HEDGEROW TREES AND HEDGES 253 



either in November or else late in February, but in 

 the latter case it is well to prepare the soil before- 

 hand in the autumn. Other methods are also 

 often adopted, though where hedges are well 

 trimmed annually and properly cleaned, little or 

 no outlay should be necessary for filling blanks. 

 In some parts of the country the common prac- 

 tice is to strengthen weak, thin fences, trimmed 

 merely every few years in place of annually, by 

 only partially cutting through the poles without 

 completely severing them from the stool, and 

 interweaving these poles, when trimmed, with 

 the scrubby growth of the fence. This rather 

 slovenly, stop-gap sort of system is one that 

 is very largely practised in Herefordshire, where 

 it is known as. 'pletching? A very similar word, 

 * plashing,' is used in Hampshire as the local term 

 for layering ; but * pletching ' or interweaving is 

 of interest as an example of a still living word 

 already recorded as obsolete in Johnson's Dic- 

 tionary. These old rural terms, of which many 

 exist, are well worth preserving as a heritage not 

 to be despised. Indeed, one great fault of nearly 

 all of the recent contributions to what is called 

 ' scientific ' Forestry, in contradistinction to the 



