BOCAGE

in western France (e.g., Bocage Normand, Bocage Venden), a well-timbered district in distinction to the campagne, which denotes a hedgeless tract of farmland characteristic of old-established areas of open-field agriculture. The fields of bocage country are small, irregular, and enclosed by hedges and groves of trees. There have been attempts to cut down the hedges and trees to promote agriculture, but the results were disappointing, serving only to confirm the traditional richness of the bocage in the raising of cattle for dairying and meat.