Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation Part 27

With regard to those plants of which we may take the bryony and the hop as the types, it is true that their bine is annual; but each year the quant.i.ty and strength of this augments-each year the ma.s.s of foliage becomes larger and thicker. The twining arms twist around any branch strong enough to support them, and then, once at the top of the fence, they spread over its surface, making so thick a ma.s.s that the legitimate hedge-plants are no longer visible; thus sun and air are excluded from them, and they soon pine away. These are difficult to eradicate, as they have stout rhizomata (underground stems) interlaced with the very roots of the hedge-plants: still, if pains be taken to pluck away the bine as soon as it makes its appearance, it must in time be destroyed; for, like even the hawthorn tree, hardy as it is, if the leaves be kept from perfecting themselves, they soon pine away, and ultimately die altogether.

The other plants are more properly weeds of the hedge-bank than of the hedge, and as such need only be mentioned with weeds in general as pests to be periodically removed by hoeing, digging, and otherwise clearing the ground between and about the hedge-row work, more particularly necessary in the first few years of planting.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

ON HEDGE-ROW TIMBER.

Of the many sources of mischief to which the farmer may be liable, we can conceive none greater than that of being overgrown with hedge-row timber. It is scarcely, if at all, second to that of being overstocked with game-for as regards game, there is a chance of getting some compensation for palpable injury; but the mischief which trees silently but surely effect, when surrounding fields, is never allowed for, as it is not fully appreciated by the tenant, and never admitted by the landlord; and so as hedge-row timber is usually thicker in the richer parts of the country, it is somehow considered as an evidence of fertility on the one hand, while it is looked upon as a legitimate mode of increasing income on the other.

But we are quite sure that hedge-row timber is almost useless in itself, and a pest to all who must live under it. Hedges themselves are usually too many, and these too thick through them; and when it comes to be understood that the enclosures are smaller, the hedges often greater, and hedge-row timber thicker on good than on bad lands, some idea may be formed of the mischief which is inflicted by thus hemming in fine land from light and air.

The following tables, by Mr. J. Bravender, land-surveyor, of Cirencester, are the results of an "examination of the fields contained in 120 parishes:"-

TABLE OF ADMEASUREMENT OF FENCES.

+---------------+--------+--------+---------+--------+---------+--------+ Average Length Quant.i.ty Quant.i.ty Geological quant.i.ty Length of Width occupied per Formation, &c. of of fencing, of by fences hundred each fencing. per acre. fencing. per acre. acres. field. [24] +---------------+--------+--------+---------+--------+---------+--------+ Acres. Chains. Chains. Links. Perches. Acres. 1. Red Sand- 5 1558 283 15 905 5? stone 2. Lias 4 1290 322 18 1236 7 3. Oolite 11 2075 188 12 481 3 4. Oxford Clay 6 1645 253 16 863 5? 5. Coralline 11 2075 188 14 561 3 Oolite 6. Kimmeridge 8 1825 228 16 865 5 Clay 7. Chalk 13 2327 179 12 458 2? The average of the above quant.i.ty occupied by fences is .. 4 A wall, 2 ft. wide, with 1 ft. 3 in. on each side,} between arable fields (oolite) } 280 1 A wall, 2 ft. wide, between pasture fields (oolite) 120 0 +----------------------------------------------------+---------+--------+

[24] Including one-third added for angular sinuosities.

The above calculations do not include the strips which are so often found alongside fences, covered by brambles, blackthorns, and other rubbish. Now we have seen what is the quant.i.ty of land occupied by fences, it will be our province to ascertain to what extent they may be reduced in size, and yet remain as useful to the agriculturist.

The following table will exhibit the saving per hundred acres, by reducing the width of fences:-

TABLE OF REDUCTION OF FENCES.

+--------------------+---------+--------+------+-------+--------+------+ Width, Width to Length Saving Geological as in the which Saving per in Saving Formation. preceding fences in hedge, quant.i.ty per table. may be width. per per cent. reduced. acre. acre. +--------------------+---------+--------+------+-------+--------+------+ Links. Links. Links. Chains. Perches. 1. Red Sandstone 15 9 6 283 271 1-7/10 2. Lias 18 10 7 322 386 2-2/5 3. Oolite, Forest } Marble, and } 12 7 4 188 135 0-7/8 Cornbrash } 4. Oxford Clay 16 9 6 253 263 1-2/3 5. Coralline Oolite 14 8 5 188 165 1 6. Kimmeridge Clay 16 10 6 228 218 1-3/8 7. Upper & Lower } 12 7 5 179 143 0-9/10 Chalk } +--------------------+---------+--------+------+-------+--------+------+

The average quant.i.ty of the above saving is 1? for every 100 acres.

If this saving were effected, which is quite practicable, it would increase the cultivated land in England and Wales 490,000 acres, and would be similar in its effect to the addition of a new county, nearly equal in extent to Nottinghamshire, and somewhat larger than Berkshire."-_Morton's Cyclopaedia of Agriculture_, p. 859.

The above is the evidence of a highly practical gentleman as regards the loss by bad, wide, and straggling fences; and if we add to this the additional loss and injury which the land sustains by the growth of hedge-row timber, we shall find that we have even a greater account to settle. Now, if we inquire into the nature of these evils, we shall find that they result from shade, drip, and exhaustion by roots.

There are those who speak in favour of hedge-row timber as affording shade for cattle; but we should remember that when this is so, the cattle, by being thus gathered to one spot, only aid in manuring those portions of the field where the gra.s.s is always more rank than nutritious, and this to the robbery of other portions of the field. For ourselves, we would rather have our fields exposed to the influence of sun and air, and, if required, have some contrivances for shade which could be moved about the fields at pleasure. The shade of trees keeps off those refreshing showers so important to vegetation, but in much wet the trees send down a drip which is sometimes found to be so injurious as to prevent any good growth beneath them, and then as the leaves fall off they often poison the soil for some distance, while the roots impoverish the land in every direction.

We have just visited a field, in the southern hedge of which are growing some beech trees; these not only keep off the southern sun, but their drip and fallen leaves render fully one-eighth of the field nearly useless.

Again, do we not everywhere find twice the number of hedges that are required; and, to add to the mischief, these filled with trees? In many places we see elms not more than three yards apart. Here the shade would be intolerable, but the farmer is allowed to lop them until they look not unlike the stuck-up tails of French poodle dogs-a process which certainly diminishes the evils they entail upon the farmer, but renders the timber comparatively useless.

But, say the advocates of tall hedges and hedge-row timber, "How beautiful they make the country look! Your plan would leave it all bare and desolate; no song of birds to cheer the wayfarer," &c. But stop, good people; we love trees, but we do not care so much for straight lines of stuck-up _besoms_. Let the landlord grow his woods and his groves, and plant his parks. Let him put trees in parts which will grow nothing better, and in belts to keep off malignant winds; and even here (the best places for them), let him be content with their pleasure and profit as a rent for the ground they occupy, and not, as some do, insist upon the tenant yearly planting trees in positions which must injure so much land which he is still to pay rent for. This is about as tyrannical as to make a schoolboy carry a birch, and ask for its application.

As regards the loss of land by the division into smaller fields, we cannot do better than copy the former outlines of an arable field on our own farm. This, which is now one field of over fifty acres, was formerly in fifteen fenced fields, each with a ragged hedge-of anything but quicks-planted upon raised mounds. Now, the gain in the removal of fences, indicated by the dotted lines (see fig. 1), may be explained by the following calculations:-

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1. _Field with its old divisions, now removed, as marked by the dotted lines._]

Acr. Rds.

Ground, 2 yards wide, occupied by the mounds and hedges, about 1 2

One foot and a half on either side of the mounds which cannot be ploughed, about 0 3 -------- Total of gain in 50 acres 2 1 Or, per cent., 4a. 2r.

From these data, then, we may conclude that if available land equal in extent to a county may be gained by keeping fences within bounds, this may be more than doubled by grubbing up, not merely useless, but mischievous fences, and discountenancing the growth of hedge-row timber.

Now, although we reside in the county of the Dorsetshire poet, we are not of those who would curtail the privileges of the poor by closing up all footpaths, or by too rigidly curtailing the road s.p.a.ce; but as long as the farmer has to pay rent for the ground needlessly occupied by badly-constructed hedge-rows, we think it due to him, and even to the poor themselves, that land now so occupied should in future be made food-producing; and with these sentiments we would conclude this chapter by quoting the following

DORSETSHIRE DITTY.

(_From Poems by William Barnes._)

"They do zay that a travellin chap Have a-put in the newspeaper now That the bit o' green ground on the knap Should be all a-took in vor the plough.

He do fancy 'tis easy to show That we can be but stunpolls at best, Vor to leave a green spot where a flower can grow Or a foot-weary walker mid rest.

'Tis hedge-grubben, Thomas, an' ledge-grubben Never a done, While a sov'ren mwore's to be won.

"The road, he do zay, is so wide As 'tis wanted vor travellers' wheels; As if all that did travel did ride, An' did never get galls on their heels.

He would leave sich a thin strip o' groun'

That if a man's veet in his shoes Wer a-burnen an' zore, why he coulden zit down But the wheels would run over his tooes.

Vor 'tis meake money, Thomas, an' teake money, What's zwold an' bought Is all that is worthy o' thought.

"The children will soon have noo pleace Vor to play in, an' if they do grow, They will have a thin musheroom feace, Wi' their bodies so sumple as dough.

But a man is a meade ov a child An' his limbs do grow worksome by play, An' if the young child's little body's a-spweil'd, Why, the man's wull the zooner decay.

But wealth is wo'th now mwore than health is wo'th; Let it all goo If 't 'ull bring but a sov'ren or two."

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

ON THE VERMIN OF FENCES.

One of the great objections urged to more hedge-row fences than are necessary, is that of harbouring _Vermin_; it therefore becomes necessary to inquire into the history of those creatures designated by a name everywhere held in reproach.

The meaning of the term vermin has not been very accurately defined.

Johnson considers "any noxious animal" to belong to vermin; whilst Bailey, anxious to be more specific, defines vermin to be "any kind of hurtful creature or insect, as rats, mice, lice, fleas, bugs, &c.;" but whatever lexicographers may say upon the subject, there can be no doubt that, in country language, what are known as noxious animals are distinguished from noxious insects, the first being in most counties known as "Varment," to which belong rats, mice, stoats, &c., to which the keeper would add kites, hawks, owls, magpies, and other birds; the second term being limited to those parasitic creatures by which both man and some inferior animals may be attacked.

The farmer's notion of vermin, as applied to the hedge-row, differs from these, as it includes all beasts, birds, reptiles, insects, &c., which directly injure the hedge, together with such as choose the hedge-row or the bank on which it might be grown as a breeding-place, from which they migrate to farm crops, and so become injurious, not to the hedge alone, but to the farm in general.

Some notion of these may be inferred from the following list:-

1. _Rabbits_-By burrowing in the hedge-bank.

2. _Hedge-hog_-Ignorantly included with hedge-row vermin by the farmer.