322 [Senate 



fourth the time, and with much less fatigue than it can be done with 

 shears. When a hedge is reduced to the proper size and form, it 

 should be kept trimmed as nearly as possible to that outline ; other- 

 wise it will soon become inconveniently large. This can be best done 

 while the shoots are young and tender ; and therefore it will be ex- 

 pedient to trim it at least twice, and occasionally three times, every 

 year — say the beginning of June, the latter end of July^ and the last 

 of September. If the growth be not too luxuriant, it may suffice in 

 June and September ; but, when the branches become firm and w^oody, 

 it is difficult to keep the hedge down to a convenient size. Moreover^ 

 I think the vitality and health of the branches are more or less in- 

 jured by trimming them w^hile young and tender, and the operation is 

 miich less laborious. 



It may be satisfactory to add, in reference to the expense of hedg- 

 ing, on the ground plan, that the man who planted my hedges, charged 

 me fifty cents a rod ; viz : twenty-five cents payable when he planted 

 them, (he finding the quicks, and taking charge of the culture as long 

 as they required attention,) and when he laid the hedge, the remain- 

 ing twenty-five cents were payable — so that my hedges required from 

 eight to ten years patient care and waiting, and cost me fifty cents 

 per rod in cash ; and I must in candor add, that they do not exactly 

 answer the desired purpose on my premises, situated as I am, near a 

 growing village, where injurious trespasses are daily perpetrated. 

 What a hedge and ditch would cost, I have not the means of know^- 



"^ With these hasty remarks I must conclude. If they may afford any 

 useful information to Mr. Bateham, or others, I shall be highly gra- 

 tified. 



Yery respectfully, your friend and obedient servant, 



WILLIAM DARLINGTON. 

 Dr. J. W. Thomson, 



Wilmington, Del, 



LETTER FROM MR. GIBBONS. 



Wilmington, llth mo. 26lh, 1844. 



Dear Doctor : — As to thorns for hedging, I have little practical 

 knowledge, except of the species called the Washington, or Virginia 

 thorn. 



The berries, after being gathered in the fall, are mashed into a 

 mass, until they disappear in the mass — the seed separated by wash- 

 ing out the pulp. Alternate strata of seed and sand are now put into 

 a box that will not hold water, and placed in a northern exposure^ 

 and there left until the spring. The seed is now prepared to germi- 

 nate, and may be sowed in a bed, or in drills. If not too much coiT- 

 ered, and they be well cultivated and in rich ground, the quicks will 

 be large enough to set out in hedge rows in one year. They are 

 planted from eight to ten inches apart, without bank or ditch. Pro- 



