H E D 



2S8 



HED 



not been clipped. Very high hedges are 

 both troublesome and expensive to cut. 

 The clipping is sometimes performed 

 by the assistance of a high machine, 

 scaffolding or stage, twenty or thirty 

 feet high or more, having platforms at 

 different heights for the men to stand 

 upon, the whole made to move along 

 upon wheels ; it is composed of four 

 long poles for uprights, well framed 

 together, eight or ten feet wide at bot- 

 tom, narrowing gradually to four or 

 five at top, having a platform or stage 

 at every seven or eight feet high, and 

 one at the top of all; and upon these 

 the man stands to work, each platform 

 having a rail waist high to keep the 

 man from falling ; and a sort of a ladder 

 formed on one side for the man to 

 ascend, and at bottom four low wheels 

 to move it along ; upon this machine a 

 man may be employed on each stage 

 or platform, trimming the hedge with 

 shears, and sometimes with a garden 

 hedge bill fixed on a handle five or six 

 feet long, which is more expeditious, 

 though it will not make so neat work 

 as cutting with shears. 



A hedge is not only an imperfect 

 screen, but in other respects is worse 

 than useless, since nothing can be 

 trained to it, and its roots exhaust the 

 soil in their neighborhood very con- 

 siderably; as the south fence of a gar- 

 den it may be employed, and hawthorn 

 is perhaps the worst shrub that could 

 be made use of. It is the nursery of 

 the same aphides, beetles, and cater- 

 pillars, that feed upon the foliage of 

 the apple and pear, from whence they 

 spread to the trees nearest the hedge, 

 and finally overrun the whole garden ; 

 evergreen are better than deciduous 

 hedges, and more especially the holly, 

 which is not so slow a grower as is 

 generally imagined. 



In a cloudy day in April or May, the 

 wind seems to be actually refrigerated 

 in passing through a thick hawthorn 

 hedge, and this may be accounted for 

 on the same principle that cool air is 

 obtained in the houses of India, by 

 sprinkling branches of trees with water 

 in their verandas. Holly, laurel, and 

 most evergreens, exhale but little mois- 

 ture from their leaves, except for about 

 a month in June, consequently in April 

 and May, when we most require warmth, 

 and in September and October, the 

 leaves of these, when fully exposed to 



the sun become heated to the touch to 

 85° or 90"^. Added to this, hoar frost 

 or a deposition of moisture of any kind 

 never attaches so readily or remains 

 for so long a time upon the foliage of 

 evergreens as upon the sprays of decid- 

 uous shrubs, consequently the refrige- 

 ratory power is greatly diminished. 

 When the garden is of considerable 

 extent, three or four acres and up- 

 wards, it admits of cross-walls or 

 fences for an increase of training sur- 

 face and additional shelter. 



Hedges should always be clipped into 

 a conical form, as the diminution of the 

 branches towards the top increases their 

 developement at the bottom. 



Furze makes one of the best and 

 handsomest of hedges, if kept regularly 

 clipped. Upon the formation of such a 

 hedge, we have the following remarks 

 by Mr. McI. of Hillsborough : — 



" The most ancient and perhaps the 

 most simple of all fences are walls 

 made of turf. These walls, however, 

 are much injured by the atmosphere, 

 and the rubbing and butting of the cat- 

 tle. To guard against this they should 

 be planted or sown with the Ulex Euro- 

 paus or Furze. The roots of this plant 

 will soon penetrate the turf, and tend 

 to bind the wall. The plants not only 

 afford shelter as well as food for the 

 cattle, but add to the height of the wall 

 and give it a formidable appearance. 

 When walls are made for this, the 

 foundation should be three feet wide, 

 and tapering to fifteen inches at top. 

 As the plants advance in growth, they 

 should be regularly trimmed with the 

 shears ; by proper attention to this they 

 will be prevented from growing too tall 

 and thin at the bottom. If this is an- 

 nually repeated, the plants will be 

 longer preserved in a healthy and vig- 

 orous state; clipping has also a good 

 effect in checking the furze from spread- 

 ing over the field. A good and substan- 

 tial fence may thus be quickly formed 

 over on a soil that will not produce a 

 biding fence of any other kind. 



" Sweet Briar (Rosa Rubiginosa) 

 makes a good hedge. Its heps may be 

 sown in the autumn, as soon as ripe, 

 or, which is better, in the month of 

 March, having kept them in the mean 

 time mixed with sand. But it is far 

 more convenient to buy for sweet briar 

 layeryoung plants from the nurserymen, 

 and to plant them a foot apart early in 



