Its Friends The second view is that the hedge provides
a natural shelter for all stock, serves to divide field from field without the necessity of artificial fencing, gives the small birds which are an undoubted boon to farmers a native home, and lastly forms the special and peculiar beauty of England. It is argued also that the hedge is a good protection for field crops. Some while ago a local district council desired to destroy a very tall holly hedge which, it was said, prevented the road from drying. The land owner had cultivated it for the purpose of driving partridges over it, and it was remarkable how often root crops were grown on the large fields on either side of the hedge. The value of the hedge for this purpose could hardly be used for softening the heart of a local council proud of its roads ; but, when the farmers wrote to say that the hedge saved their roots and barleys from the cutting east wind off the sea, the hedge was spared ; and a few weeks later four or five score of driven partridges were slain by a company of the best guns in England on either side of the hedgerow.
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