JANUARY. &y 



ing, he should determine to execute the work in the 

 best manner, which is the plashing method. It is 

 done in the following manner : the men first clear 

 the old hedge of all the dead wood, brambles, and 

 other irregularly growing rubbish, leaving along 

 the top of the bank the straightest and best-grow* 

 ing stems of thorns, hazel, elm, oak, ash, sallow, 

 beech, &c. about five or six in a yard ; but if 

 there are any gaps or places thin of live wood, oji 

 each side of such places they leave the more. 

 When this work is done, they repair the ditch, 

 which I should never advise to be less than three 

 feet by two and a half, and six inches wide at 

 bottom, in the driest soils ; but in all wet or mois,t 

 ones, never less than four by three, and one at 

 bottom. All the earth that arises from the ditch 

 is to be thrown on the bank. The men, if* no 

 bargain is made with them before-hand, will lay 

 some of it on the brow of the ditch ; but this must 

 not be allowed, unless the ditch-earth happens 

 to be extraordinarily rich, and to pay well for 

 carrying it to the land, otherwise the grass of tlic 

 border is spoiled, and the farmer is at the expence 

 of carting earth which may be worth but little. 

 When the ditch is finished, the men begin the 

 hedge. Such of the steins left in cutting the old 

 hedge as they find growing in the line where the 

 new hedge is to run, they cut off three feet from 

 the top of the bank, to serve for hedge-stakes to 

 the new hedge. This practice cannot be too much 



commend- 



