Hedges and Hedging. 



By D. TAIT, Wood Manager, Owston Park, Doncaster. 



The proper management of hedges is of great importance, as in 

 some shape or other there is connected with them a considerable 

 amount of labour, differing in degree according as they have been 

 properly managed from the time of planting, or neglected altogether. 

 To be useful as a fence it is requisite that they be properly planted, 

 and have due attention paid to their well-being year by year there- 

 after. Whether as a fence they will be as often chosen in the future 

 as in times past is extremely doubtful ; in fact, it is certain they will 

 not, as the introduction of wire and iron for fencing purposes has 

 developed a fence in many ways superior to hedges. For landscape 

 effect, however, and for shelter, they will always be in requisition. 

 Of the many plants suitable for hedges the common thorn or quickset 

 is by far the most extensively used, and, as may be inferred, is the 

 most useful for forming a fence against stock. 



On estates possessing a home nursery the plants may be raised 

 from seed, by collecting the haws when fully ripe and burying them 

 in a sand-heap for fourteen or fifteen months ; that is, if they are 

 gathered in the end of October or beginning of November they 

 require to remain in the rot heap till the second following January or 

 February ; the hard seed-cases render this treatment necessary, and if 

 sown earlier would only take up the ground without any benefit. They 

 may also be bought in as one year's seedlings at a trifling price. 

 Their subsequent treatment in the nursery is much the same as 

 other plants; the one thing to look to is to give them plenty of room; 

 and the oftener they are transplanted the better they will thrive when 

 planted out. Where there is no home nursery, plants that have been 

 twice transplanted after being drawn from the seed-bed should be 

 used, the point being to have them with good roots. 



The ground on which the hedge is to be planted should, if possible, 

 be trenched over the autumn previous to planting, and if there are any 

 inequalities in the line of fence, the ground should be levelled to 

 correspond with the land adjoining. 



There are many hedges planted in a single line, but in my opinion 

 a better fence is obtained by planting a double line of quicks, and in 

 after-years, when the fence requires to be cut back, by doing one side 



