ON INCLOSING LAND

314

In lands that have not been previously brought into cul-ture, should ploughing and fallowing be considered as unne-cessary or troublesome, every possible attention ought to begiven to placing the thorn or other hedge plants in suitablesoil, properly adapted for them by drains and manure, andthe mould rendered clean and free from root weeds; afterwhich they must be preserved clean, by attentive weeding inthe course of their growth. Constant and effectual protec-tion from the trespasses of cattle of all kinds, and especiallyfrom sheep, is indispensably necessary in all cases, and mustbe persisted in, till the fence is complete. It must howeverbe observed, that the wild mountain breeds of sheep, parti-cularly the black-faced and Cheviot breeds, are almost in-compatible with thorn-hedges; as besides gnawing them withtheir teeth, they canker the growing thorns with their wool.

In order to render it equally close all along the line offence, a young thorn-hedge should be cut all over with asharp hedge-knife, a few inches above the ground, in the se-cond year of its growth, early in spring. It ought afterwards,when it arrives at sufficient strength, to be pruned regularlyin a sloping wedge-like form, the two sides meeting in a pointabout five or six feet high, the bottom of the hedge beingleft two feet and a half or three feet wide. “ By this modeof dressing, the hedge gets the appearance of a steep roof orof the hogget! mane of a horse. Every twig receives its fullshare of rain, sun, and air, and the lower branches are notinjured and destroyed by the dropping of water from thoseabove. This plan of management is not however suitable,where there are not abundance of weedings from young plan-tations, for the formation of rails, because preventing a sup-ply of sufficiently strong cuttings for dead hedges

The protection of thorn-hedges, during the period of theirgrowth, till sufficiently strong to become a fence, is often dif-ficult, on account of the scarcity of materials for rails, and

Berwickshire Report.