80 HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL 



Hedges and Screens. 



Nothing, perhaps, to the lover of Nature, adds so much to the 

 cheerful aspect of a district as the hedges by which it is inter- 

 sected, and the timber and other trees with which it is clothed. 

 The latter stand out in bold relief in the picture, while the hedges 

 fill up those necessary lines, without which there would be a 

 certain amount of blank. A good hedge is, in many instances, 

 a farmer's pride, and in this respect he looks at it in a different 

 light from the admirer of rural scenery, to whom the more crooked 

 the hedge, and the more heterogeneous the plants of which it is 

 composed, the more beautiful it appears ; while to the farmer, a 

 hedge occupying the least possible space of ground, straight in 

 its outline, and forming an impassable boundary to cattle, is the 

 approach to perfection which he delights in. The hedge is 

 always a prominent feature, not only of beauty, but of usefulness 

 on the borders and grounds of the owners of suburban villas. 



Screens also are features of value upon all places, and of them 

 hereafter. 



During the last thirty years great progress has been made in 

 this direction, and we may expect to see still farther advances. 

 In many districts, however, owing to gross error in the use of 

 plants, or in the case of cutting and pruning hedges once 

 planted have, as it were, disappeared ; yet, hedges have their 

 uses, and I hope yet to see their general adoption over the large 

 breadth of our goodly land, much of which is now sub- divided 

 by wire, board or rail fences, a constantly yearly drain upon the 

 owners. No hedge, planted with a view to form a barrier, should 

 be planted with varied trees, nor with trees or plants liable to 

 sucker or throw out lateral roots long distances, thereby making 

 the keeping clean the land fully up to the line of the hedge. The 

 Maple, Elder, Willow, and various other trees have been used, 

 but always unsatisfactorily. The Osage Orange has failings that 

 have rendered it of little value in many sections. The Thorn and 



