19 



planting in the spring. Great care should be taken to 

 preserve the very fine roots. If hedges for fences be want- 

 ed, the young trees may be taken from the seedlings of the 

 last year. The white mulberry forms an excellent live 

 fence, and when once established is probably the most 

 permanent of any other. Cattle must not be allowed 

 free access to the hedge while young, as they would de- 

 stroy it altogether ; but after it has become a good fence 

 they may approach it with advantage. The more it is 

 broken and lacerated by cattle, the more impenetrable it 

 will become ; as for every branch broken, a half dozen 

 shoots will immediately start out, till the bush forms a 

 perfect bramble. This mode is therefore 1 recommended 

 as accomplishing three important objects : supplying food 

 for silk worms ; keeping the trees low, that the leaves may 

 be gathered from the ground by children, and furnishing 

 a good and almost never ending fence. In transplanting 

 young trees for hedges, they should not be pruned ; but 

 the second year, or at least the third, the tops should be 

 cut off and the side branches trained laterally with the 

 hedge by interweaving them. 



SETTING OUT STANDARD TREES. 



It is an axiom in rural economy, that the greater the 



disbursement in improving the land the greater will be 



the proportional income. The land where the trees are 



to be set, will be much better for the purpose if ploughed, 



harrowed and manured. The trees may be three years 



<old if taken from a rich soil, or four if from a poor soil ; 



they should be from four to eight feet in height, and at 



least an inch in diameter. The holes should be dug at 



2* 



