On Fences. 
199 
eight farmers out of ten (the writer being one of the eight) that its 
injury to corn crops in its neighbourhood is equal to a total extinc- 
tion of as much land as the tree, when cut down, would fall upon. 
Now a prostrate ash would cover, I think, a space of twenty-five 
feet in diameter. The remaining trees may be fairly set down at 
twenty-two feet in diameter, nearly the same as the elm, for as 
they occur but seldom, their dimensions will not affect the ave- 
rages in any important degree. Now, in four different arable 
districts of the county of Norfolk, I have measured respectively 
one square mile, or 640 acres, and the result is as detailed in 
the table below. This table, as will be seen, is founded on the 
acknowledged fact that a space of land equal to that shaded by a 
tree is as completely lost to the farmer as if it were actually occu- 
pied by a fence;* or, in the words of one of the gentlemen whose 
testimony I have already embodied in this essay, that " the utter 
extinction of the land overshadowed by trees would be gladly sub- 
mitted to by every farmer, provided the trees were to be annihilated 
at the same time, and this without any sought-for deduction of rent." 
Section I. — ^Trees. 
Section II. — Fences. 
Name 
of 
Fariih. 
Number 
of 
Hedgerow 
Trees per 
Square Mile. 
Average 
Space over- 
spread by 
each Tree, 
iodependenr 
of Fence, in 
Square Mile. 
Total Space 
covered 
bjr Trees 
Square Mile. 
Length 
of Fence 
per 
Square Mile. 
Average 
width 
of Fence 
in 
Square Mile. 
Space 
occupied 
by Fence 
Square Mile. 
ToUl Space 
occupfed 
by Trees 
and Hedges 
per 
Square Mile 
Per Centage 
occupied 
by Hcdj^es 
and 
Hedge Trees. 
Bixley, Arming- 1 
hallj&adioin- > 
iug parishes, . ) 
Divide by 4 ) 
3,664 
2,048 
3,084 
4,004 
So. Ft. 
451 
361 
602 
586 
A. B. P. 
37 3 29 
16 3 35 
42 2 19 
53 3 18 
M. Fur. 
28 0 0 
19 2 7 
26 4 0 
27 2 0 
Feet. 
8i 
IH 
12 
8* 
A. R. P. 
28 3 15 
26 3 18 
38 2 7 
28 0 12 
A. R. P. 
66 3 4 
43 3 13 
81 0 26 
81 3 30 
lot 
12* 
12* 
12,800 
2,000 
151 1 21 
101 0 7 
40i 
122 1 12 
273 2 33 
3,200 
500 
37 3 15 
25 2 1 
10 
30 2 13 
68 1 28 
10* 
* It is not the mere surface of land shaded by trees or occupied by 
fences which is the measure of deduction from the crop. The relative 
mass requiring nourishment must be taken into calculation. The carbonic 
acid and ammonia derived from the atmosphere, and which form the 
woody fibre and albumen, in fact the chief proportion of the substance of 
the former, would, in their absence, become so much starch and gluten in 
the latter. Take away your trees and hedges, and you gain every year a 
quantity of nutritious food equal to the annual increase of their substance. 
It is a remarkable provision that the industry of an increasing population 
which extracts iron from the interior of the earth, permanently to supersede 
timber, at the same time leaves those elements otherwise required for the 
growth of trees at liberty to form food for the support of our increasing 
numbers. — W. H. Hyett. 
