WAY-SIDE HINTS. 129 



guarded, whatever may become of our old favorites, 

 the trees. 



There is another condition of English country 

 life aside from the climate which admits of a freer 

 play of sunshine than we may be disposed to admit 

 it lies in the fact that British houses, whether of 

 brick or stone, are thick-walled (covered, many times, 

 with lichens, if not ivy), and so ward off very effect- 

 ually the fiercest blasts of July. The thatched roofs 

 of Devon and of Somerset are an even greater pro- 

 tection from the sun. 



English and American Hedging. 



A N OTHER striking subject of contrast between 

 -*- British and American country road-side, is 

 offered by the numberless array of live hedges which 

 belong to the former, and which probably for genera- 

 tions to come will be wanting in America. In the 

 best-cultivated districts of England, however, hedges 

 are rapidly losing favor for the partition of arable 

 lands, as engrossing too much space, stealing some- 

 what from the productive capacity of the soil, and 

 offering shelter for noxious weeds. The system of 

 soiling is moreover doing away with the necessity for 

 them, and such ground-feeding as is permitted, is 

 more closely and economically controlled by the 

 6* 



