Acr. Rds. Ground, 2 yards wide, occupied by the mounds and hedges, about 1 2 One foot and a half on either side of the mounds which cannot be ploughed, about 0 3 -------- Total of gain in 50 acres 2 1 Or, per cent., 4a. 2r. From these data, then, we may conclude that if available land equal in extent to a county may be gained by keeping fences within bounds, this may be more than doubled by grubbing up, not merely useless, but mischievous fences, and discountenancing the growth of hedge-row timber. Now, although we reside in the county of the Dorsetshire poet, we are not of those who would curtail the privileges of the poor by closing up all footpaths, or by too rigidly curtailing the road space; but as long as the farmer has to pay rent for the ground needlessly occupied by badly-constructed hedge-rows, we think it due to him, and even to the poor themselves, that land now so occupied should in future be made food-producing; and with these sentiments we would conclude this chapter by quoting the following DORSETSHIRE DITTY. (_From Poems by William Barnes._) “They do zay that a travellin chap Have a-put in the newspeäper now That the bit o’ green ground on the knap Should be all a-took in vor the plough. He do fancy ’tis easy to show That we can be but stunpolls at best, Vor to leäve a green spot where a flower can grow Or a foot-weary walker mid rest. ’Tis hedge-grubbèn, Thomas, an’ ledge-grubbèn Never a done, While a sov’rèn mwore’s to be won. “The road, he do zay, is so wide As ’tis wanted vor travellers’ wheels; As if all that did travel did ride, An’ did never get galls on their heels. He would leäve sich a thin strip o’ groun’ That if a man’s veet in his shoes Wer a-burnèn an’ zore, why he coulden zit down But the wheels would run over his tooes. Vor ’tis meäke money, Thomas, an’ teäke money, What’s zwold an’ bought Is all that is worthy o’ thought. * * * * * “The children will soon have noo pleäce Vor to play in, an’ if they do grow, They will have a thin musheroom feäce, Wi’ their bodies so sumple as dough. But a man is a meäde ov a child An’ his limbs do grow worksome by play, An’ if the young child’s little body’s a-spweil’d, Why, the man’s wull the zooner decay. But wealth is wo’th now mwore than health is wo’th; Let it all goo If ’t ’ull bring but a sov’rèn or two.” CHAPTER XXXVII. ON THE VERMIN OF FENCES.