STUDIES IN NATURE 



to consider the depth and quality of the soil, the 

 amount of moisture, of exposure, and also the 

 results we desire to obtain. There is one kind 

 of turf on the chalk downs, another in the river 

 meadows, another on the cliffs by the sea. We 

 can hardly speak of the grass near a sandy wind- 

 swept shore as turf at all, and on some clay-land 

 it seems impossible to get a close fine covering. 

 In these cases we must do the best we can ; if we 

 want grass and the good sorts will not grow, 

 we must choose poorer kinds that will, and our 

 intelligence and observation will be required 

 to know what is the best possible under the 

 circumstances. 



The hedgerows of England, with their wealth 

 of flowers, their variety of outline, their occasional 

 forest tree, give much of the especial beauty and 

 grace to an English landscape. In no other 

 country do they exist to anything like the same 

 extent. They may not be, and probably are 

 not, entirely wise from the point of view of get- 

 ing the most return out of the land, but they are 

 very precious to us for many reasons, and much 

 of the harm they do can, as is usually the case, 

 be prevented by a little care and thought. We 

 have only to go from a country of hedgerows 

 into a country of stone walls, or worse still, of 

 wire fences, to see what a cherished possession 

 our hedges should be. 



In considering anything, we must first of all 

 ask ourselves for what purpose it exists, and it 



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