HERE the fences and hedges are bad, particularly on the
hillier places. Farmers go round stopping holes with anything they can find: Often they cut down a blackthorn and push it into a gap, or lop branches from the nearest tree. A sheep seems to have a gift for breaking out of its field, and, once the wayward member of a flock has achieved a break-out, the rest stream after it. The fact that hedges are poor has much to do with the weather. The wind blows hard, and kills or stunts the wild briar and blackberry that would in turn support the natural barrier of weeds, and the growth of what thorns there are is hardly enough to stop a determined ewe from breaking out. How much work is put in patching poor hedges has to be seen to be believed. Here and there one sees the remains of an old oak-staved fence, but one would think there was a scarcity of barbed wire and spruce poles. I met a man searching for sheep that he had traced from a hole• in his hedge, through two of his neighbour's fields, and finally on to a third farm. " It would save time to put up a good fence," he said, " but I haven't the time to spare for it." He went plodding on, having made the remark without so much as a smile.
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