OF FOREST-TREES. 



105 



in sloping your windings, if it be too low done, as very usually, it cHAP. vr. 

 frequently mortifies the tops ; therefore it ought to be so bent as it may ^^-""^-^r-^ 

 not impede the mounting of the sap. If the plash be of a great and 

 extraordinary age, wind it at the nether boughs altogether, and cutting 

 the sets, as directed, permit it rather to hang downwards a little, than 

 rise too forwards ; and then twist the branches into the work, leaving 

 a set free, and unconstrained at every yard space, besides such as will 

 serve for stakes, abated to about five feet in length, (Avhich is a compe- 

 tent stature for an hedge,) and so let it stand. One shall often find in 

 this work, especially in old neglected hedges, some great trees or stubs 

 that commonly make gaps for cattle ; such should be cut so near the 

 earth as till you can lay them thwart, that the top of one may rest on the 

 root or stub of the other, as far as they extend, stopping the cavities 

 with its boughs and branches ; and thus hedges, which seem to consist 

 but only of scrubby trees and stumps, may be reduced to a tolerable 

 fence : but in case it be superannuated and very old, it is advisable to 

 stub all up, being quite renewed and well guarded. We have been 

 the longer on these descriptions, because it is of main importance, 

 and that so few husbandmen are so perfectly skilled in it : but he 

 that v/ould be more fully satisfied, I would have him consult jMr. Cook, 

 chap, xxxii. or rather, Instar omnium, what I cannot without injury to 

 the public, and ingratitude to the persons who do me the honour of 

 imparting to me their experiences, but freely communicate. 



It is then from the Reverend IMr. Walker, of Great Billing, near 

 Northampton, that (with several other particulars relating to our rural 

 subject) I receive from that worthy gentleman, Thomas Franklin, of 

 Ecton, Esq. the following method of planting and fencing with quick- 

 sets, which we give you in his own words : 



" About ten or twelve years since I made some essays to set some 

 " little clumps of hedges and trees of about two poles in breadth, and 

 " three in length ; the outfences ditched on the outside, but the quick- 

 " sets in the inside of the bank, that the dead hedges might stand on the 

 " outside thereof ; so that a small hedge of eighteen or twenty inches 

 " high, made of small wood, the stakes not much bigger than a man's 

 " thumb, the banks being high, sufficiently defended them for four years' 

 " time, and were hedged with less than one load of shreddings of Willow- 



I 



