INCLOSURES 191 



Bramble and sweetbriar commonly formed it here, tak- 

 ing the place of the English hawthorn or quick, which 

 never seems to have been much used, although both 

 Washington and Jefferson purchased it in large quan- 

 tity, and they and Penn refer to the hedges of it. Most 

 effective barriers they made, too, the bramble especially 

 being praised. This was the common wild blackberry, 

 plentiful everywhere; and its great value lay in the fact 

 that it shoots very freely from the roots, and the 

 branches take root at their tips. Thus it increased 

 and thickened very fast, each year furnishing much 

 new wood, while the old fruiting branches, dying each 

 year, added to the increasing tangle. Two or three 

 years of this sort of thing, especially where a "dead 

 hedge" of thorn had been set above the brambles when 

 they were planted, for them to clamber through, may 

 well be believed to insure an utterly impassable mass, 

 which not even tiny creatures could work under or 

 through, nor large ones tear down. 



Directions for setting such a hedge say that the 

 plants should be put six inches apart, and all gaps 

 which show the first year after planting, should be 

 filled with more plants. Then the tips of the over- 

 arching branches may be allowed to take root on either 

 side, if greater width is desired ; or they may be whipped 

 off in August and thus "kept within bounds." 



Gradually more land was fenced, as the population 



