Book IV. 



COMPOUND HEDGE FENCES. 



4l 



459 



460 



line at least seventy yards long, and a strong iron p4n at the other end of it, will be necessary. A rule of 

 wood six feet long, divided into feet and inches, to measure the breadth of tne ditch ; and a piece of wood 

 fastened at right angles to one end of it, to serve, when measuring the breadth of the ditch, to mark it off 

 square from the line. A plane-table, by which to set oft' the lines of hedges parallel to each other, where 

 that is required ; and an iron measuring-chain, with which to mark equal lengths on the parallel lines 

 across the fields by which the parallelism of the lines of hedge is determined, and to measure the whole 

 work when executed, will be found very useful. A few painted pins of wood, with hooked heads, to direct 

 the line of the hedge in a curve, must also be provided. Three men equally matched carry on the work 



Tto most advantage ; and each must be provided with a spade, a hand 

 <i^^^W^^^i. V^^^ *^ P''^^ *^^ sides, and a ditcher's shovel (Jig.459.), to shovel the 

 ~ ijilir^^ bottom of the ditch, and beat the face of the hedge-bank; a foot- 

 pick 0?^. 460.), to raise the boulder stones that may appear in the sub- 

 soil, will complete the whole implements necessary for the work. The 

 shovel is one foot broad and one foot long, tapering to a point, with a 

 shaft twenty-eight inches long. Tlie foot-pick stands three feet nine 

 inches high. The tramp (Jig. 460. a), which is movable, and can be 

 placed to suit the foot of the workman, is placed about sixteen inches 

 from the point, which tapers, and is inclined forward. The iron is three 

 fourths of an inch at the eye through which the handle passes, and is 

 an inch and a quarter at the tramp where it is stoutest and thickest. 

 The plane-table is useful for squaring the land, when it is to be ridged 

 up. The poles are always used for marking off the breadth of the ridges, 

 and the line and chain wiU be of service in marking off and measuring 

 drains. 



2999. Plants. The plant that is universally used for thorn-hedges id 

 the whitethorn, hawthorn, or maythorn (Cratee^gus Oxyacantha). 

 Thorns ought never to be planted in a hedge, till they have been transplanted at least two years from the 

 seed-bed, when they will have generally acquired a girth of one inch, and about fifteen inches of length, 

 the stem from root to branch being about six inches. As thorns are always planted too thick in nursery 

 beds, in order to save room atid draw them up quicker, I would advise their being got from the nursery at 

 that age, the year before they are intended to be planted as a fence, and planted out in lines of ample space 

 in any garden or spare piece of ground where the soil is deep and free. By this process the stems will 

 acquire a cleaner bark and greater strength, and the roots will be covered with an additional number of 

 fibres ; the constant effect of transplanting being to cause the production of numerous short fibrous roots. 

 The freedom and celeritv with which the plants will grow after this preparatory process, will amply repay 

 the additional trouble and expense. But whether they be kept another year in the ground before they are 

 planted or not, they should be immediately loosened out of the bundles of 200, in which they are sent from 

 the nursery, and laid out in rows on the earth, in a convenient dry part of the field, and the earth well 

 heaped about them to prevent the fibres being injured by the frost. 



^000. Preparation qf the ground. It were unreasonable to suppose that hedges will grow luxuriantly, 

 and soon become fences, if the ground on which they are to grow be not previously prepared for their 

 reception. If they are to be planted on land that has been under the usual rotation of cropping on the 

 fanri, no further preparation is necessary as to fallowing and cleaning it. If the line of hedge runs along 

 or parallel to the ridges, the best period to commence planting in the rotation, is when the lea-ground is 

 to be broken up for oats, as lea-ground makes the firmest hedge-bank, and no protecting fence will be 

 required on that side till the field is again laid down to grass. But should the line of hedge run across 

 the ridges, at whatever angle to them, the furrows will have to be made up to the level of the crown of the 

 ridges, and the unequal shrinking of the earth in them will cause the beautifully continued line of hedge 

 to be unequally depressed at the furrows ; and much trouble, and, of course, expense, will be thereby in- 

 curred, in making drains to let off the water in each furrow through the hedge-bank, should the ground 

 elope to the back of it In such circumstances, I would advise the delay of planting at that time, and to 

 wait till the land is fallowed and laid down again to grass, when the space for the Une of hedge can be 

 raised up longitudinally to the breadth required ; theground on each side of this hedge-ridge then forming 

 the head-ridges of their respective fields. The delay thus advised on this particular line of hedge, need 

 not cause any delay in the period of fencing the whole farm ; for a line in another field, which is to be 

 broken up from lea, and along the line of which the hedge is to be run, may be taken in the mean time, as 

 it is certainly not essential to the well-being of the hedges, that the fencing of a farm be begun on one side 

 of it, and carried successively through every adjoining field. It is much better to fence a farm by fields 

 which are ready for the work, taken promiscuously, than to run the risk of crossing furrows with a hedge- 

 bank, wiiich, from the nature of ridges, will inevitably intercept surface-water, the injurious eff'ects of 

 which will soon appear upon the growth of the young hedge, in the shape of mildew and fog. Should an 

 old turf-wall, or the site of one, cross a line of hedge, every particle of the old turf must be removed, and 

 fresh earth from the field, or elsewhere, brought in its place ; for no kind of treatment will render, for a 

 great length of time, the soil of an old turf-wall congenial to the growth of thorn plants. Indeed, so im- 

 pressed am I with the truth of this opinion, from sheer experience, that, should the line of hedge coincide 

 with the line of an old turf-wall, I would advise that the line of hedge be bent so much as to avoid it, or, 

 what is better, and better looking, that the whole line of hedge be put so much in advance or arrear of 

 the originally intended line, as to avoid the turf- wall altogether. Whether the sterihty of the soil from 

 old turf-walls arises from its excessive dryness and pulverisation, I do not know ; but such soil is no 

 sooner manured or limed, than the moles immediately commence their operations, and turn the whole of 

 it inside out. It is known that manure will not combine intimately with soil in such a state, and perhaps 

 its confined heat in the dusty soil may encourage the hatching of the larve of insects, in quest of which, 

 as food, the moles, " that mining race," as Covvper calls them, set so earnestly to work. 



3001. Division of the line of hedge. Lines of hedge passing through cultivated land, in a north and south 

 direction, should run in straight lines, and parallel to each other, by which means all short ridges unequal in 

 length, and the ploughing of which consumes much time, will be avoided in every field of the farm, except 



461 



those which are at its extreme end ; and lines of hedge, which are drawn 

 east and west, on the crest of undulating ground, on which situations hedges 

 form the most effective shelter, should also run straight : and, where these 

 two lines intersect each other, and where, of course, the corners of four fields 

 will meet, a space should be rounded off, and planted for ornament and 

 additional shelter, at little sacrifice of ground, {fig. 461.) Some may 

 object to the formality of such things, but they look well, and, as a shelter, 

 they are invaluable in exposed situations, where only they should be made. 

 Formality, however, can never be out of keeping any where, in so artificial 

 a thing as a cultivated farm. lines of hedges which lie in an east and west 

 direction need not necessarily be made straight or parallel to one another, at 

 least the same strong reason, to save time in work, docs not apply to them, 

 as to those which are parallel to the ridges, which are invariably made to run 

 north and south, for reasons well known to farmers. Indeed, in case of a 

 hollow piece of ground, parallelism in fencing is impracticable, as the hedge- 



ditch must follow the "devious course" of the hollowed line of declivity. 



Should a hedge be desired to fence round a rough, moory, or rocky part in a field, or along the edge of 

 moor or plantation, let it be planted on the cultivated ground only ; the yielding up of the good 



I i 



