688 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



4195. Pasturage. Where the systems of grazing and tillage alternately is followed (more especially 

 where the fields are pastured for two or three years in succession), it is convenient to have the fields of 

 ft-oni twenty to perhaps thirty English acres. The farmer is thus enabled to divide his stock, whicli he 

 cannot well do with larger fields. The cattle or sheep remain more quiet than if a greater number were 

 collected together, and less grass is destroyed by treading. When such a field has been pastured for 

 some time, the stock should be removed to another, till the grass in the former has renewed, and is fit 

 for being eaten. Such a size also, in general, suits graziers better than larger ones, and consequently 

 fields of this extent, when in pasture, generally let for more rent. 



4195. Climate. The last circumstance to be considered, in determining the proper size of fields, is the 

 nature of the climate. In dry and cold climates, small enclosures are desirable on account of shelter ; 

 whereas, in wet countries, the fields under culture cannot be too open and airy, for the purpose of dry- 

 ing the ground, of bringing forward and ripening the grain, and of enabling the farmer more easily to 

 secure it during an unfavourable harvest, by having a free circulation of air. But, though on large farms 

 fields should in general be formed on an extensive scale, yet there is a convenience in having a few smaller 

 fields near the farm-house for keeping the family cows; for turning out young horses, mares, and foals; 

 for raising a great variety of vegetables ; and for trying experiments on a small scale, whicli may after, 

 wards be extended, if they shall be found to answer. When enclosures are too large for particular pur- 

 poses, and where no small fields, as above recommended, have been prepared, large fields may be sub- 

 divided by sheep-hurdles, a sort of portable fence well known to every turnip-grower. In this way, great 

 advantage may be derived from the constant use cf land that would otherwise have been occupied by 

 stationary fences; and the expense of subdivisions, which, on a large farm, would necessarily have been 

 numerous, is thereby avoided. This fence is perfectly effectual against sheep, though it is not so well cal- 

 culated for stronger animals. 



4197. The shape of fields may be either square or oblong. 



4198. Square fields. The advantage of having the fences in straight lines, and the fields, when large, of 

 a square form, is unquestionable, as the ploughing of them under this arrangement can be carried on with 

 much greater despatch. Some farmers, whose fields are of a waving or uneven shape, and who enclose 

 with hedge and ditch, carry their fence through the hollows, or best soil, with a view of raising a good 

 hedge ; thus often sacrificing, for the sake of the fence, the form of their field. A straight line, however, 

 is preferable, even though it should be necessary to take some particular pains to enrich the soil for tiie 

 hedge, where it is thin and poor, on any elevation. By means of the square form, an opportunity is 

 afforded of ploughing in every direction, when necessary ;' and less time is lost in carrying on all the oper- 

 ations of husbandry in a field of that form than of any other. When the waving form is necessary to secure 

 proper water runs, plantations may be so disposed as to reduce the fields to squares or oblongs, and the 

 fences to straight lines. Rectangular fields have another advantage, that in fields of that shape it may 

 be known whether the ploughmen have performed their duty, the quantity of work done being easily cal- 

 culated, from the length and breadth of a certain number of ridges. 



4199. Oblong fields. When fields are small, an oblong shape should be preferred, that the plough ings 

 may be dispatched with as few turnings as possible. This form has also other advantages : the fields are 

 more easily subdivided, and water can in almost every case be got, by making proper ponds in the meeting 

 or joining of three or four fields, whose gutters or ditches will convey water to the ponds. In turnip soils, 

 where the shape is oblong, it is easier to divide the turnips with nets or hurdles, for the convenience of 

 feeding them off with sheep. If the ridges are too long, and the field dry and level, the length may be re- 

 duced by making cross head-lands, or head-ridges, at any place that may be considered the fittest by the 

 occupier. {_Code qf Agr. 152 to 157.) 



42CX). Hedge-row trees are very generally objected to by agriculturists. Notwithstand- 

 ing the garden-like appearance which they give to the landscape, " it seems to be agreed 

 by the most intelligent agriculturists that they are extremely hurtful to the fence, and for 

 some distance to the crops on each side ; and it is evident, that in many instances the high- 

 ways, on the sides of which they often stand, suffer greatly from their shade. It has there- 

 fore been doubted whether such trees be profitable to the proprietor, or beneficial to the 

 public ; to the farmer they are almost in every case injurious, to a degree beyond what is 

 commonly imagined." (Supp. to Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



4201. The opinion oj Loch, a well informed and unprejudiced improver of landed property, is of an 

 opposite description. He says : " There is no change in the rural economy of England more to be regretted, 

 than the neglect which is now shown to the cultivation and growth of hedge-row timber. The injury 

 which it does to the cultivation of the land is much exaggerated, especially if a proper selection of trees is 

 made ; but even the growth of the ash, so formidable to agriculturists, might be defended, on the ground 

 that without it the best implements employed in the cultivation of the soil could not be made. It is well 

 known that good hedge-row timber is by far the most valuable both for naval and domestic purposes ; its 

 superior tou^ness rendering it equally valuable to the ship-builder and to the ploughwright. The value 

 which it is of in affording shelter is also material : besides, the raising of grain is not the only purpose of 

 Iife,_ or the only matter to be attended to, nor the only object worthy of attention. The purposes of war and 

 of national glory, the protection and the extension of our commerce, the construction and repair of build- 

 ings, and even the enjoyment arising from the rich and beautiful effect produced by such decoration and 

 ornament, are all objects of material importance to the well-being and constitution of a highly cultivated 

 state of society. Even upon the more narrow basis of individual utility, this practice might be defended 

 and recommended ; for it is not useless to consider how many families and estates have been preserved, 

 when pressed by temporary difficulties (from which none are exempted), by a fall of hedge-row timber. 

 One of the best legacies which a great proprietor can leave his country and his family, is an estate well 

 stocked with such trees." Believing, as we do, that there can be no real and permanent beauty that is 

 inconsistent with utility, we prefer, for arable lands, hedges wholly without timber trees. In pasture lands 

 we would rather see the trees in scattered groups than in the hedges ; because so placed they are only injuri- 

 ous to the pasture ; whereas in the hedge they are injurious to that and the pasture also. 



4202. The gates of fields should in most cases be placed in the middle of that side of 

 the field which is nearest the road, because, in carting home produce, or in carting out 

 manure, the labour of carting is less on a road than on the soft ground of the field, and 

 because such carting always more or less injures this ground ; a part of it along the head- 

 lands being necessarily subjected to repetition in the same track ; and not in an angle, or 

 at one corner, unless particular circumstances point out this as the preferable mode. 

 Some contend that the gates of fields should be placed in or near the corner next to the 

 road or homestead ; but our objection to this arrangement is, that, in carting out manure, 

 or carting home the crop, the headland is liable to be much more severely injured by cart 

 ruts than when the gate is in the middle. 



