On Fences. 
197 
mainder, an accession of grain-bearing land would be available, 
equal in extent to one of our large counties. As is proved 
bv actual survey (see No. 6) the average width of the fences 
throughout Norfolk is ten feet, which is about seven feet more 
than is actually necessan,- (22). In some counties in England 
the average is considerably more ; and in very tew is it found to 
be less. In South Devonshire some of the hedges are more than a 
perch in width; whilst the per centage of land occupied by them is 
as much as eight or eight and a half, or one acre in every twelve. 
There is no doubt but that the broad ridges of soil thus formed as 
banks whereon the plants are placed are made at the exj^ense of 
the surface soil on each side of the fence line, which consequently 
becomes impoverished for several years afterwards : indeed it is to 
be questioned whether it does not remain much longer in a thin and 
hungry state. 
5. Our present fences are injurious on account of their number. — 
The multiplicity of fences arises no doubt from an idea that they 
afford considerable shelter to the crops they surround. Of the 
shelter thus afforded, there can be no question ; but it is surprising 
that it should not be universally admitted that such shelter is 
highly injurious to all sorts of grain and green crops usually grown 
in this country. ^^ hatever tends to impede the free circulation of 
air to dry the stems and carry off the excrementitious moisture of 
plants, will occasion the mildew or rust. The evils of numerous 
hedgerows, especially if they are high, are never more apparent 
than during the latter part of the summer when heavy rains are 
sometimes experienced with intervals of wind and sunshine, suffi- 
cient to drj- the crops were they exposed on ail sides, but which, 
from their being surrounded by high fences, are thus allowed to lie 
damp and wet for several days, a prey to mildew and every other 
kindred disease. The best sample of wheat is not found at the 
hedge side, but in those parts of the field where there is an un- 
checked circulation of air; and the greatest weight of turnips, 
within a given space, is also found wherever there is a free play of 
the elements. " It was an opinion of the late Mr. Knight," says 
Dr. Lindley in his Theory of Horticulture, " that the motion given 
to plants by wind is beneficial to them, by enabling their fluids to 
circulate more freely than they otherwise would do;" and the 
Doctor adds that " if the effect of motion is to increase the quan- 
tity of wood in a plant, it is evident that ventilation, which causes 
motion, must tend to produce a healthy action in the plants exposed 
to it ; and such a state must also be favourable to the develope- 
ment of all those secretions upon which the organization of flowers, 
the setting of fruit, and the elaboration of colour, odour, tlavour, 
&c., so much depend." It follows, therefore, that the beauty, 
firmness, weight and quantity of grain depend upon the measiu-e of 
