No. 85. J 323 



tected from all depredators, they are plowed and hoed annually, like 

 corn, and vacancies filled up by supernumeraries from the nursery 

 reserved for that purpose. In three to five years they will obtain a 

 height of six or seven feet, when they are to be plashed — yes, plash- 

 ed ; for, after all is said and done, this is the best method to produce 

 a fence that wall exclude hogs, and resist boring and pushing of cat- 

 tle, &c. 



To give beauty, efficiency, strength, thriftiness and permanency to 

 our hedge, it must be trimmed twice a year ; say in the spring, and 

 about harvest, with a hedge knife, or other suitable tool, at a cost of 

 one or two cents per rod. This trimming is every thing, and if the 

 owner does not intend to do this work carefully.) 1 would advise, af- 

 ter having plashed it, to dig it up, throw the contents into heaps, and 

 burn them, to prevent a nuisance, and supply its place by a wooden 

 fence. 



Very respectfully, 



W. GIBBONS, 



LETTER FROM MR. DOWNING. 



Highland Gardens^ Mewhurgh, JVov. 8th, 1844. 



Dear Sir : — I must be very brief to-day, on the subject of thorns 

 for hedges. 



In the first place, the English hawthorn is of little or no value as 

 a hedge plant, in this climate. It is too tender in all but sheltered 

 situations, is extremely liable to the attacks of the borer, and, worse 

 than all, its foliage becomes quite brown and unsightly after the 1st 

 of August. 



The Washington and Newcastle thorns are the American varie- 

 ties most prized for hedges with us ; but almost every neighborhood 

 has by the roadsides and in the borders of woods species of the thorn, 

 the seeds of which will form admirable hedges. These two sorts are 

 named from the towns of Washington, D. C, and Newcastle, Del., 

 where they abound, and have been greatly used for hedges. The 

 Washington thorn is the categus populi folia* and the Newcastle 

 the C cms- gain of Torrey & Gray, and other botanists. The seeds 

 may be had of seedsmen in Philadelphia or Washington, at about $5 

 per barrel. They should be scalded, and left in the water till cold, 

 and sown in the autumn as early as may be after they are ripe. Sow 

 them in broad drills, much in the same manner as jseas, covering them 

 about an inch and a half deep. Plants in the premises are worth $6 

 per 1,000, two years old. 



For hedges they should be planted quincunx, in two rows, one 

 foot apart in the rows, the latter six inches apart — thus 



* [Or C. cw^of a of Torrey & Gva-j.—Sec. N. Y. S. ilg.JSoc.] 



