HEDGEROW TREES AND HEDGES 253 
either in November or else late in February, but in 
the latter case it is well to prepare the soil before- 
hand in the autumn. Other methods are also 
often adopted, though where hedges are well 
trimmed annually and properly cleaned, little or 
no outlay should be necessary for filling blanks. 
In some parts of the country the common prac- 
tice is to strengthen weak, thin fences, trimmed 
merely every few years in place of annually, by 
only partially cutting through the poles without 
completely severing them from the stool, and 
interweaving these poles, when trimmed, with 
the scrubby growth of the fence. This rather 
slovenly, stop-gap sort of system is one that 
is very largely practised in Herefordshire, where 
it is known as ‘pletching.’ A very similar word, 
‘plashing,’ is used in Hampshire as the local term 
for layering; but ‘ pletching’ or interweaving is 
of interest as an example of a still living word 
already recorded as obsolete in Johnson’s Dic- 
tionary. These old rural terms, of which many 
exist, are well worth preserving as a heritage not 
to be despised. Indeed, one great fault of nearly 
all of the recent contributions to what is called 
‘scientific’ Forestry, in contradistinction to the 
