66 PEACTICAL GARDENING. 



neglected at first can never be made good, and if neglected at 

 any time it soon gets bad. 



Quickset Hedge, — Quickset or thorn is not the only plant 

 to form a good hedge ; few things beat holly. It can be grown 

 as close as anything ; bears trimming and clipping to any 

 form ; and when well managed in. a hedge, is impervious to 

 almost any vermin or animal. Holly, to form a good hedge, 

 should be planted a foot apart in one row, and a second row 

 six inches from it should have the plants also a foot apart ; 

 but be alternated, so as to come, as it were, between the 

 others. The cleaning of this while young is as essential as it 

 is with thorns, but they will not require shortening. They 

 must be allowed to grow into one another, the top not on any 

 account shortened, but year after year allowed to grow up, 

 until the hedge begins to close well, when the tops may be 

 made even by cutting down any of the plants that get the 

 start of the rest. The face, too, may be cut a little in, so as 

 to check the outward growth of any inclined that way ; and 

 both sides of the holly may be brought to a little more even 

 face. As they thicken so must the face inside and out be 

 clipped even ; and the mo:be it is cut in, the better and thicker 

 the surface becomes. The holly naturally feathers, as it is 

 called, down to the ground ; but if weeds are allowed to choke 

 the bottom part, the leaves would fall and the stems become 

 bare ; but the holly will not bear cutting down while young. 

 The leading branch has to make its way, and should not be 

 shortened until it has attained the height required of it ; after 

 which it may be clipped and turned into every imaginable 

 form, and will show a surface so close as to defy any ordinary 

 animal to penetrate it. 



Yew Hedge. — Hedges of yew are as close and useful as 

 any in a garden. As a shade, it is the very best of all plants ; 

 but, as it is at all times poisonous to animals, it should never 

 be in parks or next the public highway, or anywhere within 

 the reach of sheep, cattle, or horses. Therefore, as a boundary 

 hedge it is objectionable, though as a garden hedge it is neat, 

 may be cut into any form, grows exceedingly thick at bottom, 

 very close on the surface, and the best for a thin hedge, — that 

 is to say, shallow ; for if it were only a foot through, it would 

 be thick as we call anything close ; and, in many gardens 

 there are yew hedges as straight up as a wall, and as close and 

 solid to all appearance ; for there is hardly vacancy enough 



