434 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



delight in dry soils, may also be successfully employed for making hedges in the low 

 lands ; but whichever of these is used, they should, if possible, be without mixture. 

 It is seldom that any soil, however good, will be found equally favorable to the growth 

 of plants opposite in their natures ; this circumstance alone will render their growth 

 unequal, and of course make the fence faulty and defective. These defects in the fence, 

 and inequalities in the growth of the plants, will increase with time, become every day 

 more apparent, and be every day more sensibly felt ; as the plants which have thus ac- 

 quired the ascendancy will continue to keep it, and not only shade the weaker ones, and 

 prevent them from enjoying the influence of the sun and air, but also deprive them of 

 nourishment. Independent of these considerations, there is another, it is observed, of 

 equal, perhaps greater, moment, that requires to be mentioned ; allowing the soil to be 

 equally favorable to the growth of the whole plants of which the mixture consists, there 

 are certain plants which are highly inimical to the growth of others, when planted in their 

 immediate vicinity ; ivy and honeysuckle, for instance, when mixed with thorns, or other 

 plants in a hedge, never fail to destroy such of the hedge-plants as they fasten upon ; 

 indeed moss, which is known to be one of the worst enemies to all hedges, is not more 

 dangerous or more certainly ruinous ; even the different kinds of sweet-briar, virgin's 

 bower, brambles, briony, cleavers, &c. have the same effect ; and in the end never fail 

 to produce a gap in that part of the edge where they grow, by smothering the other 

 plants. 



2784. The preparation of the soil/or hedges, is one of those points intimately connected 

 with, and, indeed, essential to, their success. Except in a very few instances, however 

 poor the soil may be, or however strong the cohesion of its parts, no attempt is made 

 either to break that cohesion by tillage, or improve its quality l)y enriching or alterative 

 manures : the young plants being for the most part laid upon the old surface, which has 

 perhaps never been opened by the labor of man, and their roots covered with the earth 

 taken out of the ditch, consisting very often of the poorest and coldest till, or of earths 

 loaded with iron or other metallic impregnations. To those who have considered the 

 matter with the smallest attention, the fate of such a hedge will not appear doubtful ; 

 the surface upon which the plants are laid will be so hard and impervious to the roots, as 

 to preclude tlie possibility of their penetrating it ; of course, their only chance of either 

 extending themselves, or procuring nourishment, is by spreading out between the surface 

 and the mound made by the earth taken out of the ditch, or by striking up into the 

 mound, where, though the soil will be sufficiently open to admit of this, the roots, in 

 place of finding an establishment in a situation friendly to their growth, will very often 

 be either starved or poisoned. 



2785. With respect to the age at which hedge-plants ought to be used, it is very common, 

 especially where young hedges are made with thorns, to plant them of one, two, or three 

 years old, seldom exceeding this last age. Plants of this description, when put into the 

 earth at a proper season of the year, upon land that is well prepared, and that are after- 

 wards carefully kept clean, and the earth soft and loose, by regular weeding and digging, 

 seldom fail to make good fences ; such young plants, however, are, it is observed, long 

 in a state of infancy, and require great nursing and the most complete protection to 

 bring them to perfection, and are liable to be either much hurt or totally destroyed by 

 many accidents that would produce little or no effect upon older and stronger plants. 

 Much time might be saved in the rearing of hedges, and the fences be much more perfect 

 and useful, if older plants were employed for that purpose. Three years old is certainly 

 the youngest that should be planted, and if they are even six or seven years old, so much 

 the better : the prevailing idea that plants of that age will not thrive if transplanted, is 

 totally unfounded. Thorns of six or seven years old, in place of being no thicker than 

 a common straw, will be at a medium more than an inch in circumference : we leave 

 those who are judges to determine how far a plant of this last description will be 

 superior to one of twa years old, and how much sooner it will answer the purposes of a 

 fence. 



2786. Ill respect to the size of thorns or other Iiedge-plants, it may be necessary to observe, that, whei> 

 the plants are once obtained, they should be separated into sorts, according to their size and apparent 

 strength, picking out the largest first, and so on downwards. This will be attended with several very 

 material advantages, which those who have made observations on the subject will very readily under- 

 stand; plants of the same size and strength, when planted together, keep pace with each other ; no one 

 of them takes from the earth more than its own share of nourishment, of course the growth of the whole 

 is regular and uniform j and the hedge, when arrived at a certain age, becomes a substantial efficient fence, 

 of an equal height throughout, and free of any gaps : whereas, when no pains have been taken in assort- 

 ing the plants, and they are planted promiscuouslv, great and small, strong and weak, the consequence 

 is, that the strongest plants very soon outgrow such as are weaker, and not only overtop them, but also 

 deprive them of that nourishment which they so much require: as the hedge advances in age, the evil 

 becomes greater, small stunted plants and innumerable gaps appearing throughout the whole line of the 

 fence ; interspersed with others remarkable for their strength and luxuriance. 



2787. This assorting of hedge-plants has a farther advantage ; namely, that of putting it in the power of 

 the person who plants the hedge to put down the large, strong, healthy plants upon the poorest part of the 

 line of the fence, and to set such as are smaller and weaker upon the richer and more fertile parts. He 

 has it also in his power, by a more careful preparation of the soil, and bestowing a greater proportion of 

 manure upon the .spaces where the small plants are set, to give them that nourishment and assistance 



