^S8 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



cS'Se !E/'waf '^ * ^""^^^ "''''' '"^'^ ^''"* ^ ^'^^^ *^^" P^""^' t^^O"g^ the ^"^ of ^vhich the drift 



tho?i^he^'ffpl''''whfoft ''J'fr-^-^ ''"^ ^i"?^^^ ^^''^ (^^- 476.) There is another mode of fencing young 

 thoru-hedges, which I shall mention, and it is adapted to situations where there is plenty of turf and ?i^ttlf 

 476 /7 wood. It IS to build a turf-wall, that will stand three and 



f MjljMi/1% a half feet high, after the sods have consolidated, to support 



^ ^ J^^M/lf) ^^^ hedge-bank behind the thorns. This wall is built like 

 ' masonry, with heavy sods, with the grass sides downward 



and finished at top with one sod nine inches broad, with its 

 grassy surface uppermost. The face of the wall should be 

 built with an inclination backwards towards the top, in order 

 that the grass may grow so luxuriantly upon it, as to protect 

 it from injury, and strengthen the sods. A short stake, with 

 a single rail of paling at top, is all the fencing the hedge 

 requires from this side, till it can protect itself. Such a style 

 offence is well adapted to large fields of perpetual pasture, in 

 exposed situations, and forms an excellent shelter to cattle 

 and sheepi Cattle, however, will box with their heads against 

 such a wall, sometimes only in sport, after they are satisfied with grass ; but more likely in hot weather, 

 when insects sting and startle them. The two former kinds offences should be put up, only when the 

 adjoining fields to the hedges are to be pastured with stock, and on whichever side the hedge may first 

 require them. If the hedge has been planted when the lea ground was broken up, the fourth year is the 

 soonest that will see the return of grass in the rotation of cropping; but, should the grass be cut for hay 

 or soiling, and the field be intended to lie only one year in grass, it will be unnecessary to incur the 

 expense of a regular paling for the eating down of the aftermath, as hurdles for cattle, and nets for sheep, 

 will serve the purpose of a fence for so short a time. The turf-wall, however, must be built at the time 

 the hedge is planted. When the fields are pastured in the second rotation, and if the paling has been 

 erected in the first, which will always be the case when the grass is to lie more than one year, it will be 

 advisable to drive here and there, at the weakest parts, stakes in an inclined position, into the side of the 

 ditch next the paling, and to nail their head* against the upright stakes of the paling, to act as spurs to 

 support the stakes against any violence. The rails will yet be quite fresh, though the stakes are apt to 

 break over at the ground, in consequence of their being exposed, at that part, to the alternate effects 

 of wet and drought, effects which are injurious to every kind of wood. If this precaution be adopted, 

 the same paling will last to the commencement of a rotation, in which the hedge will be able to defend 

 itself. The paling will stand, with this assistance, which is not expensive, from the fourth to the twelfth 

 ear of the age of the hedge, that is, eight years. But should the paling be completely useless before the 

 hedge can defend itself, and if the latter has been planted in some very unfavourable situation this may 

 be tlie case, a few stakes driven on the top of the bank behind the hedge, with a single rail nailed at the 

 top, will secure the hedge from all danger. Cattle will not attempt to pass through the hedge on the ditch 

 side, on account of this rail above their heads ; and, from the other side they will be deterred, by the 

 depth of the ditch, from leaping over it ; nor will horses browse readily on so old a hedge. As to sheep, 

 they will not attempt it on either side ; and, if they are the only kind of stock that is pastured in the fields, 

 even such a rail is not absolutely necessary for them, 



3019; Gates and gate-posts in hedges. Gate-posts, which are to support the gates through which an 

 entrance is effected into any fields, should be placed in the line of the quick hedge, and not in that of the 

 paling, which is only a temporary fence. Charring, by fire, the part of these gate-posts which is to be 

 sunk in the ground, and about a foot above it, will be found a preservative against rot for a long time ; 

 and even the common stakes of the paling might be treated in the same manner, by those who do not 

 grudge a little more expense to insure greater security. In passing over a hedge-ditch to a gateway in a 

 field, it will be necessary to build a small square drain in the bottom of the ditch, in length equal to the 

 breadth of the gateway, that is, ten feet ; and the stones of the drain should be covered with other stones, 

 broken small, like road metal, in order to form a firm road in and out of the field, at a place which is, 1ni 

 general, dreadfully cut up in winter, especially to a turnip field, to the great grievance of men, horses, 

 tackle, and gates ; jiad also to allow the water in the ditch to flow away without interruption. 



3020. The management of hedges, after they have arrived at maturity, is often as difficult a task, asi the 

 training of the young hedge to maturity. If we judge of its difficulty, by the woful manner in which we 

 see old hedges managed throughout the country, we might conclude that a thorn is so obdurate a plant, 

 that it is almost impossible to make it subservient to the purposes of a field fence, and that tliat man would 

 confer a signal benefit on his country, who could discover another kind of plant more susceptible of the 

 fostering care of man : and yet we would ask, and as we have already stated. What hardy plant iS so 

 obedient to our will as thorns ? The very miserably contorted state in which we daily see thorn-hedges 

 is strong evidence of their pliancy, and of the obduracy of their proprietors in keeping them, in such a 

 state. If such effects are the offspring of ignorance, how is it that occupiers of land will permit ignorance 

 to mismanage that which is so essential to the comfort and well-being of their stock, and, through them, 

 their own profit;' And how is it, that if they, or their servants, are ignorant of so necessary an operation, 

 they do not apparently use the requisite means of acquiring a better knowledge of it? It is not that 

 experience has yet to teach such knowledge; for I believe that, in certain districts of Scotland, the 

 management of thorn-hedges is as well understood, and as successfully practised an operation, as any other 

 in husbandry, in which farmers and their servants take pride to excel. It is not, that it is so abstruse a 

 subject, as that the difficulty of acquiring it cannot be overcome, or that it can only be acquired by the 

 learned ; for even a hedger, a common peasant, can understand the principles of hedge planting and 

 management as clearly as any learned man. These principles are exceedingly simple ; for what is the 

 main purpose of planting a hedge? Surely to confine stock within the boundaries of a field, and to save 

 the trouble and expense of keeping a person to herd them constantly. If they can he confined, that 

 trouble may, of course, be dispensed with. How, then, can they be best confined ? Not by large bur- 

 headed, bare-stemmed thorns, between which sheep and young cattle could easily creep, and snow crush 

 down ; but by plants, the management of which has encouraged nature to envelop their stems with 

 matted branches, and twigs, and leaves, all forming so close a thicket of a pyramidal shape, as to obstruct 

 the transmission of the solar ray, or even to avert the insinuating intrusion of the zephyr. The mystery 

 is here disclosed ; for, to get a good fence, all that is necessary is to cut the thorns so as they may be kept 

 thick near the ground ; for grow they will just as you please, and grow they will whenever they are cut 

 But will cutting them over three feet above the ground, encourage the growth of small branches and twigs 

 below that height ? Will cutting branches, and plashing them two feet above the ground, fill up gaps 

 below the plashes ? Will permitting them to grow up as trees with heavy heads, the invariable tendency of 

 which in other trees which are deciduous is, by their shade, to prune off the small branches on the trunks, 

 and kill or curb the growth of weaker neighbouring trees, be the most proper method to encourage the 

 growth of twigs around their base, where alone they can be used as a fence? Impossible. Indeed the 

 very terms of these questions, and they are borrowed from the practice of those around us, show the 

 absurdity of such a practice. But not only are old hedges thus abused ; young ones, which would thrive 

 much better, and become a fence much sooner, if let alone altogether, are often hacked and cut over 

 about eighteen inches from the ground, at which height a bush of weak stems grows up, the shade of 

 which destroys the young twigs, and strips the stems quite bare. Nay, the cutting process is performed 

 with the view, one would suppose, to destroy the plant, which it would inevitably do, were the thorn 

 not pliant in its growth, and very tenacious of life ; for, instead of the strokes of the bill being made 



