158 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



a imrscryman could do it at 50 cents per luindred, which would cost a little 

 more than 15 cents per rod. 



The cultivating of this line of fence for two or three years would be very 

 little labor or expense, it being work that could be done any time at his con- 

 venience. 



The cutting over with a hedge knife near the bottom in order to send out 

 strong branches to form the body of the hedge could be done for a cent a rod. 

 The only thing that would require some labor and expense, would be the cross- 

 inn- and tixin<T^ with wire in the way I have described. I think that this work, 

 including the expense of material, could be done for 25 cents per rod. 

 According then to this calculation the whole work in completing the hedge 

 might cost from 35 to 40 cents per rod. All that would be necessary after this, 

 would be the annual cutting and dressing to keep it in proper bounds, and 

 this work if done with a machine could be done for less than a cent per rod, 

 and it is to be observed that all tliis work can be done in the fall or winter 

 season, when no other farm work is pushing. It will thus be seen that when 

 the planting and keeping of hedges, as I have now described, have been system- 

 atically gone into, the expenses will be comparatively small to what they are 

 now, in any form in which fences can be made, and it will also bo found that 

 they are quite indispensable with good and profitable farming. 



There is another thing for which hedging is specially required in immediate 

 connection with the agricultural and industrial interests, and that is forestry. 



lledofinir and forestry must naturally a:o to2:etlier in this country; the one 

 cannot get along properly without the aid of the other, and in the order of 

 things the hedging must go before the forestry. This will be quite obvious 

 when we take into consideration that in making a plantation of young trees, 

 they would require to be properly fenced so as to secure the plantation from 

 all depredations of cattle and sheep on the farm, till such time as the trees are 

 strong enough to protect themselves. It would therefore be the proper way 

 previous to starting a plantation to have the hedge for fencing it started, 

 while the land where the planting is intended could be cropped, in the usual 

 way, until such time as the fence was sufficient for a protection. 



By this means everything would go on in an orderly manner, and we would 

 have the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing the plans that we had formed and 

 the work that we had done growing up every season to greater beauty and 

 utility. 



This hedge question, the same as forestry, has also a most important bearing 

 and relation to certain other parties besides farmers. 



Many of our railway lines, as a matter of necessity, are for the most part 

 protected with costly board fences; these in a few years will fail and have to 

 be replaced with the same or some other material. I have no doubt therefore 

 that this hedge fence which I have been recommending to farmers, will have to 

 be the railroad hedge in the future. And I would here give a word of advice 

 by saying to all those companies that it is now the time to set about this mat- 

 ter, as their present fences, before they fail, would protect the young hedge 

 till it is fully established as a perfect fence. 



Hedging at this day and in this age of our country is something that is 

 necessary to go before and prepare the way for the future development of the 

 vast rcsourcGS of this great nation. In this same connection, I have no doubt 

 but in Texas and some other of the extensive ramies in our jjreat states and 

 territories where the raising of stock is now being of so much importance, and 



