meuh?
Sam Turner
Why not take a moment to focus on the hedge? Be sure the bovine does not mind.
Allow me to share some childhood knowledge. A rural European hedge, such as one that forms a perimeter for cows, can be dated using the following equation.
Age =(no of species in a 30 yard stretch) x 110 + 30 years
So walk thirty manly strides, (yes a yard is just a manly stride) and as you walk count the varieties of tree or shrub. So hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, oak and hazel, would make a five hundred and eighty year old hedge. I don’t know if you would count the ferns and brambles that we see here. It doesn’t really matter because the method is total hogs-wash and gives reliably unreliable results.
Know this, and know it would be better to use histories and maps, but do it all the same; and teach a child to do it too, because you will have fun. Nobody really needs to know how old a hedge is anyhow, they just need it to be between them and the horns on the other side.
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