by far the greatest proportion of the surface of this country consists; because on them the finest live stock are reared and fattened.

(577.) Shelter is also requisite for the welfare of live stock on mountain-pasture. That obtained from large masses, or even belts, of planting in upland districts greatly improves the climate-prolongs the period of the duration of food, by encouraging the growth of grass both early and late in the season-and protects the live-stock from many diseases incidental to exposure to wet and cold weather.

(578.) Enclosures are of two kinds; one, which circumscribes the boundaries of farms by what is called a ring-fence, the other, which surrounds each separate field.

(579.) It will very much simplify your ideas in regard to which kind of enclosure is best suited to any particular farm, if you consider the uses to which the various kinds of farms which have already been enumerated to you are put. You can easily perceive that clay-land farms, and farms in the immediate neighbourhood of towns, which are not devoted to the rearing of live stock in summer, as well as pastoral farms, which afford a large range of pasturage to stock, do not necessarily require to be enclosed in subdivisions. It appears to be sufficient protection for them to be provided only with a ring-fence, and with fences along the sides of any public roads that may happen to pass through them. At the most, the subdivision of clay-land farms and those near towns need not be carried farther than dividing them into as many portions as there are numbers of the rotation of cropping pursued in each. So that only dairy and mixed-husbandry farms require to be subdivided into individual fields.

(580.) Most farms contain a variety of soils; not that the two opposite kinds of pure clay and pure sand are often found in the same neighbourhood, but varieties of soil, from clay or sand to clay-loam and gravelly loam, may be found on most farms. When clayey and sandy soils occur on the same farm, a leading fence should be run to divide them, so as each sort of soil may be fenced according to the system of husbandry most suitable for it. The clayey land will bear the best corncrops, whilst the sandy will yield the best green crops and pastures, and rear the best live stock. Should the season prove unfavourable to the one class of soils, it may be favourable for the other; and when the markets for corn are depressed, those for live stock may be brisk. A happy juxtaposition of a variety of soils on the same farm serves to maintain its value permanently, amidst circumstances that would much depreciate it were the farm entirely composed of only one kind of soil.

(581.) Having thus ascertained the kinds of soil to be enclosed, and

constituted each variety as a division of the farm, the next points for consideration, with a view to enclosure, are the site, shape, number, and size, of the fields to be made. These conditions of enclosure depend on the nature of the soil, the aspect of the ground, its inequalities, its subdivision by streams, and the rotation of crops suited to each kind of soil.

(582.) The site of a fence mostly depends on the aspect of the ground, and its direction is determined by that which should be given to the ridges in each field. The ridges should always, if possible, run N. and S., to allow both their sides to derive equal benefit from the solar rays. On flat ground, this direction may easily be assumed; but the inclination of the rising ground may be E. and W.; and as water detained on the surface of the ground may do more mischief than the solar rays do good to both sides of ridges at the same time, the direction of the ridges should follow the inclination of the ground, in order to secure the most rapid egress to the surface-water. Where the ground has an inclination both ways, that which comes nearest to the meridian should be preferred to the other. Where the ground rises with a compound inclination, whether facing the N. or the S., the ridges should take the N. and S. direction.

(583.) It is an essential requisite in forming enclosures, to make all the fences which run in the direction of the ridges parallel to one another ; for whenever this parallelism is neglected, wedge-shaped ridges, or butts, as they are technically termed, must be formed at one or both sides of the fields, in order to work the entire surface of the ground. Owing to the inequality of the lengths of these butts or ridglets, much more time is consumed in working them, than a square piece of ground of the same area. All butts are therefore highly objectionable in fields; but as it is scarcely possible to bestow a rectangled form on every field of the farm, butts, where unavoidable, should be thrown out towards the boundaries of the farm.

(584.) To preserve neatness and uniformity in the ploughing of the fields, the fences should run parallel to one another in straight lines. A straight fence along the crown of a round-backed ridge of ground, affords excellent shelter to both sides of it, whether it runs N. and S. in the direc tion of the ridges, or E. and W. across their ends. Indeed, a fence occupying elevated ground bestows more shelter to fields than in any other situation, and such a site should always be chosen for the fence, and for a thorn-hedge, as it places it beyond the crushing power of a heavy fall of snow. But it often happens, that the lower ends of fields cannot be enclosed in straight lines, a rivulet or hollow between two rising grounds

giving their terminations a serpentine form; and in such a case, the fence must follow the waving course of the rivulet or hollow ground, in order to preserve a channel for the surface-water coming down both sides of the slopes to the lowest part of the ground. A serpentine fence in a hollow, like a straight one on rising ground, affords more shelter than a straight fence in this position would against the wind, which is almost always forced down in the direction of the valley; and on this account, a thornhedge in the bottom of a valley has less chance of being entirely blown up with snow in winter than might be imagined. A rivulet, or where a large ditch is necessary for the conveyance of occasional large quantities of water, should run in its course along the fence, and not across the middle of the fields. In the latter position it is a great hinderance to work, by cutting short all the ridges on both sides of it.

(585.) The shape of fields is greatly determined by unavoidable obstacles, natural and artificial. A winding river or valley will give an irregular line to the fence at that end, and the march-fence, or boundary-line of a farm, may run in such a direction as to cause the adoption of butts; and another end or side of a field may abut against an old ruin, or plantation, or mural precipice of earth or rock. The corners of all fields should join at right angles with one another; because the plough can approach nearer to, and of course turn over more ground, in the square corners of a field, than in 2 obtuse and 2 acute angled corners. If every obstacle to correct enclosing can be overcome, it is demonstrable that the shape which is conducive to greatest economy in labour is the square. Thus, frequent turnings of the plough, occasioned by short ridges, consume much time; but, on the other hand, an inordinate length of ridge to obtain few turnings, fatigues the horses beyond their strength. The average strength of the horses is, in this case, the measure of the greatest length of ridge, that secures the greatest economy of labour in ploughing the field in every direction. It is, I believe, very near the mark to say, that horses can draw a plough through cultivated lea-ground for 250 yards, without being touched in the breath. This distance, then, is the measure of the length, and of course, too, the breadth of a field. But as ground already ploughed is of more easy draught than lea, 300 yards in the one case are as easy for horses as 250 yards in the other. The average is 275; and as there is much more loose ground ploughed in a year than lea, a higher average-say 285 yards-may be taken as the proper length of furrow on light soils. But as clay-soils are heavy, perhaps it may be near the truth to take 275 yards as the average length of draught for horses in all soils. The square shape might be profitably adopted on clay-land farms, whose extent being generally small, the break

or division of land for each kind of crop cannot be large. Taking 250 yards as a long enough furrow for horses on clay-land, the divisions would be squares of 13 acres each; and as many of these could be placed together to form a principal division of the farm, as there are members in the rotation of cropping, a clayland farm can thus be laid out of any extent in divisions. But a field of 300 yards square, on loamy ground, being only about 18 acres, is too small where live stock are reared. Preserving the proper length of ridge for the horses' easy labour, the field can be made large enough for stock-not less than 25 acres at the same time, by giving it the shape of a right-angled parallelogram, the direction of the ridges being of course N. and S., and the longer side of the figure in the direction of E. and W.

(586.) Should a public road, or canal, or railway, pass through a farm, or an old plantation, quarry, or building, stand in the middle of the land, before it is enclosed, the irregularity occasioned by them in the fence should be placed next the obstacle; and all the butts or irregular ridges should also be placed on that side of the field. I may here mention, that a public road near enclosures is a great convenience to a farm, as it may save the making of one or more farm-roads. Easy access to and from the fields to roads, is a valuable means of maintaining uniform health and strength in horses, and of saving the wear and tear of carts and harness, especially in winter.

(587.) The size of the fields depends in a great measure on the nature of the farm; and yet, as you have learned, economy in labour limits both the smallness and largeness of fields. Even on the smallest class of farms on which horse-labour is at all employed, 10 acres seem a small enough space to labour land to advantage. There are many small farms on which much smaller fields than 10 acres may be observed, but such a space, fenced around, has an evidently confined-like look about it, and crops not unfrequently seem unhealthy in it. On the other hand, very large fields, such as from 50 to 100 acres each, take too much time to be finished off, even when the number of draughts of horses is ample. There is an evident attempt to do too much work at one time in such large fields. I should say that, for a successful prosecution of the mixed husbandry, a field from 25 to 40 acres is large enough, according to the extent of the farm: for it must be borne in mind that, other things being equal, the size of the fields should, in all cases, bear some proportion to that of the farm. That proportion I am not prepared to define, although I have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that below 10 acres is too small a field for horse-labour to be employed in, and above 40 acres too large a field for quick despatch of work. The size of

farm containing a variety of soils which is most in demand by farmers. of mixed husbandry, is 500 acres, which would give 4 fields of 25 acres, or 100 acres for each member of a rotation of 5 crops. crops. Placing the same kind of crop, and especially green crop and grass, in moderately sized fields, say of 25 acres each, on different parts of the farm, and most probably in different kinds of soil, a good crop in one of the fields will almost be ensured every season; and the whole labour of the farm being, for the time, confined to one moderately sized field, a good season for ploughing the land, and a safe seed-time and harvest for its crop, seem to be placed within the power of the farmer against any great or sudden change of weather.

(588.) Mountain-pastures, which are exclusively devoted to the use of live stock, should be enclosed in large divisions, because cattle and sheep are generally reared in large numbers on pastoral farms. Mountain live stock possess more active habits, and have a stronger instinct to search for food than those of the plain; and as the herbage of the mountains is always rather scanty, stock there require an ample space to roam over in order to satisfy their wants.

(589.) Although very small enclosures under constant cultivation are unwholesome both to crops and live stock, yet 2 or 3 small enclosures of from 1 to 5 acres in grass, near the farm-steading, are indispensable on every farm on which live stock is reared. These may be beneficially used by tups when out of season,-by calves when weaning from the milk,-by ewes when lambing,-by mares and foals for a few weeks until the mares regain their strength,-by a stallion at grass,—or as hospitals for sick and convalescent animals. Such fields are much more useful in grass than under the plough.

(590.) The number of fields depends partly on the size of the farm, and partly on the rotation of crops carried on in it. The interior of pure clay-land farms, devoted to the raising of corn alone, especially of wheat, should be no more subdivided than to have a division for each course in the rotation of crops; and this division may either be unenclosed or enclosed, according to its extent, or the exposure of the farm to particular offensive winds. If the division is of small extent, it should be unenclosed, but if large, enclosed; and in either case, it should be made up of convenient square-shaped fields of the extent determined on in a former paragraph (587): but the divisions should be enclosed under every circumstance along the march-fence, irrespective of its form or position. To subdivide a clay-land farm, on which no stock is reared in summer, into small fields, would be to devote an unnecessary waste of ground to fences. To save expense in working, and waste of ground