FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2 



were attended to, and the experiment surpassed, 

 in success, his most sanguine expectations. The 

 field cuhure ot" the turnip spread rapidly through 

 the county of Norlblk, which, ti-om that epoch, 

 dales its hio'h reputation as an aixricuitural district. 

 Lands, which rented lor one or two sJiiliings an 

 acre, soon brought fifteen or twenty, and steril 

 warrens, on which were only to be seen a lew 

 half-starved rabbits, were reclaimed, and are now 

 covered vvith rich harvests of grain. Colquhoun, 

 in his statistical researches, computes that the an- 

 nual value of a crop of turnips in Norfolk alone, 

 amounts to not less than fifteen millions sterling! 

 When it is considered that this root has been the 

 means of bringing under culture, lands, which, 

 without it, must have remained valueless; that it 

 leaves the soil in a condition to ensure a good crop 

 of ijrain or grass, and that the latter is a good pre- 

 paration lor wheat, we may safely consider the be- 

 nefits resulting to England liom the turnip culture 

 as incalculable. If it was now asked, sa3-s Col- 

 quhoun, who was the man, in modern times, who 

 }iad rendered England the most signal service, no 

 one should hesitate to say, that it was the noble- 

 man whom shallow courtiers nicknamed, in deri- 

 sion, "Turnip Townsend." In half a century the 

 turnips spread over the three kingdoms, and their 

 yearly value, at this day, says the same author, is 

 not interior in amount to the interest of the national 

 debt!!! 



For tlie Farmer's Register. 

 HEDGES — OSAGE ORANGE. 



Hitherto, attempts to construct live fences in 

 this country have mostly liiiled, in consequence of 

 the want of adaptation in the material to the cir- 

 cumstances of soil and climate. The thdrn flour- 

 ishes well in the humid climate of England, but in 

 our hot and dry seasons its growth becomes feeble 

 and stunted. The cedar and some other plants, 

 though very ornamental, constitute weak barriers 

 against the inroads of stock. 



So many unsuccessful attempts to grow hedges, 

 especially in the states north of us, have induced a 

 general prejudice against that species of enclosure. 

 Every person, however, is disposed to admit, that 

 if a suitable plant for the purpose could be intro- 

 duced, it would be an important acquisition. At 

 present, each fiarm is obliged to have Irom a fifth 

 to a third of its contents in timber, in order to main- 

 tain its enclosures. If efficient hedges could be 

 substituted, the advantages would be obvious. A 

 lar<je portion of irood land, now unproductive, 

 might be brought into cultivation; and a great 

 amount of labor might be saved, wdiich we are 

 now compelled to bestow on the present system of 

 fencing — to say nothing of the improvement in the 

 rural appearance of the country, which would be 

 eflfected by doing away our unsightly jog fences, 

 and rearing hedges in their places. 



it is gratifying, therefore, to be assured, that in 

 one of our native plants; name!}', the machira or 

 Osage orange, we are likely to realize this desir- 

 able object. The maclura is a deciduous tree, 

 growing indigenously in Arkansas and Louisiana 

 — is perfectly hardy in this latitude, and even as 

 far north as Boston. For a number of years it has 

 been cultivated in the grounds of a \ew private 

 gentlemen, and in some of the large nurseries. 



It is only recently, however, that its value has 

 been appreciated, or any pains taken to propagate 

 it extensively. In its native habitat, it attains to 

 the size of" a tree of the second or third class; but 

 in this latitude, its altitude is very moderate, sel- 

 dom rising to the height of fifteen feet. Its great 

 merit consists in the spreading manner of its 

 growth, the denseness of its branches, and the ar- 

 mature with which they are furnished. Planted 

 in hedge-rows, the maclura would never become 

 unmanageable on account of its size — at the same 

 time, its growth is suliiciently vigorous to make a 

 lence in three, tour, or utmost, five years, from the 

 seed. It may be asserted with safety, that on 

 land of tolerable fertilif}-, the labor and expense of 

 perfecting a system of hedges, would not be great- 

 er tlian to keep our ordinary enclosures in good or- 

 der, for the time required lo construct them. When 

 completed, this heavy item in every farmer's ac- 

 count would thenceforth be expunged. 



The maclura is readily raised from the seed. 

 Unlike those of the thorn, they require no pre- 

 paration — on the contrary, they vegetate with cer- 

 tainty in two or three weeks after planting. Un- 

 der tolerable care, the seedlings will grow two feet 

 or more in height the first season; after which, 

 they are fit to be removed from the nursery rows 

 to the place designed for the hedge. I raised a 

 number of plants the past year Irom seeds, the 

 produce of a tree growing in my garden, now 

 eight or nine years old. 



For an individual to engaije in the business in 

 earnest, it would be best for him to obtain the seed 

 fi'om the south-west, rather than to purchase the 

 plants from a nurseryman. A few dollars would 

 procure enough of the former, and pay all the ex- 

 penses of transportation, to set a long line of Itedge. 

 The preferable mode would be to have them 

 brought in the berries, from which they might al- 

 terwards be picked without much trouble. Fifty 

 berries would yield at least a pound of seed, and a 

 pound contains from eight to ten thousand grains, 

 his the practice to place the sets from twelve to 

 fifteen inches apart, in a single row. These facts 

 will enable any person to form a correct judg- 

 ment of the number necessary to plant any given 

 length of hedge. 



But it is not to be expected, whatever rr;ay be 

 the adaptation of any plant to the purpose of hedg- 

 ing, that it will, under a long time, be brought into 

 general use. The most palpable improvements 

 are slow in being adopted. A considerable por- 

 tion of our country is moreover too much impov- 

 erished to admit of the successfiil rearing of hedges. 

 They belong eminently to a state of cultivation 

 where taste and industry are measurably combined. 

 But if we have worn-out fields, we liave also 

 fine districts of country, where their pleasing 

 efl'ects, as well as utility, would be most manifest. 

 What an air of neatness and imqirovement they 

 would impart to the finely cultivated farms on 

 James river, both abpve and below Richmond, to 

 those also on the Rappahannock, the Roanoke, 

 and in many other sections of the state that mifrht 

 be designated with equal propriety. In most of 

 these places, the lands are so valuable that there 

 is now a great deficiency of timber; and, from ne- 

 cessity, they are therefore almost exclusively de- 

 voted to grain. Along the lines of canals also, 

 where permanent fences are obliged to be main- 

 tained, there would be a great advantage in plant- 



