240 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 20, 1858. 
without glass, in Scotland, despite of wind and weather, by 
superior skill > the berries finely flavoured, and some three 
inches in circumference. I mention this to show the value of 
! walls and shelter, and likewise as stubborn facts, to show that 
England could produce fruit to yield superior food and drink 
| to her children by means which I hasten to explain. And 
the reason why I dwell upon and reiterate the subject of 
shelter is, that every gardener knows warmth to be one of the 
essential elements of superior culture; hence I know of no 
i gardener worthy of the name that does not strain to shelter 
“every crop. The finer species of crops, like the finer species 
| of animals, are not to be cultivated without due regard to 
their shelter, as well as to their food. Hence the want of 
success with many farmers in exposed situations; for, whilst 
guano and other stimulants are given to the roots of the crops, 
the better’ part of the plant being above ground, is left to be 
broken-, or chilled by the winds, for want of shelter; and thus 
fine, high, dry, healthy ground, the most pleasant and desirable 
for man or beast to five on, is deserted (that is the proper 
word to express it) ; for such is the inclemency of our weather, 
that neither animal nor vegetable can long endure the pelting 
of the storm, and retain their health; and, consequently, game 
and animals desert it, while delicate crops die, or suffer injury; 
} but I have often marked the game leaving high ground, and 
finding shelter on ground still higher, where the strong wind 
wes shorn of its power by the forest of Pine trees. 
I The want of shelter to the farm is at the present day a brand 
Upon ottr agriculture, and when this desideratum is supplied, 
j tbn farmer, studying his own interest only, will effectually 
provide both food and shelter for game without intending to 
do so. And, lest the agriculturist should imagine that trees 
are unprofitable, I must beg leave to state, that I agree with 
him entirely in this opinion, as long as he grows Thorns that 
require labour, and yield nothing but clippings. But Boc’s 
Opinion is of importance, as a botanist and as a historian, that 
horses endured hard work fed on the leaves and shoots of 
Willow. Cobbet speaks of a goat that was fed on paper, and 
gelding milk all the while; and recent experiments have 
proved that the fibre of lint may be made into linen, and after 
i repeated washings and bleachings the old linen is torn into 
the finest shreds, and made into paper; yet, after all these 
j manipulations, this pure fibre is found capable of yielding 
' sugar. It is, therefore, evident, that substances hitherto con¬ 
sidered unimportant, may be turned to great account, and 
among these I have the clearest evidence to show that the 
leaves and spray of trees are most important articles of food 
i for farm stock ; and although we have for many years prac¬ 
tised the barking of the Oak whilst standing where it grew in 
May, in order to get the bark at the proper time, leaving the 
doomed tree to be felled at leisure, yet it seems to have been 
j left to me to state the value of a standing tree, as yielding for 
| fodder leaves and spray, which may be obtained without in- 
| juring the timber, by felling the tree just before the fall of the 
leaf. 
^ The leaves and spray of trees, like tbe leaves and spray of 
i Gorse, must be prepared by bruising, and, in some instances, 
by boiling or steaming, and may require to be mixed with 
| other articles of food for the higher order of domestic animals; 
! but it is clearly proved, from my own observation, that the 
goat has a stomach sufficiently strong to digest the leaves and 
spray of Oak and Fir trees, and to thrive well on them. My 
goat has greedily devoured the leaves, spray, and fruit, of the 
Mountain Ash, and seems to relish the spray and leaves of at 
least twenty species of trees that I have tried her with. In 
shoit, there are few trees that do not yield substances much 
more likely to be converted into sugar or food than pure 
I vegetable fibre, in the form of an old linen shirt, or an old 
folio volume; therefore, trees or shrubs, planted as hedgerows 
or as shelter, may be made to yield fodder, as well as fence 
and shelter. 
; ^ purposely avoid speaking here ot timber, as that belongs 
to a different department; and I come to the planting of the 
highways and hedges on the farm. Now, in order to show 
the construction of an evergreen hedge for shelter, T shall 
I give a section of one (Fig. A.) . The dyke, or bank, should be 
i le frustum of a pyramid, and the plants, or scions, prepared 
as directed in the first part of this paper, should be placed in 
the bank,—not on it; for, although this hedge is designed to 
I shelter other crops, it requires shelter in the first instance ; 
and it must be borne in mind, that it is almost impossible to 
get evergreens to thrive, even when they have good roots, in 
Fig. A. 
Demidyke and Evergreen Hedge for shelter, &c. 
an exposed situation ; therefore, I repeat the caution, that 
such material as branches of Gorse, or other brushwood, should 
be stuck in to shelter temporarily the young hedge. With 
this precaution, and careful planting to an earthen wall, 
success is certain, even on the face of Snowdon. The line on 
the top, or ridge, of the dyke requires to be sowed according 
to a process presently to be detailed. The above description 
of an evergreen hedge is intended only for bleak and exposed 
situations. Where the land is of little value, it is merely a 
screen, or band, to break the force of the prevailing winds. 
Where the land is of great value, the fences should be built 
of some material that would not impoverish the soil: it is a 
grievous mistake to build a turf wall, because the materials 
thus taken reduce the productive powers of the soil. Stones 
form a first-rate article for fences, and in the section (Fig. B.), 
Fig. B. 
Section of Fruit Trees by a Fai m-roacl side, n, Trees, as Cherries, 
Apples, &c, m, Gooseberries, &c. o, Drain, g q , Showing the 
stony part of the road. 
which I have given of a farm-wall, it is repesented as built o 
stone, and is taken from a sample of walls on the estate of 
Cluny, in Aberdeenshire ; but the mud-wall, which is common 
in many counties in England, if it is built of clay, or other 
subsoil, and thatched, as we see it done near Exeter, will 
answer the purpose which I intend admirably; for it is not 
at all uncommon to see ripe Peaches against walls built of 
puddle. Hence, the introduction of such fruit-walls into 
localities where fruit is wanted, and where land produces only 
weeds, cannot be regarded by the most sceptical as an idle 
theory. In the year 1836, I employed much of my leisure 
time in collecting fruits, arid all the information I could acquire 
respecting their habits, and, by the kindness of friends, I 
obtained many hundreds of specimens of Pears, Apples, and 
other fruits ; and I must not, on this occasion, forget to men¬ 
tion, with many thanks, the great civility and valuable infor¬ 
mation received at the Society’s Gardens at Chiswick, from 
Mr. Thompson, of the fruit department, who was always 
ready to identify the articles taken to him, thereby insuring 
the correctness of the remarks that might be made upon any 
variety as relating to that variety, and to no other. From 
specimens thus examined in the collections of the principal 
fruit gardens, in the immediate neighbourhood of London, I 
collected information which the late Mr. Loudon published in 
“ Gard. Mag.,” 1837, from which it appeared, that by a parti¬ 
cular arrangement in ihe growing of fruit trees and fruit shrubs, 
from one-lourth to one-half of the ground of the garden 
might be cleared, and made available for other crops: for 
the walks and thoroughfares of the garden produce only weeds 
and mud ; and by making these into fruit borders, and walk¬ 
ing on a pavement and under a trellis, the clumsy plain crops 
