SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 399 



At Hazlewood estate, in Caroline county, the late resi- 

 dence of Colonel John Taylor,^ the oldest agricultural 

 writer in America, which is now occupied by his heir and 

 namesake, there are miles of cedar hedges, for which the 

 Philadelphia Agricultural Society gave him a gold medal 

 in 1819. It is said that it was then a beautiful and good 

 fence. But, like all tree-growing plants used for hedg- 

 ing, it has overgrown itself. It has been found impossi- 

 ble to keep it trimmed down, and as it increases in height, 

 as a matter of course, nature prunes the lower limbs. 

 The great error, however, in planting this hedge, was, 

 setting it upon a high bank, which has made it more diffi- 

 cult to trim, and keep in order. 



There is another farm six miles below Fredricksburg, 

 on the opposite side of the Rappahannock, upon both 

 sides of the road, which looks beautiful at a little dis- 

 tance, but as you approach, you find it full of unsightly 

 gaps and dead trees. Like that at Hazlewood, it was 

 planted upon a bank, and was not trimmed down enough 

 when young. There are a good many other cedar hedges 

 in the state that I have noticed in my travels, none of 

 which are fences. 



An excellent fence very common in Virginia, is made 

 in this manner: A pair of stout cedar, chestnut or 

 locust stakes are set strong, just wide enough apart to 

 admit a large rail between, having a two-inch round 

 tenon upon the top of each, to receive a strong cap, upon 

 which a heavy rail is sometimes laid after the space below 

 is filled up with rails, lapping one upon another, between 

 the stakes. This kind of fence is most commonly built 

 on a ditch bank. In fact, it seems in some districts as 

 though the people have no idea of ever building a fence 



' John Taylor of Caroline, planter, lawyer. United States Senator, 

 Born in Virginia, 1753; died at his estate in Caroline County, Au- 

 gust 21, 1824. Served in the Revolution. Political and agricultural 

 writer. First president of the Virginia Agricultural Society, 1811. 

 Author of Ai-ator (1813), a series of agricultural essays. Disciple 

 of agrarian liberalism. See sketch in Dictionary of American Biog- 

 raphy, 18:331-33; Tyler (ed.), Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, 

 2:88. 



