204 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



a difference of five degrees in temperature will advance or retard 

 plants of the same kind and same advantages, temperature excepted, 

 ten or fifteen days. Of all our cultivated plants, corn is the one which 

 requires the highest temperature, and will endure it the longest with- 

 out injury. Melons require more heat than the climate of the northern 

 States afford to reach the perfection of which they are capable further 

 south ; and, in England, they cannot be grown at all, without the aid 

 of artificial heat. 



HEDGE. One of the most beautiful and durable of fences, made 

 of living plants, usually those of a thorny nature, and disposed to 

 grow in a close and impervious manner. One of the most striking 

 features of the English landscape, is the hedges which serve to divide 

 the estates from each other, or the several farms into suitable fields for 

 the purpose of agriculture. In the United States, numerous attempts 

 at making hedges have been made, but owing to some unexplained 

 cause, with but little success on the whole. The plants used here 

 have been generally the same variety of the foreign hedge thorn, but 

 the deep green of the English hedge is not seen on the same plants 

 here, and they are liable to the attacks of worms, which speedily 

 destroy them. The Osage orange, the honey locust, the crab apple, 

 and the wild mulberry, are natives of this country, and have been tried 

 with different degrees of success. And there has been introduced for 

 this purpose, into the vicinity of Boston, the buckthorn, and there are 

 some beautiful specimens of hedges from this plant, which promise to 

 be all the lovers of this kind of fence can desire. However, it is 

 apprehended that as the circumstances here, are so different from* what 

 they are in England, it will be long indeed before hedges in this country 

 become general. 



HEMP. This is an annual plant of great use in the arts and 

 manufactures, furnishing thread, cloth, and cordage. Hemp bears a 

 near analogy to flax, not only in form, but also in culture and use. The 

 bark of the stalk, as in flax, is the chief object for which it is cultiva- 

 ted. Large portions of the Western States are peculiarly adapted to 

 the production of hemp, both so far as soil and climate are concerned ; 

 and for many years it has been a conspicuous object of attention. 

 Kentucky may as yet be considered the great hemp growing portion 

 of the American Union. It requires a warm, rich, vegetable mould, 

 to produce it in perfection, and the best limestone lands in Kentucky 

 and Tennessee are admirably adapted to it ; and, it is to be hoped, 

 that ere long enough of it will be raised to prevent the necessity of 

 further importations of it from abroad. 



HEN. The number of eggs laid in a year by the domestic hen 

 are above two hundred ; provided she be well fed and supplied with 

 water. In the wild state the hen seldom lays more than fifteen eggs. 

 When she begins to sit, her perseverance and patience are very 

 remarkable ; she continues for some days immovable ; and when 



