On Hedging. 29 
fined in the outside furrow would shortly enlarge it to 
a deep ditch, and perhaps undermine the hedge. 
-Whether nature intended the growth of weeds as an 
admonition for us to stir the soil in order to destroy 
them, it is not material for me to inquire ; but itis cer- 
tain that this occasional breaking of the surface to era- 
dicate them is of benefit to the land, and of great ser- 
vice in promoting the growth of such’ plants as are 
adapted for this method of cultivation, and perhaps 
_there is no article susceptible thereof in which this be- 
neficial effect is more apparent than it is in young hedg- 
es. On a soil abandoned to an undisturbed state of re- 
pose, with the surface hardened by the sun and wind, 
and become quite impervious to the benign influence 
of the dews or light rains; a hedge thus neglected to 
be cultivated in its infancy, is apt to get bark-bound 
at the beginning, to be almost irrecoverable by the force 
of cultivation afterwards, and a number of years will 
generally be seen to slide away before it can be brought 
into a thriving state: but by an early and assiduous 
attention continued for two, three years at first, the 
plants will quickly recover from the sickness occasion- 
ed by their transplantation, the weeds being carefully 
eradicated, and the soil kept loose and light by culture ; 
the young plants, if the first summer’s affliction hath 
left them in any tolerable state of health, they will the 
next year shoot vigorously, and soon attract the atten- 
tion of the proprietor, by the lively green appearance of 
a handsome miniature hedge. And if this should some- 
times not be quite the case in the second year, the effects 
dh 
