118 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 
growing plant during summer, and in the shedding of grain in 
autumn, is often very considerable. We know districts of 
light friable soil, where scarcely a season passes without in- 
jury being sustained by the turnip crop in consequence of 
exposure or want of shelter; and it not unfrequently happens 
that gales occurring in the end of June or beginning of July, 
not only disturb and injure the young plants, but drift them 
away. ‘The casualty is generally most severe when rough 
weather ensues immediately after the young plants are singled 
out. (In such-places, the old method of sowing on a flat sur- 
face is that most likely to be exempt from injury.) 
There are however many situations where the cultivation 
of hedge-row timber cannot be recommended. Many bleak 
and weather-beaten tracts of cultivated land throughout 
the country first require plantations formed, of considerable 
breadth, on all exposed points, in order that single trees may 
grow freely, and afford the shelter of hedge-rows. It is only 
under the wing or protection of such woods or beltings, that 
in many districts single lines of trees can be successfully cul- 
tivated. However congenial the soil may be to the species, 
unless the severity of the blast is temperate, and the cutting 
winds mollified, hedge-row trees will fail to attain a size valu- 
able as timber, or useful in continuing the shelter from field 
to field, so as in any degree to equalize the climate through- 
out the year, or to combine utility with beauty—the purposes 
for which such plantations are generally formed. 
The failure of hedge-row trees throughout Scotland is of 
more frequent occurrence than that of any other description of 
plantation. This often arises from the trees employed having 
been allowed to grow to a large size without having their 
roots adapted for removal by frequent transplanting ; some- 
times from their not being sufficiently protected from cattle ; 
often from the exposure of the ground, and the unfitness of 
the plants for the situation; and not unfrequently from a 
combination of these circumstances. 
In all windy situations, plants should be employed stout in 
proportion to their height, and with lateral branches. down to 
