Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations.

  • Pehr Kalm
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    153/520 page 129
    The pollard oaks spread out like a crown, and formed a good shelter for cattle in hot sunshine or storm. All the twigs in this crown were very often cut and carried home for fuel, when other shoots commonly struck out anew. Sometimes when the hedge had very much widened out at the sides, it was cut right down, and a dead hedge set up instead. After a short time the cut-off stems shot forth a multitude of twigs, which after- wards formed the most beautiful hedge one could desire. A bad habit which I noticed hawthorn, blackberries, and dogroses had, was that they commonly creep with their roots over a wide space, vidt omkring, out towards the arable or meadows, where they had not prevented this by a little ditch close to the hedge. When they had so crept, no one had been with the scythe to the grass which was nearest to the hedge and on its side. Besides the manifold uses which these hedges serve, there are among cthers (1), that much wood, skog, which would otherwise be required for fences, gärdsel, is by this means saved. (2) The labour of yearly laying down gardesgårdar, dead-fences, is avoided [T. I. p. 155] because these, once planted, last for ever. (3) When anyone wishes to cut down an old hedge he has an abundance of fuel, and a new one comes up instead in a little time. (4) The cattle liave a very good shelter, skjul och skyggd, from them against storms and other bad weather. (5) It is a matchless protection for ploughed fields and meadows, because storms and other cold winds, which otherwise on large open fields, öpna fält, often thin away and destroy the plants, and cause great damage, are resisted by the hedge. (6) They are an incredible ornament to the country, because wlierever one turns liis eyes it seems as if the whole country were a beautiful and delightful garden. Farther on I shall describe in detail how these hedges Iv.
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