230 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



soil taken from them should be spread well over the surface in the spaces 

 between the drains, in order to improve the land. In laying off planta- 

 tions in those districts where it is intended that their boundaries shall 

 afterwards form the sides of arable fields, care should be taken not to 

 make any sudden curves in them, as these are in all cases found to inter- 

 fere with farming operations. Curved lines, with bold sweeps, are the 

 best for giving shelter much better than straight lines ; straight lines 

 are certainly the shortest, but they do not please the eye so well as bold 

 sweeps, not too much bent. They should be made to run in a gradual 

 and easy way, and so as to interrupt as little as possible the profitable 

 working of the laud adjoining. 



Plantations made in such districts should, as far as possible, be in 

 large masses, and never in narrow belts. When it is found necessary, 

 for some local reason, to make them in the form of belts, these should 

 not be narrower than one hundred yards. With these narrow belts 

 there is no shelter to the trees themselves, consequently they are very 

 slow in growing ; and when they do get to a sufficient height to give 

 shelter, the cold winds blow through them unchecked. Where there is 

 a considerable breadth of trees planted together, they shelter each other, 

 and get away faster than where there is a narrow belt ; and where there 

 is a large mass of trees, the winds are checked in their force before 

 they can get through the plantation ; and it should be observed that the 

 wind also acquires a certain degree of warmth in passing through a large 

 body of trees. In order to protect the lands which are proposed" to be 

 improved from the winds from the higher ground above, a broad belt 

 should be planted along the higher boundary of the former, and on the 

 lower line of the latter ; and this should be so laid out as to stretch in 

 bold convex curves outward and upward, with a view to throw the winds 

 off the lower grounds as they rush down from the higher. 



With regard to the portions of waste lands lying at an elevation above 

 those referred to as capable of being made profitable arable land, they 

 also are capable of being made vastly more valuable to their proprietors 

 by having plantations judiciously distributed over the high-lying parts, 

 so as to shelter the lower portions, and thereby make them more valuable 

 for the maintenance of stock. It is a well-known fact among all sheep- 

 farmers, that a hill-pasture farm which is too high lying to admit of its 

 being dealt with properly for arable purposes, is, when sheltered by 

 plantations properly laid out with a view to protect sheep from the pre- 

 vailing storms of the locality, worth three times as much the rent it could 

 be for pasture without them. This is, therefore, a matter of great impor- 

 tance to the proprietors of such hill-lands, and should induce them to set 

 about the improvement of those portions of their estates with as little 



