sentences:  Alders grow well in wet soils and are specially adapted for the low nutrient conditions through having large root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria that enrich the soil in the same way as clover plants and other legumes.The trees in the vicinity of the rivers were not planted by farmers for 'visual effect', they were crops and the wood was used for building and fencing; The millers needed beech or hornbeam wood for mill machinery, in particular the cogs on the drive wheels from the waterwheel.It is not generally appreciated how much the Ayrshire landscape has changed its character over the last few hundred years, for even in the 1760–70 Statistical Account it is stated that "there was no such thing to be seen as trees or hedges in the parish; all was naked and open."