brambles and weeds, that grow in the middle of the Hedge, as well as for other purposes. We will venture to say, that whoever that whoever puts this piece of husbandry in practice once, will not neglect doing it a second time; the uses, as well as the neatness, resulting from it are numerous, and the expence of performing it little or nothing.

If the Hedge be intended to run up, either as a source of useful materials, or as a shelter in grassland inclosures, the leading shoots should not be touched; nevertheless, it ought, in these two early trimmings, to be kept thin towards the top, leaving it to swell out thicker towards the bottom: but if it be intended to be kept down, as we have already said it ought to be, between arable inclosures, the leading shoots should be cropped low, both the first and the second year; in order to check its upward tendency, and give it a dwarfish habit; and the cropping must be repeated, from time to time, as occasion may require.

A HEDGE under this treatment becomes a perpetual Fence, and its duration might be deemed everlasting. The age of the Hawthorn is probably unknown; but supposing that it will bear to be felled every ten years, for two hundred years, during which time there will be twenty falls of wood (what a mountainous pile for one slip of

land and one set of roots to produce!) may we not be allowed to suppose, that a similar hedge, kept in a dwarfish state (in which state its produce, and consequently its exhaustion, could not be one tenth so much as that in the former supposition) would live to the age of three or four hundred years? Tenants have only a temporary interest in the hedges of their respective farms; and it is the business of landlords, or their agents, to see that they are properly treated. The value of an estate is heightened, or depreciated, by the good or bad state of its fences; which, it is well known, are expensive to raise, and, when once let down, are difficult to get up again.

WITH respect to the rough and the worn-out Hedges, which constitute a large majority of the Hedges of this country, it is not an easy matter to lay down any precise rules of treatment. If the ground they grow in be sufficiently moist, they may be helped by felling, and layering, in the manner already described, or by filling up the vacancies with young quicks, or with the cuttings of sallow, elder, &c. &c. first clearing the ground from ivy, and other encumbrances; but, in a dry bank, which has been occupied by the roots of trees and shrubs for ages, and which, by its situation, throws off the rain water that falls upon it, there can be little hope either of plants or cuttings taking root, with advantage,

THE best assistance that can be given, in this case, is to drive stakes into the vacancies, and interweave the neighbouring boughs between the stakes, training them in the espalier manner; or, if the vacancies be wide, to plash tall boughs into them.

THESE, however, are only temporary reliefs; for, if the bodies of the plants themselves be suffered to run up, and to draw the nourishment from the plashers, the breaches will soon be opened again, and it will be found difficult to fill them up a second time: the only way by which to render this method of treatment in any degree lasting, is, to keep the whole hedge cropped down, as low as the purpose for which it is intended will permit; weeding it with the samecare as a young Hedge. By this means the vacancies in time will grow up, and one regularly interwoven surface will be formed.

AFTER all, however, an old worn-out Hedge, with all the care and attention that can be bestowed upon it, cannot continue for any length of time; and whenever it verges upon the last stage of decline, it is generally the best management to grub it up at once, and raise a new one in its place; otherwise the occupier must be driven, in the end, to the humiliating and

disgraceful expedient of patching with dead Hedgework.

We are happy in having it in our power to say, that the practice of replanting Hedges has, of late years, become prevalent in a county which has long taken the lead in many important departments of husbandry; and, although we have had occasion to censure some of its practices, with respect to Fences, we have great pleasure in giving to it due praise, in this particular; we speak of the county of Norfolk. The best way is to level the old bank, about michaelmas, in order that the mold may be thoroughly moistened by the winter's rains, and tempered by the frosts. The roots and old stems will, in general, more than repay the expence of grubbing and levelling, and when the old stools are numerous, and fuel is dear, will, sometimes, go a good way towards raising the new Fence. One great advantage, arising from this practice, in an arable country, is doing away the crookedness of old Hedges.

THERE is one general rule to be observed, in renewing a Hedge in this manner, which is to plant a species of Hedgewood different from that which formerly occupied the soil; and we know of no better change, after the Hawthorn, than the Crab tree and the Holly.

II. MANAGEMENT OF HEDGEROW TIMBER. Having mentioned the several methods of raising and repairing Live Hedges*, we now come to the training, and general treatment, of HEDGEROW TIMBER: and, first, as to the young Oaks, which we recommended to be planted with the Hedgewood.

THE most eligible length of stem has been mentioned to be from fifteen to twenty-five feet; and, with due attention to their leading shoots, there will be little difficulty in training them, on a good soil, to that or a greater height. If, by accident or disease, the head be lost, the stem should be taken off at the stub, and a fresh shoot trained. However, in this case, if the Hedge be got to any considerable height, it is best to let the stump stand, until the first fall of the Hedgewood; for, then, the young tree may be trained up with less difficulty.

NEXT to the danger of the young trees being cropt by cattle, is that of their being hurt by the Hedgewood: first, from their being overhung and

* For farther remarks on this subject, see YORK. ECON. Art. FENCES; and Min. Econ. under the same Title.