Book IV. HEDGE FENCES. 479 



ploughed. Under a corn-crop, the confinement of the stock is no longer an object ; 

 and by the time the field is again brought under pasture, the hedge, if properly- 

 treated, will have acquired strength enough to become a good fence. This operation 

 is performed in several w^ays. 



2988. In the first method of cutting over old hedges, the plants are cut over about a yard above the surface 

 {Jig. 457.) and the hedge is left in that state without any other pains being taken with it; if it has 



A5Y originally been good, and the plants thick enough at bottom, this 



kind of cutting will answer the purpose perfectly well, and in a few 

 years the hedge will, with proper dressing, become both a neat and a 

 useful fence. But in this mode, when there has been a deficiency of 

 plants, and the hedge is cut over in the manner above mentioned, 

 innumerable gaps will appear, which, without some art, it will be 

 impossible to fill up. Tt has also this farther disadvantage, that if 

 either horses or cattle attempt to leap into, or out of, the enclosure, 

 the sharp points of the stakes are apt to run into their bellies : this 

 accordingly often happens, and many valuable horses and cattle are 

 killed or greatly injured by such means. 



2989. A preferable mode of cutting down old hedges is, to cut a fourth part of the plants over, to the 



. jjQ height which the fence is intended to be 



^^ made; another fourth about six inches 



high ; and to bend down and warp the 

 remainder with the upright stems, ffig. 

 458.) This method very effectually cures 

 the gaps and openness below, and with 

 slight attention soon makes a good 

 fence. 



2990. A third way of cutting over old hedges is that of cutting them close by the surface : this practice, 

 when the plants are numerous, and there are no gaps in the hedge, answers very well ; but when there is 

 a deficiency of plants in any part of the hedge, the want will be very apparent. This last mode, though 

 much inferior to the one immediately preceding, is nevertheless greatly preferable to that first described, 

 as the young shoots sent out from the stumps, by being so near the ground, will in some measure remedy 

 the defects occasioned by the want of original plants; whereas, when the old plants are cut at the distance 

 of about a yard or four feet above the surface, the young shoots produced by the cutting will be so high, 

 as to leave the hedge open at the bottom. 



2991. The last method of cutting down old hedges, and which is yet but very little practised, is first to 

 cut them down even with the surface, and afterwards to cover the stumps completely over, with the earth 

 taken out of the ditch, or from the road-side. When this is carefully done, it is asserted that every single 

 stump sends out a great number of young vigorous shoots, each of which, by branching out from below 

 the surface, sends out roots, and acquires an establishment for itself ; by this means the bottom of the 

 hedge becomes so thick, that neither sheep, cattle, nor indeed any animal, can break through it. 



2992. In whichever of these ways the hedge is cut down, the directions formerly given 

 for the management of young hedges should be strictly attended to. As soon as the 

 young shoots have made some progress, the side branches should be trimmed, and the 

 hedge put into a proper shape, preserving it broad and full at bottom, and tapering 

 gradually towards the top. The same caution is also to be observed with regard to the 

 upriglit shoots, none of which should be shortened till the hedge has attained the wished- 

 for height. It is surprising what close beautiful fences are raised in this way in a few 

 years, from the stumps of some overgrown useless hedges ; which, at the same time 

 with their being naked below, and of course faulty as fences, occupied four times the 

 space they ought to have done, to the great loss both of the proprietor and farmer. 



2993. Filling up gaps in hedges. When young hedges are planted, if the plants made 

 use of are of a nature suited to the soil, the hedge may be kept free from gaps with very 

 little trouble ; for that puqoose it is, however, necessary, about the end of the first 

 autumn after the hedge has been planted, to examine it carefully throughout its whole 

 extent, take out such plants as are either in a decaying sickly state or those that are 

 actually dead, and fill up the spaces they occupied with the strongest and most vigorous 

 ones that can be found : where this care is taken for the first two or three years, there 

 will be no defects in the hedge, which will be uniformly thick and strong throughout. 

 Thus far of young hedges ; but when old hedges are meant to be cut down, that have 

 many gaps or open spaces in them, so wide as to prevent the possibility of the young 

 shoots filling them up, some expedient must be had recourse to, in order to render the 

 fence complete. This purpose may be answered in different ways ; the easiest and 

 indeed the most common method is, for the hedger, when he comes to a place where any 

 of the plants are wanting, to take one of the strongest plants next to it, and after giving 

 it a gentle stroke with the hedge-bill, to bend it across the opening, and entwine it with 

 the thorns on the opposite side ; indeed, as has been already stated, some have a custom 

 of cutting down only a fourth part of the stems, and warping the remainder with these, 

 which appear like stakes driven into the earth. Where the hedge is shortened to within 

 three or four feet of the ground, both of these methods answer pretty weU, and the 

 openings, which would otherwise have been left, are in some degree filled up ; but when 

 the old hedge is cut close to the earth, other methods of supplying the defects become 

 necessary. One very simple, and at the same time very effectual mode is, first to dig the 

 ground pretty deep with a spade, and afterwards to take two of the strongest plants pur- 

 posely left uncut, one from each side of the opening, and removing the earth from their 

 roots so as to loosen them and admit of their being bent down, to lay them close to the earth 

 in the opening ; they should then be fastened down with wooden hooks or pins, and 



