FARMER'S ASSISTANT. ujr 



When it is thus raked into winrows, it is draged up by the 

 rake into bundles, large enough tor making into cocks. 



Those who make use of smooth ploughing lands for 

 mowing grounds, or have smooth meadows, will do well to 

 attend to this labor saving implement. 



HEDGES. For making these, different sorts of trees 

 have been used, and the hedges have been made in differ- 

 ent ways. Some have pretered planting the hedge on the 

 top of a bank, thrown up for the purpose ; while the more 

 modern method is, to plant it on the surface, without any 

 bank. This latter metnod is the cheapest, and, as is ob- 

 served by Mr. Pickering, of Massachusetts, would seern 

 to be the only proper method, in some hilly situations; as 

 in such the ditcti, to be made for raising the bank, may 

 form a channel (or carrying off much water, and thus be- 

 come liable to be cut into a deep gully, to the ultimate 

 ruin of the hedge. 



In level lands, however, a hedge set on a bank, properly 

 made, would seem to be most formidable to catae ; but the 

 bank we should prefer would be one raised between two 

 sm^U ditches, and made in the manner described under 

 FENCES. A bank of this description, after having served 

 the purpose of a ience, with the aid of the additions there 

 described, may, in the mean time, have the young hedge 

 coming to sufficient maturity ; when the additions, first 

 made tor completing the fence, may be taken away. 



We have, at the same time, no doubt that a good hedge 

 may eventually be made, in dry level lands, without the aid 

 of a bank ; but in wet or meadow-lunds, which are not 

 natural to the growths of upland timber, we should advise 

 to have a bank sufficiently raised to lay the ground dry ; 

 unless willow, or some other growth suitable to a wet soil, 

 is to be used for making the hedge. 



We have seen the Washington-thorn (crataegus cordata) 

 planted in Maryland, without any bank> on uplands; some 

 of which were sufficiently dry, and some were naturally 

 wet; and the result, as far as our observations extended, 

 went to show that thorn, of that species at least, requires a 

 bed of moderately dry earth ; and that it does not flourish 

 in wet soils. 



This remark is/ here made, from a belief that thorn, 

 adapted to the climate, is one of the most valuable trees for 

 making hedges ; that every species of this tree requires a 

 soil laid sufficiently dry, it it be not naturally so; and that 

 it should not be deficient of a considerable degree of fertili- 

 ty, either natural or acquired. 



Where hedges are to be made of this tree, without be- 

 iflg set in a bank, v/s should advise to the method pursued 



