63 



(b) Plantations in general. 



Shelter-woods must serve more or less as a model wherever growing 

 fences or hedges are planted, where roadsides, streets, railway embank- 

 ments, banks of rivers and ponds are planted, and where undergrowth 

 is planted in the woods, if they are to be useful for protecting birds. 



In proof of this, we find at Seebach a number of devices which serve, 

 first of all, to attract birds to settle, and also to connect the shelter- 

 woods with one another and with the park. 



A hedge of firs, growing for about 547 yards at the side of a ditch, 

 deserves special mention. It is planted on one side with pollards, on 

 the other with mountain ash [see illustration). This fir-hedge, now 

 thirty years old, was planted in three rows with a space between the 

 rows and also between theplants of oneyard,and was kept lowbylopping. 



^SigEMMLg^e 



HEDGE OF FIRS. 



The left-hand side represents the portion out four years before the 

 right-hand side, which has been recently cut. 



When the branches spread too much thecentrerowwasentirely removed, 

 and in theremaining rows every other fir was takenout. All thebranches, 

 even the lowest, have been well preserved by this method, and also 

 for the reason that the hedge was never chpped at the sides ; and 

 this hedge now forms a thicket about seven yards in width, in which 

 innumerable nests are found every year. The space which has been 

 formed between the two rows of lopped trees, under the thick branches, 

 serves in the winter as a shelter and feeding place for game. 



