The postwar innovation in farming techniques had a serious impact on the traditional landscape of the countryside. In Britain, modern intensive agriculture with its hedgerow removal, woodland reclamation, artificial straightening of rivers and ploughing of permanent pastures no longer allows a pleasant landscape and a diversified wilolife. For example, hedgerows that provide the landscape framework of the English countryside have been decreasing a little under 1 percent each year for the past 25 years. Their loss took place to create more cropland and to make way for big new machines. We can see similar changes in Japan too. Hedgerow trees planted along the boundaries of rice paddies were not only necessary as rice plant racks and for fuel and green manure, but also to the advantage of amenity and landscape in rural life. But they have been felled, because the farmer had little need for them. It is worthy of note that European countries are now making an effort to maintain rural features of landscape interest which now have little agricultural function, such as hedgerows and small coppices. The landscape management agreements in Britain is one of various incentive approaches. It seems that their eagerness for conservation may be partly because the countryside is a most significant recreational resource. Recently, rural amenity and landscaping have become a matter of increasing importance in Japan. As a first step we should make an inventory of amenity elements forming the physical fabric of the countryside and contrive ways by which modern agricuture reconciled with them.