HEDGES — APPLE ORCHARD. 119 



HEDGES. 



Osage hedge is used mostly for division fences and is 

 kept cut back to four feet in hight. The pruning is done in 

 early Spring or in September ; midsummer trimming having 

 the effect of killing out the stocks and spoiling the hedge. On 

 low land and along the highway I have gray willow hedges, 

 which I have made very effective against stock in the follow- 

 ing manner: When sufficient size to form a strong stub they 

 are cut off three and a half feet from the ground and a single 

 barb wire is stretched along the row fastened every few 

 , feet by staples into the tops of the stubs. The willow sprouts 

 out and grows rapidly over and no beast will push through 

 it. Once in six or eight years the willows may be cut down 

 to the wire and furnish a large amount of wood. Objection is 

 found against the willow for a fence on account of the shade, 

 but my experience is that the protection to the crops within 

 the enclosure from high winds more than compensates for 

 the damage, without taking into consideration the value of the 

 wood. The willow absorbs a great amount of water and thus 

 benefits low land, and the roots do not exhaust the adjoining 

 fioil more than the osage. 



By my system of changing crops I have a large amount 

 -of permanent pasture, which is much improved by a top dress- 

 ing of manure once in three or four years. Top dressing of 

 meadow, however, injures the first crop of hay following, by 

 causing the grass to grow coarser, more woody, and with less 

 saccharine matter. 



MY APPLE ORCHARD 



■comprises three hundred trees of the best improved varieties 

 for the climate, placed in rows two rods apart. The ground 

 was prepared before planting by being raised with frequent 

 plowings into ridges two feet high, where the trees were set. 

 The corresponding depression between the ridges gives good 

 surface drainage. Since the trees have come to full beaiing, 

 every third year the orchard has been heavily manured, but 

 not plowed. It has also been my custom for years to 



