1756.] jar ed eliot. 373 



I have, in my travels abroad, but much more near home, observed 

 with concern, our approaching distress on the account of our want 

 of timber for fencing, and indeed many of our necessary uses. A 

 great part of the country that "was first settled, hath not near tim- 

 ber enough on each tract for one set of new fence, nor one half of 

 the old good enough to keep a cow in the field, or a horse out.* 

 Ditching helps us very little ; and a quick hedge less, by reason of 

 the horned cattle and sheep. The latter kill the Quickset, with 

 cropping the tender shoots ; and the former, not only with brows- 

 ing, but when it is grown, they twis^t and break the bushes, and 

 tear down the bank with their horns, tho' never so well turfed with 

 grass. I have made great, deep ditches, and consequently, high 

 banks ; if I made them steep, the frost and rain would moulder 

 and wash the bank down ; if I made them wide and slanting, the 

 cattle would climb up and tread them down ; if the ditch is nar- 

 row, they step over. About sixteen years past, I planted a hedge 

 of Red Cedars (one foot long), on a small bank, about two feet 

 asunder. They grew so well, that in three or four years I had a 

 fine hedge four feet liisrli, two feet thick, and so close that a bird 

 could not fly through it. Then I thought I had been furnished 

 with the only material that was requisite for a strong, lasting, 

 beautiful fence, that had all the good properties that the others 

 wanted; as, first, it would grow well on all our different soils; 

 secondly, none of our cattle would crop them ;f thirdly, * * * 

 [Reliqua desunt.~\ 



March the 14th, 1756. 



Dear Friend Eliot : 



I have, since I left thy house, been very much hurried in tra- 

 velling, and sending my curiosities to Europe ; after which, I 

 married my daughter to a worthy young man, whose house is in 

 sight of mine, and about half an hour's walk. Since which, our 

 friend Benjamin Franklin hath been a great while in the back 

 parts of our country, building forts. Since his return home, he 



* This apprehension was very prevalent among the old farmers of Pennsylvania, 

 until -within a few years past ; but the threatened evil was always exaggerated, 

 and since the working of the coal mines, the alarm has almost wholly subsided. 



f Experience has shown that the Red Cedar (and probably every other thorn- 

 less plant) is unfitted to make an effective hedge, in this region. It is believed 

 that the Crataegus Cras-GalU, L., aifords the best material for hedging, though 

 even that requires great care and skilful management, to insure a perfect hedge. 



