Farmers and Hedgers. 105 



for beauty and their fruits for use! A sad time it 

 often is for the birds in winter, when the snow is deep; 

 but if it is not actually pelting snow, you will see our 

 favourites there at work, reaping their harvest of the 

 hedgerow, so wondrously stored up for them ; and when 

 any of these winter food staples fail, through some 

 influence adverse to the insects that fertilise them — as 

 Mr. Darwin once so surprisingly forecasted — how mer- 

 ciful should all bird-lovers be in mindfully scattering 

 to the birds any crumbs or morsels that would else be 

 wasted. If their harvest of the hedgerow to any extent 

 fail, then death by starvation, added to cold, is the fate 

 of our sweet songsters by hundreds and thousands all 

 over the country. 



Wild and unkempt as the ordinary hedgerows of 

 road and field may appear, they demand at proper 

 times a good deal of attention from the farmer and 

 the hedger under him. How a farmer keeps his 

 hedges and his ditches is an almost invariable mark 

 of how he keeps the rest. If the hedges are allowed 

 to grow after their own sweet will for years and years, 

 they will certainly at length spread into and close up 

 the ditches, and the farmer's fields and meadows and 

 roads in places will be flooded, to his loss as well as 

 to the landlord's. There is no more frequent subject 

 of quarrel among farmers and country residents than 

 hedges and ditches being left unattended to beyond 

 the proper period ; for, of course, in cases of flooding, 

 the surface water is sure to flow on some other one's 

 land than that of the man who is to blame for it. This, 

 however, is not the most idyllic aspect of the subject, 

 and we shall leave it ; but not till we have said a word 

 or two for the hedger, who certainly deserves more 

 credit than he gets. If you fancy there is no skill in 



