CHAPTER XXIV. 



The Growing of Hedge Fences on our Agricultwral Areas. 



The land-kolders of this colony do not yet seem to understand tte 

 great increase in value which the cultivation of hedges is calculated to 

 effect on their farms. At least we are entitled to judge of them in this 

 light from the general absence of this description of fence on their 

 properties. In travelling through even the most highly cultivated parts 

 of the country, we meet with few hedges of any sort ; the principal fence 

 in most cases being of posts and wire, which give, generally speaking, a 

 bare, cold, and unclothed aspect to lands naturally fertile. 



But the absence of hedges does not give an vmclothed look only to the 

 cultivated lands of these countries. This state of things aimounts to a 

 present real disadvantage and loss in the cultivation of the lands, and 

 therefore should be remedied as early as possible. The advantages of 

 hedges round cultivated fields are chiefly the shelter and shade they afford 

 to crops and live stock at all seasons of the year, but more especially in 

 this country during the hot winds of summer and the cold ■winds of early 

 spring, both of which affect stock and vegetation detrimentally. It is 

 now a well understood fact that in fields surrounded by good hedges, 

 grass and other crops are found at least two weeks earlier in spring than 

 they ai-e in fields without such protection; simply from the cause that 

 the presence of hedges sifts the cold winds, thus lessening their force, 

 and maiataining a degree of warmth not to be found in fields surroimded 

 by post-and-wire fences. And for these reasons I have strongly to 

 recommend the landed proprietors of this coxmtry to plant and cultivate 

 hedges on their properties, as by doing so they wiU certainly vastly 

 increase their value, both for the present and future. 



I need not here enter into much detail in regard to the several modes 

 of growing hedges, as were I to do so I should go much beyond the limits 

 which I have laid down for myself in writing this work. I may, how- 

 ever, first state in a general way that hedges are, as a rule, easily 

 cultivated, and may be reared on aU descriptions of land, by simply 

 attending to use plants adapted to the nature of the soil on which it is 

 intended to rear them. 



Before detailing the different kinds of plants which are suitable for 

 hedges in this country, I shall first of all give a few general remarks on 

 the subject of the management of hedges, which will apply to all, more 

 or less, of the kinds to be named. 



