426 
Hedges and Enclosures of Devonshire. 
stopped up ; and on examination the cause was discovered to be the 
root of an elm, which had grown into the drain more than 30 feet." 
Having pointed out the evils of the existing system, I may be 
asked how it can be remedied, especially without marring the 
beauty* of this county, to which these luxuriantly-wooded hedges 
add so much. To this I would say that such a landscape gar- 
dener as the late Mr. Loudon, if asl ed to dispose of this timber in 
the most effective manner, would not have been likely to lay it out 
in long straggling hedgerows, but in clumps, belts, and woods, 
which would serve for shelter and give the best effect. Fences 
could then be of a much simpler and inexpensive kind. Where 
stall-feeding is practised there need not be anything lost by 
hedges ; as I have seen farms without any fences but that which 
surrounded and divided them from the adjoining farms, a furrow 
being all that separated one crop from another. But even where 
this system is not adopted there are several methods whereby 
farms may be sufficiently divided, and the whole or greater part 
of the ground saved, which is at present lost. Besides railings of 
wood, wire, or iron rod, there is the sunk fence ; none of these 
taking up any land. In wet, marshy, or boggy ground^ ditches 
would serve for fences and drains at the same time ; and in such 
a place as Broadclyst Moor this method of dividing and at the 
same time of draining the land, would very much increase its 
value. But in cases where it might not be thought advisable, 
either owing to the first expense of iron rod, or wire radings, or to 
other circumstances, to adopt any of these methods of dividing 
land, the white-thorn would make a cheap and good fence, taking 
up very little room, being impervious to cattle, and costing little 
either at first or in keeping up afterwards. A thousand plants 
will plant thirty perches of one row, or fifteen perches of two 
rows, the plants being six inches apart: they cost from 10s. to 
20s. per thousand, according to their age, and the planting of 
them costs very little. Sir John Kennaway, by taking down 100 
perches of bank and planting 50 perches of thorn hedge, thus 
making three fields into two, saved nearly an acre of ground. 
There is not any reason that I can see why a farm even so small 
as a hundred acres should lose more than 1 per cent, by its 
* Even the beauty of Devonshire and Somei-setsliire may be greatly 
improved by the removal ol' a large part of the fences. A few of the most 
beautiful trees, especially oaks, which from the depth of their roots are 
less injuiious than ash or elm, may be spared, and will have more pic- 
turesque effect than long lines ol' undistinguishable foliage. The undu- 
lating lines of the surface thus unmasked, afford often a graceful land- 
scape, with swelling knolls hidden before, and on these knolls the farmer 
will not grudge a little ground for single trees or clumps planted in com- 
manding situations. In many places a confused farm might thus receive 
at once the character of an arable park. — Pn. Pusey. 
