993° on the value and uses of the larch tree. 13 
A kind of dead fences have lately been introduced 
into practice in those parts of Scotland, where ex-- 
tensive plantations of Scots fir have been made; 
a lofs of three quarters of an acre nearly, or about one seventh 
part of the whole. Ifit were divided into gardens of a quarter of 
an acre each, the lofs would more than one half of the whole. 
But say, that instead of one seventh, which may be nearly the pro- 
portion wasted in the richest and best inclosed grounds in the king- 
dom, the real waste upon the whole of Britain thus incurred fhould 
rot exceed one twentieth part: as it is computed that there are a- 
bove fifty millions of acres in Britain, this would bring the waste ari- 
sing from this source to two millions five hundred thousand acres 5 
and as the produce ef an acre of land well cultivated will maintain 
two persons for one year, the land thus wastetl:might sustain no few- 
er than five millions of persons!!! Phe Yate © 
’ Nor is this the whole of the lofs acdHing to the nation from 
living hedges; the destruction that is dont hy ‘Sparrows upon corn 
fields surrounded by live hedges isimmense, and baffés all calculation. 
The labour too that is employed annually in making and repairing 
hedges, and the waste that arises from beasts breaking through such 
imperfect fences, if fairly estimated, would amount to a vast 
sum ; all of which may be accounted a real waste, and a dead draught 
from the wealth and industry of the nation. These defalcations are 
“not adverted to, because the abuses that give rise to them are of old 
standing,. and have crept into use imperceptibly. But there can be 
no doubt, that in small fields of rich land thus inclosed, the average 
produce that might be obtained from them, were the live fences en- 
tirely removed, and others of the sort recommended in the text sub- 
stituted in their stead, might be augmented at least one fouith more 
than it is at present ; and consequently the rent that could be paid for 
these fields would be augmented ina yet higher ratio. It behoves 
men of sense to advert to a circumstance of such immense impor, 
tance. 
Should the beauty of live fences be deemed an object of so much 
consequence by some, as to make them willing to forego some advan- 
tages for the pleasure of looking at them, that ‘beauty may by the 
help of our fences be obtained without lofs, by substituting fruit trees © 
er berry bufbes in lieu of the barren brufh now employed. Should 
i f 
PI) 
