The Canadian HoRiicui/ruKis'i'. 133 



HEDGES. 



N the Fruit Growers' Association Report of 1892, D. Nicol discourses 

 upon " Hedges." I need not repeat what he has so well said in that 

 article. There are pros and cons in respect to hedges, as there are in 

 respect to any style of fence. The cost of hedge plants is a mere 

 trifle. Fifteen to twenty-five cents will purchase good plants for a rod 

 of honey locust hedge. About five times as much will purchase 

 plants for an arbor vitse hedge. To plant these in prepared ground along the 

 straight side of a straight furrow, is a short job. The annual expense is not 

 great, but it must be considered. 



I like to leave a wide, cultivated border, and run a corn cultivator along 

 each side half a dozen times each year for some few years at least. This, with 

 the necessary hoeing, costs but little. The hedge should be cut back each 

 spring ; after a few years we use hedge shears once or twice each year. This 

 job is best done after a sharp shower, which perchance prevents for a time the 

 usual work on the farm. I find it so attractive that I rarely give up the shears 

 till noon. He who is not prepared to give his hedge attention from time to 

 time each year should not plant one at all. 



The most serious objection- to a hedge is the fact that its roots unfit the 

 adjacent lands for many crops Grass crops and pasture are not much affected. 

 A hedge separating a road or a lane from a pasture field is therefore quite 

 admissible. Where a head land is used as a driveway, or to turn upon with a 

 cultivator, a hedge answers very well. At the rear of my place a honey locust 

 hedge separates my head land from a lane which is much used by cattle. The 

 plants stand upright, and having been pretty well cared for and sheared, thei e 

 has been no need of tipping or bending them sideways in the hedge. To make 

 assurance doubly sure, we have stretched one barbed wire within the hedge, 

 three feet above the ground. Each and every cow has seriously considered the 

 matter, and concluded not to go through that hedge. 



Hedges have some advantages. Their cost, including annual care, is not 

 great, while they endure for a long time. They are wind proof, and make a 

 low wind break. They are beautiful and interesting ; with one or two barbed 

 wires they are an effective fence. I have for years used a locust fence along the 

 road without any wires. A hedge is not reliable if planted near to a row of 

 trees such as we often see along road sides. Try the hedge in one place and 

 the trees in some other place. 



Mr. Nicol makes one serious mistake. The honey locust is not possessed 

 of sprouting proclivities. In this respect it is as virtuous as the ordinary forest 

 trees. We have in Stamford Township a good many miles of honey locust 

 hedge of various ages. Although planted upon hard clay much of it is very 

 good fence. Where much neglected it has but little of beauty or utility. The 

 men, rather than the fence, are at fault in the latter case, 



