HEDGES AND CLIPPED TREES. 



233 



pie, if a fine, low Norway Spruce hedge is designed to 

 be kept at three or four feet in hight, with perhaps five 

 feet in view ultimatel}^ the plants may be put eighteen 

 or twenty inches apart, but if a screen, twelve or fifteen 

 feet high is desired, tliey should not be closer than four 

 feet, and six feet would be better. In cases like this they 

 may be planted twice or three times as close at the start, 

 to make a full row, and then remove those between as the 

 others require the space. It is safe to say that from 

 twelve to fourteen inches apart is a suitable distance for 

 the majority of kinds where the hedge is to be low, 

 with an increase to twice this distance for high hedges 

 or screens. 



The objection to hedges, that they cannot be crossed 

 even when it is desirable to do so, at other places than 



Fig. 79. — STILE FOR HEDGES. 



gates, may be overcome by the use of a stile, as shown 

 in figure 79. 



Regarding clipped forms of trees, we hold in as great 

 abhorrence as any one, the ludicrous extent to which 

 these have been used in old-time gardening, espec- 

 ially in Europe, and which even to-day prevails in some 

 places abroad. Still, in the same way as the formal ter- 

 race and slope, geometrical flower-beds, etc. , may some- 

 times fit in the garden, as minor features of embellish- 

 ment, so some clipped trees may properly be admitted. 

 A number of acres closely coyered with every conceiva- 



