128 



EVERGREEN HEDGES. 



tremely congenial to another of dissimilar j tering and solidification — and therefore that 

 habit ; but that in every case the soil rather ! the hurmis has not diminished in any degree 

 acquires depth and intensity of tint than | by the absorbent powers of the roots, 

 the contrary — that it loses little in bulk, ! Wm. W. Valk, m. d. 



which little may be safely referred to wa- 1 Flushing, l. /., Aug. e, 1847. 



THE BEST EVERGREEN HEDGE. 



BY ROBERT NELSOX, OF NEAyBURVPORT, MASS. 



The first settlers of the United States, after 

 having cut down the forests, surrounded 

 their fields with rail fences, as the easiest 

 and cheapest way of enclosing them. Turn- 

 ing up their soil, and clearing it from rocks, 

 they considered it a good plan to build stone 

 walls, as cheap but equally imperfect. These 

 require continual repairs, and instead of 

 protecting the fields from cattle and plun- 

 dering bipeds, they rather seem to invite all 

 such to cross the fields and pull them down. 

 Made in a more durable way, they are very 

 expensive, and even the best of them, such 

 as are to be seen on Indian Hill, near New- 

 bur^'port, look like a small imitation of the 

 Chinese wall, or some fortification construct- 

 ed by the " outer barbarians ;" and still 

 there are persons, (who would believe it ?) 

 that will say, " if you want a live fence, 

 then build a good stone wall, and then you 

 may plant a hedge close to it." Such men, 

 I am sure, never had any idea of a well 

 trimmed hedge. 



Though the taste for improvement and 

 embellishment is coming: on with ffiant 

 paces, the more intelligent people begin to 

 abandon this barbarous mode, and it is now 

 the question which plant is the most suita- 

 ble. For the southern states the Osage 

 Orange is highly recommended ; for the 

 eastern states the Buckthorn {Rhatnnus ca- 

 thartiais,) and among the deciduous shrubs 

 it may be the best ; but there is another 



plant, an evergreen, perfectly hardy, and of 

 the easiest culture, which I cannot too 

 strongly recommend to your readers. I 

 mean the Norway Spruce, {Pi7ius ahies, 

 Linn.) 



For an ornamental evergreen hedge, the 

 Arbor Yitge, nvja occidentalis, has been re- 

 cently brought into use, and may be seen in 

 high perfection in Mr. Downixg's grounds 

 at Newburgh ; but though it forms a beau- 

 tiful thick screen, yet it is not strong and 

 close enough to make a hedge that will 

 be a thorough defence against man and 

 beast. 



The Norway Spruce, highly useful for 

 the gardener as well as for the farmer, for 

 protection as well as for ornament, is a na- 

 tive of Norway and Sweden, and was in- 

 troduced into England in the middle of the 

 sixteenth century. In its native countr}*, it 

 may be seen growing in the roughest and 

 wildest places, on gravelly soil as well as 

 on peat ground ; on deep sand as well as on 

 the most barren rocks. Indeed, if it can 

 only find a small cleft to strike its roots ; 

 and although some English authors consi- 

 der it only fit for a " sheltered situation," 

 it may be seen exposed to all the storms 

 that rage on the western coast of Norway 

 between the sixtieth and seventieth degrees 

 of north latitude, often atttaining a height 

 of 150 feet : thus its hardiness cannot be 

 doubted for any part of the eastern states. 



