Shelters. 213 



hedgerows and banks. Each plantation should have a grass 

 margin within the fence of about 15 to 20 feet, and this should 

 be planted with occasional bushes, and sown with seeds of the tall 

 grasses, so that birds could be provided with comparatively 

 safe nesting quarters. At present it is customary to plant close 

 up to the boundary fences, and when the trees grow up the planta- 

 tion is then of little or no use for nesting purposes. I now 

 proceed to give the remarks that have been sent to me from Kent. 



HOP SHBLTEES OR "LEWS" IN EAST KENT. 



These are now generally made by planting the Black Italian 

 poplar in rows along the outside of the gardens, prinqipaUy on 

 the W., S., and S.W. sides, about three feet apart, and brushing 

 up both sides of the row close in every year, in the winter and 

 spring. These plants are easily raised by putting in the ground 

 the shoots that are cut ofE ; they grow very fast, and are allowed 

 to get up about 18 or 20 feet. A row of Austrian piaes planted 

 not too close together, and a row of poplars a little way off, make 

 a splendid " lew," but takes up a good bit of ground. 



How far these " lews " wiU act depends on the conformation of 

 the ground. If it slopes up away from the trees, of course they 

 will not shelter the crop so far away as they would if the ground 

 sloped down away from the trees, or even if it were level. On 

 quite level ground, I should say they would be useful for 100 

 yards- Of late years a very coarse kind of cloth has been made, 

 and sold cheaply, of cocoanut fibre ; this is fastened to sjtout poles 

 about 18 or 20 feet long, and about as big round as small scaffold 

 poles. It is put up in the summer, and taken down ia the winter, 

 the poles being let into the ground, and supported by a wire from 

 the top to the ground. ' 



