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liFe of no avail, his fences will never be In 

 jepair. 



Bat on the contrary, in the plafhing 

 method, the hedges are in fa6t live ports and 

 rails ; for many of the hedge flakes and 

 moil of the wood being alive, and con- 

 tinuing in that form to grow, the whole 

 is kept impenetrable ^ the tops of the live 

 hedge flakes fprout out various ways, and 

 confequently keep down the edders, which 

 would otherv/ife be liable to be raifed from 

 the fiakes : thefe efFeCls are fo great and 

 ftriking, that it is extremely common in 

 'Rerefordj]:ire, (where the plafhing method 

 is practifed in the utmoft perfection) to 

 fee the old dead hedge ftanding complete 

 and flrong at the bottom, and in the midft 

 of a live one a dozen years old : an object 

 never beheld in thofe countries, that cut up 

 all the hedge wood. 



But excellent as the plafliing method is, 

 yet I conceive that, nor no other hedge, to 

 be a fence fufficient without a good ditch, 

 of at leafl: 4 by 3, vvhich prevents all at- 

 tempts (efpecially if the ditch earth is all 

 laid upon the bank, and the hedge at the 



top of it) of jumping over itj — ^ —and 



favfc'3 it many attacl;s v/hich a mere hedge 



receives. 



