On Fences. 
223 
Sect. II. — Hedges for exposed situations where the soil is poor, yet 
capable of improvement. 
38. There are few plants suited to withstand the rigour of se- 
vere winters sufficiently to form fences in high situations ; and 
those which are adapted for this purpose are to be considered 
chiefly as the forerunners of the beech and whitethorn. There 
are indeed certain situations, though few, where it would be an 
act of folly to be at the expense of planting any fences with the 
view of sheltering and ultimately reclaiming the land for cultiva- 
tion. Rocky surfaces, such as cannot be subjected to the plough, 
belong simply to the province of the planter. Thin gravelly dis- 
tricts, where herbage refuses to take root, are also to be left to be 
covered with ligneous vegetation, as are all those lands lying on 
rock, or which otherwise have such a retentive subsoil that the 
water stagnates upon them. At the same time, the mere altitude 
of lands ousfht to form no barrier to the introduction of hedge 
plants, so long as we have a few prepared to take their station in 
the shape of fences in any situation : the chief thing to be consi- 
dered being whether or not the soil purposed to be enclosed is 
likely to become fit for tillage. 
The Scotch Pine — Pinus sylvestris. 
39. Of all the trees suited to the climate of Britain, this tree is 
perhaps the most serviceable. If the cold and wintry uplands of 
the North are to be brought into cultivation, it will be by the aid 
of this tree, either in hedges or strips, or in larger masses as 
nurses to other trees. In no soil does it refuse to grow. In peat, 
sand, gravel, granite, and all thin soils, it rises rapidly, and forms 
a strong rough fence in the course of six or seven years. In the 
neighbourhood of Thetfoid and Newmarket, in Suffolk, where 
the soil is miserable, it is quite common as a hedge tree ; but in 
those places it is pruned in the same way as the whitethorn, 
which is certainly disadvantageous ; it being well known that of 
all trees the pine is the most impatient of the knife. It is only 
where a better tree, as a fence, will not grow, that I am led to 
recommend the Scotch pine, and this I do, as already stated, be- 
cause it is admirably adapted for ameliorating the climate in 
exposed situations previous to the introduction of others. My 
plan with this tree is as follows : — The soil requires no prepara- 
tion whatever. The plants to be used should be 4 years old, and 
they can be had of nurserymen for 4s. or 5s. per 1000. Those 
plants I insert in a straight line at 2 feet apart from each other, 
so that when they get up, the stems may form the chief part of 
the fence. Planted at this distance, there will be very little room 
for branches between the trees in the lines, but they will push 
