AGRICULTURE. 
Injured through the restlessness and wild 
and perpetual movements of cattle, which 
occur in extensive grounds, where they are 
'collected in considerable numbers. Divid- 
ing banks being raised, they may be con- 
nected with the system Of draining by a 
ditch on each side, about three feet wide 
at top, and four deep. The bank or bor- 
der should be about the width of six feet 
at the bottom, lessening gradually to three 
at the top, at which the height from the. 
ground should be five or six feet, On each 
side of the bank should be planted a single 
row of quick-thorn. If the thorn be of the 
bullace or damson kind, it trill be produc- 
tive and profitable. On the top of the bor- 
der filbert nuts may be planted, at distances 
Of three feet ; and, in the middle, apple- 
trees, at the distance of five feet. This fence 
would occupy about 13 feet, and, in the 
neighbourhood of London, particularly* 
Would be found not only effectual for its main 
purpose, but a source of income as well as 
the means of defence. The hawthorn, the 
black thorn, and the holly, the willow, the 
black alder, and the bircli, have all been 
recommended by observant and experienced 
men, as admirably calculated to secure fields 
fi-om the irruptions of cattle, and will be 
employed for the purpose, according as 
particular circumstances of dryness or mois- 
ture, or otlier considerations recommend 
their application. Where there is an abun- 
dance of flat stones, fences are frequently 
composed of them; and; though not sb 
agreeable to the eye as the others, and re- 
quiring frequent repair, from the stones be- 
ing displaced by cattle, when kept in order 
they are the most effectual defence that can 
be procured. With respect to hedges, 
(which in this country are more usual as 
well as more pleasing than walls, and'which, 
perhaps, cannot in general be formed of 
any thing preferable to the thorh, consider- 
ing the quickness of its growth in congenial 
soil, in which it shoots six or seven feet ill 
a single season, and that it is more disposed 
to lateral shoots than all other trees, and 
by its prickles is especially calculated for 
the object in view, in the construction of 
hedges,) the proper method of repairing 
them is unquestionably by plashing. This has 
been defined a wattling made of living wood. 
The old wood must, in the first instance, 
be all cleared from the hedge, together 
with brambles aiid irregularly growing stuff, 
and along the top Of the bank should be 
left standing the straightest and best grown 
stems of thorn, hazel, elm, oak, or ash, 
VOL. I. 
about the number of six in a yard. The 
next step is to repair the ditch, which, in 
the driest soils, shotild never be less than 
three feet wide at top, by two and a half 
deep, and six inches wide at bottom ; and 
in all very moist ones, should he at least 
four feet by three, and one at bottom. The 
earth removed from the ditch should be 
thrown upon the bank, after which the re- 
pair of the hedge commences, and those of 
the stems above mentioned, left in cutting 
the old hedge, Which grow in the direction 
in which the new hedge is to run, are cut 
off to serve as hedge-stakes for it, which, 
being chosen as much as possible of sallow 
and willow; readily grow, and effectually 
preserve the new part from failing or lean- 
ing. The remainder of the wood left stand- 
ing is then plashed down. One stroke is 
given to the stick near the ground, and an- 
other about ten or twelve inches higher, 
just deep enough to slit out a part of the 
wood between the two, leaving the stem 
supported by about a quarter of its original 
size ; it is then laid along thd top of the 
bank, and weaved among the hedge-stakes. 
Dead thorns are sometimes Woven among 
them where there happens to be a scarcity 
of living wood. After this operation the 
hedge is eddered in the usual manner. The 
greatest part of the hedge thus consists 
of living materials, and the importance of 
this circumstance cannot be too strongly 
insisted upon, as a compact and lasting 
fence is thus formed, while those hedges 
which are constructed of dead materials 
speedily decay, and crumble into the ditch. 
It would be endless to detail all the varie- 
ties of fence which peculiar circumstances 
may have rendered expedient, or humaii 
ingenuity may have invented. The most 
usual and most generally applicable are those 
which have been mentioned, 
IRRIGATION, 
Watering of meadows was used in Eng- 
land even in the days of Queen Elizabeth, 
and was carried on upon a large scale by 
Rowland Vaughan, in the golden valley of 
Herefordshire. He likewise published a 
treatise on the subject. After this period, 
and about a century since, it was introduced 
by Mr. Welladvise into Gloucestershire with 
abundant proofs Of its efficacy and irtjpor- 
tance. So slow; however, is the progress 
of iinprovement, that it is only of late 
years that this Overflowing of grounds, ill 
nearly all other situations as well as in level 
ones, has been brought considerably intd 
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