THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 217 



BUCKTHORN FOR HEDGES. 



" What a thorny maze we tread I 

 Thorns beneath and overhead I 

 How they pierce, and scratch, and tear 1 

 Cursed thorns grow everywhere." HAMLET. 



293. The buckthorn is pronounced by some writers to be the 

 most suitable plant for hedges that can be found in the United 

 States. It makes an efficient and impenetrable hedge when prop 

 erly treated, and grows very rapidly, is very hardy, and almost 

 entirely exempt from disease and from the attacks of insects. 

 There are hedges of the buckthorn in some of the older States, 

 which have subserved the purpose of an impenetrable fence for 

 more than forty years, and are now free from gaps and weak 

 places. The buckthorn bears pruning very extensively without 

 any apparent injury, and is never injured by the most intense 

 cold of winter. It vegetates early in the spring, and does not 

 cast off its verdure until late in autumn. 



294. The figure here shown represents a branch of the buck 

 thorn. The seed may be sown early in autumn in mellow soil, 

 covered about one inch deep, when most of them will vegetate 

 the next spring, if the seed is good. It is best to have at 'least 

 two rows, or three, in a hedge row of buckthorn, and train them 

 by shearing down, so that the hedge will be an impenetrable mat 

 clear to the ground. . 



There are several other kinds of thorns, such as the "Washing 

 ton, Newcastle, Hawthorn, and some others, which have been 

 used for hedges, and sometimes successfully ; but they are so 

 liable to be affected by blight, or insects, or something else which 

 is very injurious to them, that it is not safe, except in a few locali 

 ties, to experiment with them. The various kinds of thorn are 

 propagated by gathering the haws or seed, and divesting them 

 of the skin and pulpy matter, and sowing them in the fall, so 

 that they may freeze and thaw during the winter. 



