563 



THRASHING. 



AS soon as the cattle are taken into the yards, 

 if they are to be fed with straw, the thrashers must 

 be set to work, to supply tjie lean beasts, and they 

 must be kept regularly to it. 



'FENCES. 



This is the first month for hedging and ditching: 

 October is too soon. After you have once brought 

 your fences into good order, which should always be 

 effected within the three first years of a lease, the 

 best way is to divide the length of hedging into 12 

 parts, and to make it a rule to do one- twelfth every 

 year afterwards ; by which means the whole will 

 always be kept in good order. The best method for 

 all old hedges, consisting not wholly of white thorn, 

 is the plashing, in which so much of the hedge is 

 made of live wood, that it holds up and lasts far 

 longer than hedges made all of dead wood, which is 

 the practice of some countries ; they are rotten, 

 broken down, and gone, before the quick wood gets 

 up to form a fence; whereas, in the plashing me- 

 thod, by leaving as many hedge-stakes alive as pos- 

 sible, and by laying down much growing wood, the 

 hedge is constantly impenetrable. 



BORDERS. 



The borders in many counties, where the enclo- 

 sures are small, take up a tenth or a twelfth part of 



o o 2 whole 



