they do in an open exposed country. In the breeding of cattle, a sheltered farm, or a sheltered corner in a farm, is a thing much prized; and, in instances where fields are taken by the season for the purpose of fattening them, those most sheltered never fail to bring the highest rents, provided the soil be equal with that of the neighboring fields which are not sheltered by trees. If we inquire into the cause, we shall find, that it does not altogether depend on an early rise of grass, on account of the shelter afforded to the lands by the plantations; but, likewise, that cattle which have it in their power, in cold seasons, to indulge in the kindly shelter afforded them by the trees, feed better; because their bodies are not pierced by the keen winds of spring and autumn; neither is the tender grass destroyed by the frosty blasts of March and April. (Plant. Kal. p. 121.)

The

4224. The operation of skreen plantations, in exposed situations, Marshal observes, is not merely that of giving shelter to the animals lodging immediately beneath them; but likewise in breaking the uniform current of the wind, — shattering the cutting blasts, and throwing them into eddies: thus meliorating the air to some distance from them. Living trees communicate a degree of actual warmth to the air which envelopes them. Where there is life there is warmth; - not only in animal, but vegetable nature. severest frost rarely affects the sap of trees. Hence it appears, that trees and shrubs properly disposed, in a bleak situation, tend to improve the lands so situated, in a threefold way, for the purposes of agriculture: namely, by giving shelter to stock; by breaking the currents of winds; and by communicating a degree of warmth or softness to the air, in calmer weather.

4225. The proper disposal of skreen plantations for this purpose is in lines across the most offensive winds, and in situations best calculated to break their force. Placed across valleys, dips, or more open plains, in bleak exposures, they may be of singular Also on the ridges, as well as on the points, and hangs, of hills.

use.

4226. The width of skreen plantations ought generally to be regulated by the value of the land for agricultural uses, and the advantages of the situation for the sale and delivery of timber. In ordinary cases, from two to four statute poles may be considered as an eligible width.

4227. The form of plantations for shelter, however, will not in every case be that of a stripe or belt of uniform width. In hilly, rocky, and other situations, different forms will suggest themselves according to the situation and the objects in view. In rocky abrupt sites (fig. 549.), the plantation will consist of a number of masses (a,b,c), of forms determined by the rocks and precipices, among which some of the most valuable pasture may be left as glades (d, e), for use, effect, and for the sake of game. Strips and hedges for sheltering, or separating arable lands, should be formed as much as possible in straight and parallel lines, in order not to increase the expense of tillage

5.50

by short and irregular turnings. Straight parallel strips, on irregular surfaces, have a more varied appearance at a distance, than strips ever so much varied on a flat surface; for, in the former case, the outline against the sky is varied as much as that on the earth. In extensive, hilly pastures, in which it is often desirable to produce shelter, and at the same time to plant only the most rocky and unproductive spots, the forms may be of the most irregular description; and by planting chiefly on the eminences and slopes (fig. 550.), shelter will be most effectually produced, the pasture improved, the least valuable ground rendered productive in copse or timber, and the greatest richness and picturesque beauty conferred on the landscape. There are some fine examples of this on the hilly districts of Fifeshire; there, on many estates where nothing was sought for but profit and shelter, the greatest beauty has been produced; and the picturesque tourist now passes through glades and valleys, pas.. tured by well-fed cattle and sheep, enlivened by rocks, thickets, hanging-woods, and occasional rills and lakes. Fifty years ago scarcely a tree was to be seen, and only the most inferior descriptions of live stock.

4228. The species of woody plants best adapted for shelter, are the rapid growing and evergreen trees, as the Scotch pine, and such as are at the same time clothed with branches from the ground upwards, as the spruce fir, the best of all trees for shelter, unless the situation is very elevated. Among the deciduous trees, the fast-growing branchy sort are most desirable, as the larch, birch, poplar, willow; in very elevated situations, the birch, mountain-ash, and Scotch-pine, exposed to the sea

breeze, the elder and sycamore. To maintain a branchy, leafy screen from the ground upwards, intermix trees and shrubs which stole; or such as grow under the shade and drip of others, as the holly, hazel, dog-wood, box, yew, &c. To produce shelter, and yet admit of the growth of grass below the trees, prune any sort to single stems, and use chiefly deciduous sorts.

4229. In bleak and barren situations, Marshal observes, the larch will generally be found the most profitable, as timber. But, being deciduous, it does not in winter, when its services are most wanted, afford so much shelter as the common pine. A skreen, to shelter live stock, should be close at the bottom. It is, otherwise, injurious rather than beneficial. Not only the blast acquires additional current, but snow is liable to be blown through, and to be lodged in drifts on the leeward side, to the annoyance and danger of sheep that have repaired to it for shelter. A larch plantation margined with spruce firs, and these headed at twelve or fifteen feet high, would afford the required shelter, for a length of years. The firs, or pines, thus treated, would be induced to throw out lateral boughs, and feather to the ground: while the larches, in their more advanced state of growth, would, by permitting the winter's winds to pass through the upper parts of the skreen, break the current and mellow the blast.

4230. In more genial situations, the beech, by retaining its leaves in winter, especially while it is young, forms a valuable skreen. If the outer margins were kept in a state of coppice wood, and cut alternately, and the middle ranks suffered to rise as timber trees, the triple purpose of skreen plantations might be had in an eminent degree, and almost in perpetuity.

4231. In deep-soiled, vale districts, which not unfrequently want shelter, skreens of oak might be managed in a similar way. Hollies, or other hardy evergreens, planted as

underwood, in groves of either of the above descriptions, would, if suitable situations were assigned them, assist much in this intention.

4232. A tall impervious fence is, for the purpose of shelter to pasturing stock, nearly equal to a depth of coppice wood, and infinitely preferable to an open grove of timber trees; beside its additional use as a fence. There appears, one species of fence which is peculiarly adapted to this purpose. This is the coppice mound hedge of Devonshire and South Wales; namely, a high wide bank or mound of earth, planted with coppice woods. This becomes, immediately on its erection, a shelter and a guard to

pasture grounds.

4233. The method of forming fences of this intention is that of carrying up a stratum of earth, between two sod facings," battering," or leaning somewhat inward, to the required height; and planting on the top the roots and lower stems of coppice plants, gathered in woods, or on waste grounds; or with nursery plants, adapted to the given situation. If the mound be carried to a full height, as five or six feet, and about that width at the top, and this be planted with strong plants, with stems cut off about two feet above the roots (in the usual practice of Devonshire), a sufficient fence is thus immediately formed against ordinary stock. But if the bank be lower, or if nursery plants be put in, a slight guard, run along the outer brink, on either side, and leaning outward, over the face of the mound, is required (especially against sheep) until the plants get up. If a hedge of this kind be raised as a plantation fence, (especially on the lower side of a slope)

the outer side only requires to be faced with sods; the hedge plants being set in a rough shelving bank, on the inner side.

4234. The species of hedge woods, proper for mound fences, depends entirely on the soil and situation. On mounds of bad soil, in a bleak situation, the furze alone affords much shelter, and a good fence. The sides being kept pruned, so as to show a close firm face rising above the top of the bank, it is a secure barrier, even against the wilder breeds of Welsh sheep. The beech is commonly planted in high exposed situations; and in places more genial to the growth of wood, the hazel, the ash, and the oak are the ordinary plants of hedge mounds. The willow tribe have a quality which recommends them, in situations where they will florish: they grow freely from cuttings, or truncheons set in the ground; whereas to secure the growth of ordinary coppice woods, rooted plants are required. The rock-willow (Salix caprea) will grow in high and dry situations.

4235. On thin-soiled stoney surfaces, tall mounds are difficult to raise; and there stone walls are not only built at a small expense, but are convenient receptacles for the stones with which the soil is encumbered. But a stone wall, unless it be carried up to an inordinate height, at a great expense, is useless as a skreen; may be said to be dangerous as such, in a bleak exposed situation, for as soon as the drifting snow has reached the top of the wall, on the windward side, it pours over it, and inevitably buries the sheep which may be seeking for shelter on the leeward side. Hence, in a situation where shelter is required, it is necessary that a stone fence should be backed with a skreen plantation.

4236. To plant trees for shade may in some cases be requisite for agricultural purposes. Where this is the case, close plantations are seldom desirable, a free circulation of air being necessary to coolness; therefore trees with lofty stems, and large heads, pruned to single stems are preferable: the oak, elm, chestnut, and beech, for thick shade; the plane, acacia, and poplar, for shade of a lighter degree.

4237. An example of sheltering a hill-farm by plantation, and at the same time improving the shape and size of fields, shall next be given. No farming subject affords better opportunities of introducing hedge-rows, and strips of planting than hill-farms. The one under consideration (fig. 551.) is a small estate farmed by its owner; it consists of nearly 370 acres ; and is situated in an elevated, picturesque part of a central English county. The soil is partly a flinty loam or chalk, and partly a strong rich soil, incumbent on clay. The fields (1 to 34), are very irregular, bounded by strips of timber and copse. By the alterations and additions proposed (fig. 552.), all the most hilly and distant spots will be kept in permanent pasture; and the exposed and abrupt places, angles, &c. planted chiefly with oaks for copse, and beech for timber and shelter.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Execution of Improvements.

4238. The mode in which improvements are executed is a point of very considerable importance, and may materially affect their success as well as their expense. We shall first consider the different modes of execution, and next offer some general cautions to be held in view in undertaking extensive works.

SECT. I. Of the different Modes of procuring the Execution of Improvements on Estates. 4239. The necessary preliminary to the execution of an improvement, is a calculation of the advantages to arise from it, and an estimate of the expense of carrying it into effect. If the former, taken in their full extent, do not exceed the latter, the proposed alteration cannot, in a private view, be considered as an improvement. The next point to be ascertained is the practicability, under the given circumstances of a case, of executing the plan under consideration. There are three things essential to the due execution of an improvement. 1st, an undertaker, or a person of skill, leisure, and activity, to direct the undertaking; 2d, men and animals with which to prosecute the work; 3d, money, or other means of answering the required expenditure. A deficiency in any one of these, may, by frustrating a well planned work after its commencement, be the cause, not only of its failure, but of time, money, and credit being lost. - Improvements may be executed by the proprietor, either directly, gradually, by economical arrangements, or remotely to ascertain extent, by moral and intellectual means.

4240. To execute improvements directly, all that is necessary is to employ a steward or manager of adequate abilities and integrity, and supply him with the requisite plans, men, and money. This will generally be found the best mode of forming new roads, new plantations, opening new quarries or mineral pits, altering the course of waters, and all such creations or alterations as are not included in the improvement of farm lands. 4241. To procure the gradual execution of improvements on farm lands, various arrange

ments may be made with the tenants: for example, by granting long leases; letting them find the requisites of improvement, and take the advantages during their terms; by granting shorter leases, with a covenant of remuneration for the remainder of such improvements as they have made, at the time of quitting; by granting leases, at a low rent, for the first years of the term, to give the tenants time and ability to improve at their own expense; by advancing money to tenants at will, or, which is the same, making allowances of rent for specified improvements, to be executed by them under the inspection and control of the manager, they paying interest for the money advanced, or allowed; by employing workmen on tenanted farms; the tenants in like manner paying interest on the money expended. The usual interest, till lately, was six per cent.; thus estimating the value of the improvement at sixteen years purchase.

4242. The moral and intellectual means of improving farm lands consists, as Marshal has observed, in enlightening the minds of tenants. Though this mode is but of slow operation, and respects more improvements in modes of culture, than such as require great outlay; yet it deserves notice in this place, as necessary to second the efforts of the landlord.

4243. Farmers, as moral and intellectual agents, may be divided into reading men, and illiterate beings; the first class derive hints for improvement from books; but the second can only, if at all, derive benefit from example.

4244. With respect to improving farmers by books,—agricultural newspapers, magazines, and county surveys, are probably what would be read with most eagerness, and as such works abound in statements of what actually has taken place in different situations, by farmers like themselves, perhaps they are the most likely to stimulate to exertion. Historical relations of the agriculture of other countries are also generally interesting to agriculturists, and though no great professional benefit is to be derived from them, yet they tend to enlarge and liberalize the mind, and promote a taste for knowledge. Under these circumstances it may be worthy of consideration whether an agricultural library might not be established in the steward's office of very extensive estates for the use of the tenants and all other persons belonging to the estate who chose to read from it.

4245. The establishment of schools for the children of the lower class of tenants, and of cottagers of every description, is an obvious and important source of moral and intellectual improvement; and considering it as decided by experience and the most competent judges, that the education of the lower classes will tend greatly to their amelioration and the benefit of society at large, we are of opinion that wherever they are not already established, they should be introduced. Working schools, somewhat in the German manner (343.), both for boys and girls, would also be a material improvement in such districts as are behind in a taste for cleanliness, fire-side comforts, cookery, and dress.

4246. Examples as stimuli to improvement may be exhibited in various ways; by letting a farm to a tenant of superior energy, or from a more improved district; by exhibiting improved implements and operations on one particular farm; by an itinerant ploughman of abilities, accompanied by a smith and carpenter, and with some implements, to go round the estate and instruct each tenant on his own farm; and finally, and perhaps preferably, by inducing every farmer to make a tour into some other district once a year.

4247. In addition to these modes, appropriate as we consider for two different classes of tenants, Marshal suggests the following as calculated to insure a spirit of improvement among all farmers not of sufficient energy and intelligence. They are to be adopted by a proprietor, or by the manager of an estate, who has a knowledge of rural affairs, and who possesses the good will and confidence of its tenantry, in various ways.

4248. By personal attention only much is to be done. By reviewing an estate, once or twice a year; by conversing with each tenant in looking over his farm; and by duly noticing the instances of good management which rise to the eye, and condemning those which are bad; vanity and fear, two powerful stimulants of the human mind, will be roused, and an emulation be created among superior managers; while shame will scarcely fail to bring up the more deserving of the inferior ranks. If, after repeated exhortations, an irreclaimable sloven be discharged as such, and his farm given to another, professedly for his superior qualifications as a husbandman, an alarm will presently be spread over the estate, and none, but those who deserve to be discharged, will long remain in the field of bad management.

4249. Even by conversation, well directed, something may be done. If, instead of collecting tenants to the audit, as sheep to the shearing, and sending them away, as sheep that are shorn ; —or if, on the contrary, instead of providing for them a sumptuous entertainment, and committing them to their fate, in a state of intoxication ; — a repast, suited to their conditions and habits of life, were set before them; and if, after this, the conversation were to be bent towards agriculture, by distributing presents to superior managers, specifying the particulars of excellence, for which the rewards or acknowledgments were severally bestowed; - -a spirit of emulation could not fail to take place among Y y