FENCES AND HEDGES. 429 



OF FENCES AND HEDGES. 



Mention has already been made of the Ha ! ha ! which is a wall 

 constructed in the bottom of a dry ditch, and effectually concealed 

 from the view on the interior side, or the side most exposed to view, 

 by a lowly-graduated embankment to the top of the wall ; this 

 embankment being formed of the earth which was taken from the 

 ditch, which is all thrown out on that side, and smoothly spread. 

 In all those situations where division fences of any other kind 

 would but intercept or destroy the unity and beauty of the prospect, 

 such an invisible division wall is admirable. 



A beautiful hedge may be quickly formed of the Larch ; and those 

 formed either of the Prim or of the Arbor-vitse, or Red cedar, are 

 eminently beautiful ; and particularly the last named, when, pruned 

 in pyramidal form, they become remarkably compact and impervi- 

 ous. These are the plants which no insect or animal will de- 

 vour. As to the English hawthorn and the Washington thorn, 

 they are both obnoxious to the destructive attacks of the borer, and 

 cannot therefore be recommended. The following plants form 

 beautiful live fences, all being armed with thorns : The Three- 

 Thorned Acacia, when properly trained; it is armed with triple 

 thorns a foot long. The Shepardia is beautiful in the leaf, or 

 when covered with its crimson berries. The Osage orange has a 

 beautiful leaf, and a very strong thorn or spine, and makes the finest 

 hedge in the world. It is a new species of Morus or Mulberry, and 

 so classed by naturalists. It endures the winters well, on hills and 

 elevated situations near Boston, but is sometimes liable to be injured 

 in its tops by the winter, in low grounds and valleys. The Prickly or 

 Thorny ash (Zanthoxylum fraxineum) has a good thorn : both this 

 and the Buckthorn (Ramnus r.atharticus) are of the most hardy char- 

 acter, will grow well on any soil, and no animal or insect can en- 

 dure them. The thorns of the latter, as also those of the Shepardia, 

 like those of the Pear tree, grow only at the extremity of the 

 branches. The Buckthorn is deservedly a popular plant near 

 Boston. Lastly, the Cockspur thorn (Crus galli) is of rapid 

 growth, has a beautiful leaf, and a strong thorn or spine, and is very 

 hardy. John Prince, Esq., of Roxbury, who has tried this plant as 

 a hedge for more than twenty years, is persuaded that no borer will 

 ever annoy it, and that it is the best of all thorns. 



The hedge should be set out in the spring. In the autumn pre- 

 vious, the ground should be dug on the intended line, at least 

 eighteen inches deep, and the yellow subsoil cast out to this depth, 

 and the trench filled with rich soil intermixed with good compost. 

 The young plants, which should have been transplanted in the pre- 

 vious year, are now to be sized, and reset in a single line, at the 

 distance of nine inches asunder, and the ground kept in high culti- 

 vation for a few years. The next spring, cut down the deciduous 

 thorns to within four inches of the ground, when two or three 

 branches will start up with renewed vigor, growing several feet 

 during that summer. But evergreen trees must never be thus cut 

 down. In the spring following, if any of the plants have discovered 

 a disposition to outgrow all others, let such, and such only, be again 



