Book IV. HEDGE-FENCES. 4^5 



which they require, and wliich would very soon enable them to form a fence equal tqthat part occuiwed 

 by the strongest plants. 



2788. In regard to the dressing and pruning qf kedgo-j>lants before they are put into 

 the earth f there is perhaps no part of the system of managing them, or forest trees, more 

 hurtful and defective than that now pursued in the common nurseries. It is a very 

 common practice with nurserymen, in the spring, when they wish to clear their ground 

 for other purposes, to take up great quantities of thorns and other hedge-plants ; and 

 after pruning the tops, and cutting off nearly the whole of the roots, to tie them up in 

 bundles, and lay these bundles in heaps till they are called for. In that mutilated state 

 they often remain for many weeks, with the mangled roots naked and unprotected, 

 exposed to every inclemency of the weather, before they are sold. In place of this 

 treatment, the defects of which are so obvious, and the consequences resulting from it so 

 hurtful, no hedge-plants should be lifted out of the nursery-ground till the day or at 

 least a few days before that on wliich they are to be replanted, and in place of the severe 

 pruning and dressing already mentioned, every root, even to the smallest fibre, should 

 be carefully preserved, and the use of the knife confined entirely to the necessary curtail- 

 ing of the tops. Where this care is taken, and the plants are put into the ground at a 

 proper season, they will suffer no kind of check, and when the spring arrives grow 

 luxuriantly and with vigor. 



2789. In t/ie ofler-management of the hedge, complete weeding, loosening, and 

 laying new eartli to the roots, for the first three or four years, are indispensable requisites ; 

 for, whatever pains may have been previously taken in dunging and summer-fallowing 

 the soil, unless it is properly attended to and kept clean afterwards, this dunging and 

 summer-fallow, in place of being useful, will prove hurtful to the fence ; as the manure 

 and tillage, by enriching and opening the soil, will encourage and promote the growtJi 

 of weeds ; which, under circumstances so peculiarly fortunate, will become so luxuriant, 

 as either to destroy or materially injure the growth of the hedge, unless they are kept 

 down by frequent and complete cleanings. In loosening the earth about the roots of 

 hedges, whetlier old or young, it will be of advantage, if there is soil enough to admit of 

 it, to lay up a few inches of it to the roots ; doing this frequently encourages them to 

 push out branches near the bottom, which prevent them from growing thin and open, 

 a fault to which almost all hedges are liable, if due pains are not taken to prevent it. 



2790. On the pruning and afier-management of hedges will depend a very consider- 

 able part of their beauty and future value. There is, perhaps, no part of the subject 

 upon which a greater contrariety of opinion at present prevails, than the age at which the 

 pruning of hedges ought to commence, the manner of that pruning, or the season of tlie 

 year at which it may be given with the greatest possible advantage and the least risk ; the 

 practice with some is, to prune, from the first year, not only the lateral branches, but the 

 tops also ; they give as a reason, that cutting off the extremities of the shoots contributes 

 to thickening of the hedge, by making them push out a great number of new ones. 

 The fallacy of this argument, and the mischief with which the practice is attended, we 

 shall have occasion to notice afterwards. As to tlie manner of pruning, or the form of 

 the hedge, these seem, Vith many, to be matters of indifference, no attention being paid 

 to dressing them in such a way as to have them broad at bottom, and tapering gradually 

 towards the top : many of them being not only of one width from top to bottom, and 

 not a few much heavier and broader above than they are below, it is obvious that such 

 hedges can neither look well nor be useful. 



2791. The season at ivhich they are trimmed is in many instances an improper one ; for In place of 

 choosing that time when the plants are least in danger of suffering from an effusion of their juices, which 

 is cither at a late period in the autumn, very early in the spring, or about midsummer, the pruning is 

 given late in the spring season, when the sap is flowing : the check and injury they must receive from 

 having the whole of their extremities cut off at that period may easily be conceived. In .pcaking of the 

 treatment of hedge-plants before they are put into the ground, notice has been taken of the necessity of 

 preserving the roots as much as possible, and at the same time shortening the tops : this last operation has 

 two good effects ; by curtailing the top and branches, the roots have less to nourish ; and by leaving only 

 two or three inches of the top above ground, in place of growing up with a single stem, it sends out two or 

 three; and as these strike out from the plant so near the earth, each of them has the same effect, and 

 strengthens the hedge as much as the original stem would have done by itself; with this addition, that, in 

 place of one prop or support, the hedge will have three or four. 



2792. After this first pruning, however, no hetlge should be touched, or at least very gently, for some 

 years ; from an inattention to this circumstance, and the injudicious application of the knife or shears at an 

 early i>eriod, many young hedges are rendered useless, which, under different treatment, would have made 

 excellent fences, with one half the trouble that was requiretl to destroy them. The practice of cutting 

 over the tops yearly, which is done with a view to render the hedge thicker and more perfect, is one of 

 those mistakes which we would naturally have supj)0sed common sense and observation would have 

 sooner corrected ; the effect produced being, in almost every instance, the very reverse of what wa.-* 

 intended : shortening the main stem of a thorn or any other plant makes it throw out a number of small 

 stems immediately at the place where it has been cut ; and if this operation is repeated once or twice a- 

 year, every one of these is again subdivided, as it were, by sending out more branches : thus, in a course 

 of years, during which the hedge makes very small progress upwards, if it be examined, instead of being 

 found to consist of strong vigorous plants, with a good main trunk, each reaching from top to bottom 6t' 

 the hedge, and a sufficient number of lateral branches throughout the whole length of it, it will be 

 found, by such repeated cuttings, in the same stunted situation as certain young trees and shrub.s. that 

 are frequently cropped by sheep or cattle. From the repcatetl crops of young shoots which the tops send 



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