An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950

Wildlife in depression, C.1870–1940^141

Hedges around the fields, because of the shade they throw, are

considered detrimental to good arable cultivation and so are kept as

low as possible or even rooted out. Consequently one characteristic of

the district is the hedgeless or almost hedgeless fields surrounded by

deep ditches.^20

figure 25 The distribution of arable land in England and Wales, c.1940. The
long agricultural depression had served to concentrate arable farming in the eastern
counties, and especially in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.