72 



cut, be plashed or layered ; but those which are for shorp 

 only, should be annually slantingly trimmed up, und the 

 top thus kept thin. 



All trees, in arable land find hedges, do much injury, but 

 the ash the most, the roots of which run to a great distance, 

 horizontally, near the surface, taking nearly all the nou- 

 rishment from the earth, so that neither corn nor turnips 

 which grow under them, are ever worth much. Every ash tree 

 grown in an arable land hedge row, has done five times the 

 amount of damage to the occupier of the land than the tree 

 is worth when cut down. 



THE WIRE- WORM. I gave my opinion, some years 

 ago, at the annual meeting of the Northamptonshire 

 Farming & Grazing Society, that this destructive creature 

 was the larva of the Harry long-legged fly ; but although I 

 produced both the fly and grub, to show their resemblance, 

 I could get no converts to my opinion. It is now, how- 

 ever, pretty generally admitted that it is so. I have seen, 

 in August, thousands of these insects, hovering over pas- 

 tures and clover leys, in acts of increase, where they no 

 doubt deposit their eggs. Formerly, I sustained great 

 losses in my wheat crops by it, but not of late yeors, having 

 wheat after a one-year's clover ley, instead of after a two- 

 year's. I know not how it is to be destroyed in the land : 

 that elegant little bird, the wagtail, will pick up every one it 

 can get at. Half-ploughing the land, in November, might 

 be of some use. 



OLD PASTURES. I have heard of extraordinary good 

 grazing land, in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and in some of 

 the fens. The best I ever saw is in the Vale of Aylesbury. 

 These superior pastures will feed one large ox, and one large 

 wether sheep, or ewe and lamb, per acre ; but it may be 

 called good pasture land that will feed two oxen for three 

 acres, and one ewe and lamb per acre. There are different 

 opinions as to the number of acres that an ox-grazing 

 pasture ought to contain. This must mainly depend on the 

 supply of water. Sixty or seventy acres, xvell supplied, and 

 the land not being some parts high, and some low, should 

 I think, be divided ; but if it were so, I think not ; for 



