Book IV. COMPOUND HEDGE-FENCES. 49^1 



to creep into the enclosures, and annoy the stock, the law wall forms a valuable addi- 

 tion to the fence. 



3033. The hedge in the middle or in th^face of a wall is executed in the following 

 manner : The face of the bank is first cut down with a spade, not quite perpendicularly, 

 but nearly so ; a facing of stone is then begun at the bottom, and carried up regulai-ly, 

 in the manner that stone-walls are generally built; when it is raised about eighteen 

 inches, or two feet high, according to circumstances, the space between the wall and the 

 bank is filled up with good earth, well broken and mixed with lime or compost: the 

 thorns are laid upon this earth in such a manner, as that at least four inches of the root 

 and stem shall rest upon the earth, and the extremity of the top shall project beyond the 

 wall. When the plants are thus regularly laid, the roots are covered with earth, and 

 the building of the wall continued upwards, filling up the space between the wall and 

 the bank gradually, as the wall advances upwards : when completed the wall is finished 

 with a coping of sod, or stone and lime. When the plants begin to vegetate, the young 

 shoots appear in the face of the wall, rising in a perpendicular manner. Tliis sort of 

 fence is much in use in some of the western counties of Scotland, and wherever there is 

 plenty of stones ; it is a good and cheap method, especially where wood for rails or 

 paling cannot be got readily. (C.) 



3034. The hedge and ditch, idth row of trees, differs from those which have been 

 described only in having a row of trees planted in the line of the fence along with the 

 hedge. The advocates for this practice say, that, by planting rows of trees in the direc- 

 tion of the fence, the country is at once sheltered, beautified, and improved ; and that the 

 interest of the proprietor is ultimately promoted by the increasing value of the timber 

 raised in these hedgerows. It is also said, that such trees produce more branches for 

 stack-wood, knees for ship-builders, and bark for the tanners, and they sell at a higher 

 price per load, than trees grown in woods and groves. Besides, close pruning hedgerow 

 trees to the height of twelve or fifteen feet, prevents their damaging the hedge ; the 

 shelter which they afford is favourable to the vegetation both of grass and corn ; it also 

 tends to produce an equable temperature in the climate, which is favourable both to the 

 production of, and greater perfection and beauty in, animals, and of longevity to man. 

 Though the practice of planting hedgerows of trees is very common, though its advo- 

 cates are numerous, and though these arguments are urged in its favour, yet the objections 

 are also entitled to very serious consideration. When trees are planted in the line of a 

 fence, if that fence is a hedge, the plants of which it consists will not only be deprived of 

 a great part of their nourishment by the trees, but will also be greatly injured by the shade 

 they occasion, and the drop that falls from them during wet weather : upon this point 

 little reasoning is necessary ; for, if we appeal to facts, we shall find that no good hedge 

 is to be met with where there is a row of trees planted along with it. The mischief is 

 not, however, confined solely to hedges ; the effects are equally bad, perhaps worse, 

 where the fence is a stone- wall ; for though in this case the shade or drop of the trees is 

 hardly if at all felt, yet, when they have attained a certain height, the working and 

 straining of the roots during lugh winds is such, that the foundations of the wall are 

 shaken and destroyed ; accordingly, wherever large trees are found growing near stone 

 walls, the fence is cracked and shaken by every gale of wind, is perpetually falling into 

 large gaps, and costs ten times the expense to keep it in repair that would otherwise be 

 required if no trees were near it. Admitting, however, that the trees in hedgerows were 

 no way prejudicial to the fence, which we have already shown is by no means the case, 

 another argument may be successfully used against the practice. It is seldom, indeed, 

 that trees planted in hedgerows arrive at any great size ; on the contrary, they are 

 generally low and stunted : and while they occasion a visible loss by the mischief they 

 do the fence, their utmost worth, when they come to be sold, will seldom be found ade- 

 quate to the loss and inconvenience they have occasioned. 



3035. Stephens is decidedly inimical to planting trees in hedges. It is quite impossible, he says, even 

 with the greatest care imaginable, to rear thorns to a good fence under forest-trees ; even trees growing 

 on the top of the mound of a double hedge, abstract the moisture from the earth and injure the foliage of 

 both the hedges ; and though it may be probable that the two hedges may not be gapped by the trees in 

 places exactly opposite, the injury the individual hedge suffers cannot be remedied under the over- 

 shadowing poison. Lord Karnes makes the following judicious remarks on planting hedgerow trees : " To 

 plant trees in the line of the hedge, or within a few feet of it, ought to be absolutely prohibited as a per- 

 nicious practice ; it is amazing that people should fall into this error, when they ought to know that 

 there never was a good thorn hedge with trees in it : and how should it be otherwise ? An oak, a beech, or 

 an elm, grows faster than a thorn; when suffered to grow in the midst of a thorn hedge, it spreads its 

 roots every where, and robs the thorns of their nourishment. Nor is this all : the tree overshadowing the 

 thorns keeps the sun and air from them ; at the same time, no tree takes worse with being overshadowed 

 than a thorn. Hedgerow trees certainly give a closely fenced appearance to a country, and at a distance 

 look not unlike trees in an orchard : but they are at best formal ; the trees in them, though they may be 

 very hardy, and yield strong, tough timber, never attain to great size, and are often distorted in shape by 

 the force of the winds, which bend them to their will ; and when their baneful effects on the hedges and 

 crops are considered, it is astonishing to see their cultivation so prevalent. It may be ungracious treat- 

 ment, now that they are planted and growing, to root out every one of them without delay; but they may 

 be treated as annuitants whose consummation may be devoutly wished for, and whose places will not bo 

 replenished by similar occupants. Plantations, and clumps, and belts of trees, afford better shelter than 

 single rows ; and when they can be judiciously planted, in situations where little use can be made of tl)e 



