106 



A DISCOURSE 



IK)0K ir. " sets, which, as my workmen told me, would have required six load 

 ^'"■v-*^ " of copse-wood : but the next year after their being planted, finding 

 " waste ground on the top of the bank of the outer fences, between the 

 " dead hedge and the quick, I put a footset in the same space between 

 " the quick and the dead hedge, which prospered better than tliose 

 " planted in the side of the bank, after the vulgar way, and hold it still, 

 " This put me upon thinking, that a cheaper and better sort of quick- 

 " fence might possibly be found out ; and accordingly I made some trials 

 " with good success, (at least better than the old way,) though not to my 

 " full satisfaction, till I had perused Mr. Evelyn's Silva. The method 

 " I used was this : first, I set out the ground for ditches and quick, in 

 " breadth ten feet ; then subdivided that, by marking out two feet and 

 " a half on each side (more or less, at pleasure) for the ditches, leaving 

 " five in the middle between them : then digging up two feet in the midst 

 " of that five feet, plant the sets in ; though it require more labour and 

 " charge, I found it soon repaid the cost. This done, I began to dig 

 " the fosses, and to set up one row of turfs on the outside of the said five 

 " feet ; namely, one row on each side thereof, the green side outmost 

 " a little reclining, so as the grass might grow : after this, returning to 

 " the place begun at, I ordered one of the men to dig a spit of the under 

 " turf -mould, and lay it between the turfs, placed edgewise, as before 

 " described, upon the two feet which was purposely dug in the middle, 

 " and prepared for the sets, which the planter sets with two quicks upon 

 " the surface of the earth, almost upright, whilst another workman lays 

 " the mould forward about twelve inches, and then sets two more, and 

 " so continues. Some there are who plant three rows of sets about 

 " eight inches interval ; but I do not approve it, for they choke one 

 " another. This finished, 1 order another row of turfs to be placed on 

 " each side upon the top of the former, and fill the vacuity between the 

 " sets and the turfs, as high as their tops, always leaving the middle, 

 " where the sets are planted, hollow, and somewhat lower than the sides 

 " of the banks by eight or ten inches, that the rain may descend to their 

 " roots, which is of great advantage to their growth, and far better than 

 " by the old way ; where the banks run too much sloping, the roots 

 " of the sets are seldom wetted in an ordinary season, the summer 

 " following ; but which, if it prove dry, many of the sets perish, 

 " especially the late planted : whereas those which I planted in the 

 " latter end of April, though the summer happened to be somewhat dry, 



