334 SOME SPECIFIC ADVICE 



two or three times during the season, in order to 

 prevent too great and straggly growth of any 

 one plant or any one branch of a plant. The 

 practice of cutting down the hedge severely in 

 winter, and then not touching it again until the 

 following winter, results in a heavy growth which 

 makes the hedge look ragged and unkempt dur- 

 ing the summer,, and which also makes it diffi- 

 cult to bring the hedge under subjection. The 

 hedge should be pruned in the winter time, and 

 also should be sheared two or three times during 

 the summer. The season of the year is imma- 

 terial, so long as strong growths are kept down 

 and the hedge is kept in uniform shape and con- 

 dition. The operator must first decide upon the 

 shape of hedge which he desires, whether conical- 

 topped, round -topped or flat -topped, and then 

 work to that model. The form should be blocked 

 out very early in the life of the hedge, in fact, 

 just as soon as the plants begin to grow thick 

 enough to form a wall. This same form can be 

 kept year by year ; but the hedge will necessarily 

 rise a little in height every year, at least until the 

 plants have grown several years, and the vigor 

 has begun to be checked by the continuous prun- 

 ing and the crowding of the roots. 



In order to make hedges impenetrable to pigs 

 and other animals, the plants are often plashed 

 when young. This consists in bending the main 

 shoots over to an oblique or diagonal position, 



