1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



889 



desired. Those not soaked came up sparsely 

 and very badly. 



The ground was prepared as for ordinary gar- 

 den seeds. The seed Wiis placed in rows, about 

 one foot apart, and about one inch deep. I kept 

 the plants carefully weeded from their first ap- 

 pearance till the autumn. The result has been 

 that plants raised one spring are fit for setting 

 out as hedges the next spring. 



Preparing Ground for the Hedge. — In the au- 

 tumn the line of the ground on which the hedge 

 is to stand is dug as a trench, about eighteen 

 inches wide and one foot deep. The earth is 

 laid on the side of the trench and the bottom 

 broken with a pick. In that condition I left it 

 during the winter for the frost to do its work of 



Cultivating or tilling. — In the spring, when the 

 ground is warm enough to cause the plants to 

 show the first symptoms of life by pushing, I 

 put a quantity of the best barn-yard manure in 

 the trench or ditch, and on that placed the loose 

 earth left lying at the side during the winter. 

 In this ground the plants were placed. If in 

 two rows, eighteen inches apart ; if in one row, 

 nine inches apart. The latter, I am inclined to 

 think from experience, the best for every pur- 

 pose. 



The plants thus set out were kept carefully 

 weeded and cultivated all summer. They 

 sprouted slowly and very irregularly. But these 

 were plants purchased. Those I grew were much 

 quicker and more uniform. By the end of July 

 nearly every plant was growing. In one in- 

 stance, by count, I found but two out of two 

 hundred and eighty failed. 



Subsequent treatment. — In the autumn the 

 plants treated as above stated had grown in 

 single stems, from three to six feet high, depend- 

 ing on the earlier or later start. The stems were 

 quite thick. 



These I laid down without cutting, nicking or 

 breaking, by simply bending them nearly flat to 

 the ground, and weaving them as one would 

 osiers in wicker work. There is little elasticity, 

 but great toughness in the wood, and the thorns 

 secure them in place when bent and woven, 

 without tying or any other sort of fastening. 



The next year the hedge started with an aver- 

 age height of six inches from the ground of the 

 stems, thus lying laterally along the ground. The 

 leaf buds sent up shoots similar to those of the 

 first year, but thicker and higher ; many grew 

 eight feet. The ground was cultivated with a 

 hoe and weeded. In the autumn these stems 



were again laid down, without nicking, breaking 

 or cutting. This made a hedge of lateral stems 

 about eighteen inches from the ground. 



The next summer the shoots grew, the upright 

 ones much more vigorously than the laterals. 

 When the upright shoots reached three feet or 

 more, I cut the tops with a sickle at the height 

 I determined. 



This was repeated at intervals, whenever there 

 were a few inches of ground above the line de- 

 termined, from time to time, as the height of the 

 hedge. This permitted the shorter and weaker 

 stems to grow without checking till they reached 

 the proper line. 



The result was, that in the third summer from 

 setting out the plants there was a good hedge, 

 sufficient to turn ordinary cattle, as it seemed. 

 Certainly in all subsequent years it was impervi- 

 ous to man or beast. And it had a foundation 

 as firm as a fence. 



Cutting. — If this is done when the i)lants are 

 young, they are so succulent that an amateur 

 can readily trim two hundred feet in an hour, 

 and feel no fatigue. 



Laying dovm. — I have this year adopted a plan 

 that I deem a great improvement, and I have 

 done it with stems varying from a quarter to an 

 inch diameter, thus : I cut ofif with nippers a num- 

 ber of stems to the height of two feet, so that a stem 

 left at each end of the cutting when laid down 

 and woven into the upright cut stems would 

 cross each other, and give at least two lines of 

 lateral stems passing in and out of the stumps 

 of the cut stems, thus giving a living fence of 

 about two feet high. I expect to trim the growth 

 from these next summer to about three feet 

 high, leaving the laterals to grow with little or 

 no trimming to form the hedge into the pyra- 

 midal form, which is essential, as lower branches 

 will not flourish if upper branches overhang 

 them. 



If any one can show more perfect hedges that 

 have thus been produced, I have yet to see or 

 hear of them. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Memorial Trees.— The Dukes of Connaught 

 and of Edinburgh, recently planted some oaks as 

 memorials of visits on important occ;isions. 



Red Coixjhican Maple. — This tree is remarka- 

 ble for its beautiful pink second growth of leaves. 

 When the tree gets towards maturity it makes 

 but one growth in a season, and loses the pink 



