Title: An encyclopædia of agriculture (electronic resource) : comprising the theory and practice of the valuation, transfer, laying out, improvement, and management of landed property, and the cultivation and economy of the animal and vegetable productions of agriculture, including all the latest improvements, a general history of agriculture in all countries, and a statistical view of its present state, with suggestions for its future progress in the British Isles
Identifier: encyclopdiaofa02loud (find matches)
Year: 1831 (1830s)
Authors: Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius), 1783-1843
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: London : Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Book III. SHELTERING FARM LANDS. 755 4595. The species of hed^e rvoods, proper for mound ft^nces, and the oak are the ordinary plants of hedee mounds. The depends entirely on the soil and situation. On mounds of bad willow tribe have a quality wliich recommends them, in silu- soil, in a bleak situ.ition, the furze alone aiTords much sllelter, ations where they will floiurish ; they grow freely from cuttings, and a gootl fence. The sides being kept pruned, so as to show or truncheons set in the ground : whereas, to secure the growth a close tirm face rising above the top of the bank, it is a secure of ordinary coppice woods, rooted plants are required. The barrier, even against the wilder breeds of Welsh sheep. The rock-willow (Salix chprea) will grow in high and dry situ- beech is commonly planted in high exposed situations ; and in ations. places more genial to the growth of wood, the hazel, the ash, 4596. On thin-soiled stony 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, ujiless it be carried up to an inordinate height, at a great expense, is useless as a skreen ; and 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. 4597. 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. 4598. 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 aftords better opportunities of introducing hedge- rows, and strips of planting, than hill-farms. The one under consideration (/?g^. 719.) 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 clialk, and partly a strong rich soil, incum- bent on clay. The fields are very irregular, bounded by strips of timber and copse. By the alterations and additions proposed ifig. 7'20.), all the most hilly and distant spots will be kept in permanent pasture j and the exposed and abrupt places, angles, &c. planted chiefly with oaks for copse, and beech for timber and shelter.
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4599. On hill farms in Scotland, where shelter cannot be given to grass and stock by plantations, small circular inclosurcs have been adopted for that purpose. The diameter of these circles is from 10 to 30 3 C 2

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