242 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
foliage and the greatest power of enduring shade, 
along with a good reproductive power, such 
as beech, hornbeam, yew, spruce, silver fir, holly, 
hawthorn, hazel, and in a minor degree black- 
thorn, maple, wild cherry, and the like. But the 
advantage, for general use, rests with the minor 
trees and shrubs, and particularly with those 
that are of a thorny nature, fitting them also as 
fences against cattle. One drawback to hedges 
of trees like spruce is that they require constant 
trimming to prevent them throwing up long 
leading shoots. As regards all hedges, their 
thickness and their vigour in growth must of 
course be more or less impaired by the retention 
of standards. The heavier the overshadowing 
and drip from these, and the nearer their crowns 
to the hedge, the more must be the damage done 
to this. Too many standards, neglect to prune 
all low branches, and to remove the trees before 
the hedges are badly injured, must often cause 
far more loss than is counterbalanced by the 
profit the trees bring in to account, because in 
such cases, as in others, the work of destruction 
is often rapid, while that of reconstruction is slow 
and costly. 
