HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 241 



The average quantity of the above saving is If for every 100 

 acres. 



If this saving were effected, which is quite practicable, it would 

 increase the cultivated land in England and Wales 490,000 acres, 

 and would be similar in its effect to the addition of a new county, 

 nearly equal in extent to Nottinghamshire, and somewhat larger than 

 Berkshire." — Mortons Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, p. 859. 



The above is the evidence of a highly practical 

 gentleman as regards the loss by bad, wide, and 

 straggling fences ; and if we add to this the additional 

 loss and injury which the land sustains by the growth 

 of hedge-row timber, we shall find that we have even 

 a greater account to settle. Now, if we inquire into 

 the nature of these evils, we shall find that they result 

 from shade, drip, and exhaustion by roots. 



There are those who speak in favour of hedge-row 

 timber as affording shade for cattle; but we should re- 

 member that when this is so, the cattle, by being thus 

 gathered to one spot, only aid in manuring those por- 

 tions of the field where the grass is always more 

 rank than nutritious, and this to the robbery of other 

 portions of the field. For ourselves, we would rather 

 have our fields exposed to the influence of sun and 

 air, and, if required, have some contrivances for shade 

 which could be moved about the fields at pleasure. 

 The shade of trees keeps off those refreshing showers 

 so important to vegetation, but in much wet the 

 trees send down a drip which is sometimes found to 

 be so injurious as to prevent any good growth 

 beneath them, and then as the leaves fall off they 

 often poison the soil for some distance, while the 

 roots impoverish the land in every direction. 



We have just visited a field, in the southern hedge 



