18 FORMATION OF STRIP. 



Choose your ground where shelter is most 

 needed, whether for the house orgarden, and trench 

 it well; but do not trench too sorely on the glebe, 

 lest economy, afterwards more observant, should 

 regret the extravagance. A quarter of an acre, 

 well shaped and situated, will do a great deal, con- 

 sidering that the plan already specified is contrived 

 to make much shelter of little space. Let it be 

 fenced outside by a sunk stone wall, of three or 

 four feet, with a hedge on the top a hedge ot 

 thorns, if the soil is indifferent, and the situation 

 much exposed; in more favourable circumstances, 

 by all means let the hedge be of holly. Before 

 planting, manure the ground with lime and dung, 

 which will be repaid by excellent crops of potatoes 

 for a few years, and in the mean time your trees 

 will vie with one another, making shoots of four or 

 five feet in a season. If the hedge be of thorn, let 

 it grow three years untouched, except as to careful 

 weeding; then cut it as close by the ground as the 

 knife can be laid; thus treated, it will become so 

 compact that no hare or rabbit can find entrance 

 even when snow has filled the excavation of the 

 sunk fence. If the hedge be of holly, clean it, of 

 course, but do not touch it with the knife for seven 

 years. When the lateral shoots project over the 

 wall, they may be trimmed flush with its front 

 which will render the fence impervious to the nib- 

 bling invaders that prove so destructive to young 

 fruit trees and various productions of the garden. 

 Thus matters are easy where the ground is clear 



