36 On Hedging. 
of cultivation and clean weeding will toa certainty. shew 
themselves in the third spring. 
_ The number of years through which this course of 
cultivation is to be continued, can only be ascertained 
by the strength of the hedge, but in general five or six 
years will be found sufficient. Vines, briars, sassafras, 
and all other insidious perennial plants, are. still to be 
rooted out from time to time, if any of them should 
chance to make their appearance among hedges whe- 
ther young or old. 
TRIMMING OF HEDGES. 
When anew planted hedge has been equalized by 
the shears, it will require no further trimming until it 
hath completed its first year’s growth, at which period 
if it appears to be considerably unequal in height, it is 
to be again reduced to an evenly stature, by a slight 
clipping after the falling of the leaf; but if it appears 
nearly uniform with only a shoot here and there higher 
than the generality of the hedge, these tall ones alone 
are to be cut off. The sides of the hedge need not be 
trimmed at this period, and here it ought to be observ- 
ed that the lateral shoots are always to be sparingly dealt 
with, more particularly in young hedges, as upon the. 
extension of those nearest the bottom the closeness of 
the hedge will a good deal depend. 
At the end of the second year the top trimming is 
again to be attended to, and the hedge once more re- 
duced to an equality of height. | 
At the third year’s trimming, the operator need not 
tip it off so delicately as before, but having fixed on a 
