222 THE YOUNG FAKMEK's MANUAL. 



fruit-trees, to plant too dose together ; and, although very close 

 planting is recommended, on good authority, for hedges, it is 

 my candid conviction that if those hedgers who advocate and 

 adhere to very close planting, and who succeed well in raising 

 efficient hedges when planted very close together, would plant 

 the quicks farther apart, they would meet with still better suc 

 cess than they do in very close planting. No one will deny 

 that quicks for hedges may be planted too closely together, and 

 we all acknowledge, without any argument, that it is not diffi 

 cult, in the least, to plant them too far apart. Now, then, if 

 there is a point beyond which, in one direction, it may be said 

 the quicks are too near together, and, in the opposite direction, 

 they are too far apart, that is the point which will determine 

 most accurately the most proper distance apart for transplant 

 ing the quicks, in order to make the best and most efficient 

 hedge. The distance that might properly be called close plant 

 ing when one kind of plants is used, might not be said to be 

 too close for another plant. The kind of plants used always 

 should, in a great measure, determine the proper distance for the 

 plants to be set apart. We consider eight inches apart too dose 

 for any plants, and for any style of hedge, although some hedgers 

 advocate a distance of only four and six inches apart. -But 

 when plants are set so very close together, the shoots are very 

 apt to be small and slender, with not sufficient space for the lat 

 eral branches to attain suitable size for consistent strength ; and, 

 more than all else beside, when they are crowded so closely 

 together they are quite liable to die, in consequence of being de 

 prived, by those on each side of them, of their necessary nourish 

 ment at the roots. We consider one foot sufficiently dose for 

 any plants in a hedge row, and for some plants one foot apart is 

 just twice as close as they should be. When plants are set 

 closer than one foot, or even one foot and a half, let a few plants 

 be placed in a row at such" distances apart, and see how little 

 space they have for branching out. Look, for example, at the 

 sprouts around stumps which stand very close to each other. 



