HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 239 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



ON HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 



Of the many sources of mischief to which the farmer 

 may he liable, we can conceive none greater than that 

 of being overgrown with hedge-row timber. It is 

 scarcely, if at all, second to that of being overstocked 

 with game — for as regards game, there is a chance of 

 getting some compensation for palpable injury ; but 

 the mischief which trees silently but surely effect, when 

 surrounding fields, is never allowed for, as it is not 

 fully appreciated by the tenant, and never admitted by 

 the landlord ; and so as hedge-row timber is usually 

 thicker in the richer parts of the country, it is some- 

 how considered as an evidence of fertility on the one 

 hand, while it is looked upon as a legitimate mode of 

 increasing income on the other. 



But we are quite sure that hedge-row timber is 

 almost useless in itself, and a pest to all who must 

 live under it. Hedges themselves are usually too 

 many, and these too thick through them ; and when 

 it comes to be understood that the enclosures are 

 smaller, the hedges often greater, and hedge-row tim- 

 ber thicker on good than on bad lands, some idea 

 may be formed of the mischief which is inflicted by 

 thus hemming in fine land from light and air. 



The following tables, by Mr. J. Bravender, land- 

 surveyor, of Cirencester, are the results of an " ex- 

 amination of the fields contained in 120 parishes :" — 



