SIR — I totally agree with Mike Blackmore's comments (Your Letters, April 5) regarding the 'hacking' of hedges.

We lived in West Wales for some years and again the farmers hacked the hedges just as the leaves and blossom were about to burst forth and provide the ideal habitat for nesting birds.

In autumn, it happened again; just as the few fruits and berries that survived, the hedges would be hacked. No wonder the bird population in this country has suffered, to say nothing of the bees.

We are constantly told that the farmers are custodians of the countryside but I think not.

If they are going to cut the hedges, why not do it at an appropriate time of the year with the right equipment?

Then our wonderful hedgerows would stand a chance. The mess they leave on the roads is a safety issue.

On another issue, my grandfather was a farmer and would not allow anything to be put on the fields whether it be horse manure, silage etc until it was odourless. Any odour meant the bacteria had not been broken down properly.

Why has this changed? Our countryside smells awful and what about the diseases it carries? Maybe it's not the badgers that cause TB after all.

Well done, Mike, for raising this issue - and you are certainly not "a crank".

J Jones,

The Holms,