reducing the Size and Number of Hedges. 
341 
been found from the bite of hares, or otherw ise, in its early growth, 
which cannot always be prevented, privet, briar, or holly will grow, 
if laid in with a little good earth, with a few posts and rails at the 
back to guard it. But with common care, on good soil, failures 
will seldom if ever occur. 
I have raised a new fence with elder plants only (although not 
handsome, a live one) on an old bank, parting the bounds of pro- 
perty, where the site could not be altered, and on the north side 
of a wood. The elder slips were about a foot and a half long, set 
one year in a piece of garden-ground before removed to the bank, 
and almost every cutting grew. 
In endeavouring to impi'ove old fences, I have never succeeded 
in rendering them either uniform or sale, and should recommend, 
where a good fence is required, levelling the old and raising a new 
one. Young layer will not grow upon an old bank, at least I have 
never been able to rear it ; and \\ hen an old bank is levelled down, 
it should be left till the next year, if it can possibly be allowed lo 
do so before a new fence is set out in its place. 
At the enclosure, in 1816, of the parish in which my farm is 
situate, 80 acres of rabbit-warren were brought into cultivation, 
and the banks, where they have not been carted away or thrown 
over, now remain covered with furze, as all the common was at 
the time of the enclosure. Upon this soil, which was of the worst 
description, being chiefly black sand, upwards of 200C rods of 
fencing was made at that time. In raising these fences the treat- 
ment only differed from that before described, in placing a bed 
of clay beneath the young layer. This I should always recom- 
mend if the soil is poor, and if manure is added with the clay the 
better, but a thin covering of earth should be placed over the roots 
of the young layer before the manure is applied. 
The modes of fencing which I have described will, if carefully 
practised, produce all that can be required for strength, durability, 
and neatness, occupying as little space as possible, and are equally 
applicable to all kinds of well-drained land, as well arable as 
grazing ground ; but it cannot be expected that a tenant-at-will, 
or even with a short lease, can be at the expense of raising good 
fences on all situations, and on all soils, when it takes more than 
the length of his lease to bring them to perfection ; nor is it pos- 
sible to rear them under or near large trees, which tend as much 
to the deterioration of the fences as of the corn and other crops 
growing near them. 
White-thorn will not grow if overshadowed, and a perfect fence 
cannot be made where the line is broken bv hedsrerow timber. 
Few are aware of the actual amount of injury to the farmer caused 
by trees in the hedges, nor can it with any certainty be ascer- 
tained. Their roots extend on all sides, extracting the nourish- 
ment from the soil, and robbing both the fence and the corn. 
