then 

 planted up with young thorns. For the remaining three years of 

 the rotation the hedge is left to form long shoots, so as to make 

 pletching more efficient. When the time arrives for the latter 

 work, the first thing done by the woodmen, who work in pairs, 

 is to cut stakes about 5 feet long, either of underwood or of split 

 oak. If these have to be obtained at any great distance from 

 the hedge, they are carted by the nearest farmer. All the 

 dead wood is carefully cut out of the hedge, along with any 

 growths that are not required. Cuts are made with a bill- 

 hook at the bottom of a few thorns, and these are bent over 

 at an angle of about 25 degrees. Stakes are then driven in at 

 about 18 inches apart alternately on one side and at the other of 

 these branches. 



After this, the operations are reversed, the stakes being driven 

 in first, and the branches being twined in and out of them. 

 Each successive layer helps to bind in its place the one 

 previously laid, and it is very seldom that a properly laid stick 

 will spring. This binding does away with the necessity of using 

 wire or string, as is the practice in some districts. The men, 

 as they work along the hedge, trim it up and also clean the 

 ditch out, if there is one, and they also sod up the bank 

 and the bottom of the hedge. Young shoots spring away 

 from the bottom and sides of the hedge, and keep it close 

 and firm. 



The cost of pletching in this district is from 8d. to is. 2d. per 

 " rood" (or rod) of 6 yards, according to the state of the hedge. 

 Brushing costs i]d. or i.'.d. per rood. With this treatment a 

 hedge always looks neat and strong, and cattle very seldom 

 break through it. The writer was sorry to see that owing to 

 the prevalence of grazing in this district, the farmers allowed 

 many of their hedges to die out or to become mere rows of 



