Book III. 



SHELTERING FARM LANDS. 



753 



4.582. As an example of altering the fields and consolidating a farm, we submit the case of a meadow, 

 farm, with the arable lands in a common field state, (fig. 715.) By an act of enclosure, these scattered 

 arable lands {a) were exchanged for others adjoining the meadow grounds {fig. 716. b), and the whole ren- 



715 



715 



dered more compact and commodious. This farm, being intersected by a public lane, affords an example 

 in which no private roads are wanted. The size and shape of the fields were improved, and the broad 

 fences reduced as in the preceding case, and attended with the same advantages in an agricultural point 

 of view. 



45S3. Bid though in ottering broad fences there are o! >vious and 

 indisputable advantages to the fanner, yet, as justly o! .served by 

 Loch, irain is not every thing. " The fences on the Marquess 

 of Stafford's estates," he says, " were liable to the same objec- 

 tion which is applicable to a* great proportion of the counties of 

 England. They are not composed of quick, at least but in a 

 scanty degree; they for the most part consist of bushes, growing 

 from the stump of.every sort or forest-tree, intermixed with 

 hazel, birch, hornbeam, maple, alder, willow, &c. They are 

 planted on high and dry mounds, and thus are subject to con- 

 stant decay. They occupy too much ground, provided agricul- 



ture alone were the occupation of life. But as they give great 

 protection, when they thrive, to the game, they become an im- 



Iiortant object of preservation, inasmuch as every thing must 

 >e of consequence which contributes to the sport, and has the 

 etfect of retaining the gentry of England much upon their 

 esta'es. For this reason, it may occasionally he proper to con- 

 sider of the best way to preserve these hedges at the least 

 expense, in place of substituting more perfect ones in their 

 stead ; nor should one object exclusively he attended to in the 

 agricultural improvements of so great and so wealthy a country." 

 Such are Mr. Loch's ideas on game and hedges. 



4584. When farm-lands are exposed to high winds, insterspersing them with strips or 

 masses of plantation is attended with obviously important advantages. Not only are 

 such lands rendered more congenial to the growth of grass, and corn, and the health of 

 pasturing animals, but the local climate is improved. The fact, that the climate may be 

 thus improved, has, in very many instances, been sufficiently established. It is, indeed, 

 astonishing how much better cattle thrive in fields even but moderately sheltered than 

 they do in an open exposed country. In the breeding of cattle, a sheltered farm, or a 

 sheltered corner in a farm, is a thing much prized ; and, in instances where fields are 

 taken by the season for the purpose of fattening, those most sheltered never fail to bring 

 the highest rents, provided the soil is equal to that of the neighbouring fields which are 

 not sheltered by trees. If we enquire into the cause, we shall find, that it does not alto- 

 gether depend on an early rise of grass, on account of the shelter afforded to the lands 

 by the plantations ; but likewise that cattle, which have it in their power, in cold 

 seasons, to indulge in the kindly shelter afforded them by the trees, feed better ; because 

 their bodies are not pierced by the keen winds of spring and autumn, neither is the 

 tender grass destroyed by the frosty blasts of March and April. (Plant- Kal. p. 121.) 



4585. The operation of skreen plantations, in exposed situations, Marshal observes, is not merely that 

 of giving shelter to the animals lodging immediately beneath them ; but likewise that of breaking the 

 uniform current of the wind, — shattering the cutting blasts, and throwing them into eddies; thus 

 meliorating the air to some distance from them. Living trees communicate a degree of actual warmth 

 to the air which envelopes them. Where there is lift there is warmth, not only in animal but in 

 vegetable nature. The severest frost rarely affects the sap of trees. Hence it appears, that trees and 

 shrubs properly disposed, in a bleak situation, tend to improve the lands so situated, in a threefold way, 

 for the purposes of agriculture ; namely, by giving shelter to stock ; by breaking the currents of winds ; 

 and by communicating a degree of warmth or softness to the air, in calmer weather. 



4586. The proper disposal of skreen plantations for this purpose is in lines across the most offensive 

 winds, and in situations best calculated to break their force. Placed across valleys, dtps, or more open 

 plains, in bleak exposures, they may be of singular use; also on the ridges, as well as on the points and 

 hangs, of hills. 



3 C 



