12 



RENNIES AGRICULTURE. 



Groups of 

 Evergreens — 

 Trimming 

 Evergfreen 

 Hedges. 



In a country with long winters, and when the 

 deciduous trees are without their foliage, the home 

 is more attractive and comfortable when surrounded 

 with evergreens. One or two groups, properly 

 located in the grounds, improve the scenery. When 

 trimming evergreen hedges, slope the sides so that 

 the bottom branches will get a share of the rains and 

 dews. Cut the top even with the top wire of fence, 

 which should not be too high. In a long hedge it is 

 advisable to allow a tree in the hedge to grow 

 twenty-five inches higher every fifty or sixty feet, 

 and round the top. This improves the appearance 

 by taking off the plainness. See Home, North View. 

 At each side of the gates leave a tree about forty 

 inches above the hedge, trimmed round or any de- 

 sirable shape. For hedges, the most desirable are 

 the cedar and Norway spruce, and where the winter 

 is not too severe, the hemlock, with its drooping 

 branches, makes one of the most graceful hedges. 

 The cedar is of a slower growth, but makes the 

 most compact hedge of any of the evergreens. 

 Evergreen hedges should be grown close to a wire 

 fence, so that the branches will grow through be- 

 tween the wires. After being trimmed outside the 

 fence each autumn for several years, the branches 

 will have become so interwoven with the wires that, 

 even after the posts have decayed, the wires will 

 remain in place, and make the hedge thoroughly 

 stock proof, thus providing a useful and ornamental 

 live hedge which will last for fifty years or more. 

 There are many deciduous shrubs that make beauti- 

 ful hedges during the summer months, but on 

 account of casting their leaves in the autumn they 

 add no attraction to the grounds when most needed. 

 These also require the protection of a wire fence. 

 "Spirea VanHouttei" makes a beautiful hedge when 

 in bloom. 



