242 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



foliage and the greatest power of enduring shade, 

 along with a good reproductive power, such 

 as beech, hornbeam, yew, spruce, silver fir, holly, 

 hawthorn, hazel, and in a minor degree black- 

 thorn, maple, wild cherry, and the like. But the 

 advantage, for general use, rests with the minor 

 trees and shrubs, and particularly with those 

 that are of a thorny nature, fitting them also as 

 fences against cattle. One drawback to hedges 

 of trees like spruce is that they require constant 

 trimming to prevent them throwing up long 

 leading shoots. As regards all hedges, their 

 thickness and their vigour in growth must of 

 course be more or less impaired by the retention 

 of standards. The heavier the overshadowing 

 and drip from these, and the nearer their crowns 

 to the hedge, the more must be the damage done 

 to this. Too many standards, neglect to prune 

 all low branches, and to remove the trees before 

 the hedges are badly injured, must often cause 

 far more loss than is counterbalanced by the 

 profit the trees bring in to account, because in 

 such cases, as in others, the work of destruction 

 is often rapid, while that of reconstruction is slow 

 and costly. 



