reducing the Size and Number of Hedges. 
337 
plough, laving in draining-tiles where required. You will then 
lose only the space covered by the fence, and gain what would 
otherwise be waste land. A section of the fence when clipped 
to the form in which I clip mine, would appear as in fig. 2. 
Where water is conveyed to the ditch (the ditch having been made 
the principal outlets of under-drains), care should be taken to 
lay down draining-tiles suited to the quantity of water that may 
have to pass through, increasing them in size as you approach the 
outlet. 
The great difference between the plan which I have so long 
pursued and that of most others, lies in my fences being clipped 
twice a year with garden- shears. Shears are preferable to the 
bill-hook or scimitar, as it is difficult to keep fences within bounds 
by either of the latter implements. I clip near 12 miles, exclu- 
sive of plantation -fences, twice in every year, viz. June and Oc- 
tober, at the cost of 10s. per mile or thereabouts, the fences being 
from 2^ to 3 feet high, and about 1 foot in width. At the end of 
the fourth or fifth year from planting, a fence should not be more 
than 2^. or at most 3 feet high, and this added to the height of 
the bank, which will be about a foot, will be sufficiently high for 
all useful purposes. The form in which they are clipped is not 
material. I have always clipped mine square at the top, as shotvn 
in fig. 2. 
It is scarcely possible to say how long a fence under this ma- 
nagement will last good. I planted a fence thirty-eight years 
since on a poor soil, laying a bed of clay beneath the young quick, 
and cut it quite down at eighteen years ; about sixteen years after, 
making thirty-four from raising, I split it down the middle with a 
