A CHAPTER ON HEDGES. 



349 



of adapting itself to any soil. It will bear 

 any climate, however cold, for it grows 

 wild in Siberia; hence it will never suffer, 

 as the English thorn has been known to do, 

 with an occasional winter of unusual sever- 

 ity. We have seen it growing under the 

 shade of trees, and in dry and poor soil, as 

 well as thriving in moist and springy soil; 

 and in this respect, and in its natural rigid 

 thicket-like habit, it seems more admirably 

 fitted by nature for a northern hedge plant 

 than almost any other. In the third place, 

 it bears the earliest transplanting, has great 

 longevity, and is very thrifty in its growth. 

 We have already remarked that it is well 

 supplied with roots. Indeed its fibres are 

 unusually numerous even in seedlings of 

 one year's growth. Hence it is transplanted 

 with remarkable facility, and when treated 

 with anything like proper care, not one in 

 five thousand of the plants will fail to grow. 

 It is scarcely at all liable to diseases, and no 

 plant bears the shears better,or gives a denser 

 and thicker hedge, or is longer lived in a 

 hedge. Its growth is at least one-third more 

 rapid than that of the Hawthorn, and the 

 facility of raising it, at least half greater. 



Lastly, it is one of the easiest plants to 

 propagate. It bears berries in abundance. 

 These, if planted in autumn as soon as they 

 are ripe, (or even in the ensuing spring) will 

 germinate in the spring, and if the soil is 

 good, give plants from a foot to 20 inches high 

 the first year — which are large enough for 

 transplanting the next spring following. 

 The seeds of the Hawthorn do not vegetate 

 till the second year, and the plants properly 

 require to be transplanted once in the nurse- 

 ries, and to be three years old, before they 

 are fit for making hedges. Here is at once 

 a most obvious and important saving of time 

 and labour. 



It is but a simple matter to raise Buck- 

 thorn plants. You begin by gathering the 

 seeds as soon as they are ripe, say by the 

 middle of October.* Each berry contains 

 4 seeds, covered with a thin black pulp. 

 Place them in a box or tub ; mash the pulp 

 by beating the berries moderately with a light 

 wooden pounder. Then put them in a sieve, 

 pour some water over them, rub the seeds 

 through, and throw away the skin and pulp. 

 Two or three rubbings and washings will 

 give you clean seed. Let it then be dried, 

 and it is ready for sowing. 



Next, choose a good bit of deep garden 

 soil. Dig it thoroughly, and give it a good 

 dressing of manure. Open a drill with the 

 hoe, exactly as you would for planting peas, 

 and scatter the seed of the Buckthorn in it, 

 at an average of two or three inches apart. 

 Cover them about an inch and a half deep. 

 The rows or drills may, if you are about to 

 raise a large crop, be put three feet apart, 

 so that the horse cultivator may be used to 

 keep the ground in order. 



In the spring, the young plants will 

 make their appearance plentifully. All that 

 they afterwards require is a thorough weed- 

 ing, and a dressing with a hoe as sDon as 

 they are all a couple of inches high, and a 

 little attention afterwards to keep the ground 

 mellow and free from weeds. One year's 

 growth in strong land, or two, in that of 

 tolerable quality, will render them fit for 

 being transplanted into the hedge rows. 



If the Buckthorn has any defect as a 

 hedge plant it is this; while young it is 

 not provided with strong and stout roots 

 like the hawthorn. Its thorns, as we have 

 already said, stand, at the point of each 



• The Buckthorn is pretty largely cultivated for its berries 

 at the various Shaking Quaker settlements in this State and 

 New England ; and seeds may usually be procured from 

 them in abundance, and at reasonable prices. 



