H E D 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



HED 



669 



Apple the planter may prefer. If the stocks be of Apple 

 kernels, they may stand ungrafted, for many of them will 

 yield very good cider fruit; but then such stocks as are not 

 Drafted will be longer before they bear, and also when you 

 do graft, you may be certain of your kind ; but if you find 

 a very natural stock, which by leaf, shoot, and bud, appears 

 likely, you may try it, and so you may procure a fine new 

 fruit ; and if you do not like it, you may graft it when you 

 please. With respect to the rest of the hedge, when it has 

 shot four or five years, you may lay it to make a fence : for 

 the doing of which, take the following directions; first, at 

 every laying to lay down some old plashes, or, if the hedge 

 be thin, young ones ; but they may be so laid, as to point 

 with their ends to the ditch-side of the bank, the ends being 

 kept low on the bank ; by being so ordered, they will the 

 better thicken the bottom of the hedge, and keep up the 

 earth of the bank. Secondly, to heighten the bank every 

 time you lay earth on it, so as to cover the layers, all but 

 the ends ; this earth will very much help the sets, and by 

 heightening the banks, and deepening the ditch, you will ren- 

 der the fence the better. Thirdly, not to cut the plashes too 

 much, but just so as they may bend down well; not to lay 

 them too upright, as some do, but to lay them near to a level ; 

 for by so doing, the sap will the better break out at several 

 places, and not run so much to the ends, as it will when they 

 lie too much upon the slope. If you have much wood to 

 spare, you may cut up great part of those that grow near the 

 ditch, but then the banks should be hung with bushes, to 

 prevent cattle from cropping them during the first year : these 

 will shoot strong, secure the hedge, keep up the bank, and 

 thicken the bottom of the hedge. Fourthly, take care to 

 lay the hedge pretty thick, and turn the beard on the ditch- 

 side ; but you must not let the beard hang uncut, though it 

 makes a good show at the first making, but you must cut off 

 all the straggling boughs within half a foot of the hedge on 

 both sides, which will cause it to shoot strong at these places, 

 and make the hedge much thicker. Fifthly, if the bank be 

 high, the hedge should be made so low that it may just serve 

 for a fence the first year, for it will soon grow higher ; and 

 the lower the hedge is made, the faster the sets will grow, 

 and also will be thicker at the bottom ; but care must be 

 taken to preserve it from cattle, on the field-side, for the 

 first two years that it is made. Sixthly, if you would have 

 a good hedge, or fence, you should new-lay it once in four- 

 teen or fifteen years, and constantly root out Elder, Traveller's 

 Joy, which some call Bull-bine, Briony, &c. and do not leave 

 too many high standards or pollards in it, though the Elm is 

 one of the best ; also no dead wood is to be left in the bot- 

 tom of the hedges, for that will choke the quick; but if there 

 be a gap, the dead hedge should be made at a distance. 

 The Crab is also frequently planted for hedges, and if the 

 plants are raised from the kernels of the small wild Crab, 

 they are much to be preferred to those which are raised from 

 kernels of all sorts of apples without distinction; because 

 the plants of the true small Crab never shoot so strong as 

 those of Apples, and may therefore be better kept within 

 the proper compass of a hedge ; and as they generally have 

 more thorns upon them, they are better guarded againsl 

 cattle ; besides, the plants of the Crab will grow more equal 

 than those which are raised from the kernels'of various kinds 

 of apples, for these always produce a variety of plants which 

 differ fiom each other in their manner of growth, as much as 

 in the size and flavour of their fruits, so that hedges formec 

 of them will neither appear so well, nor can be so well ma- 

 naged, as the other. Some persons intermix Crab with the 

 Wliiic-thorn in their hedges; but this is not a good method, 



or the plants of the Crab will grow much stronger than 

 those of the White-thorn, so that the hedges will not be of 

 equal growth; which is not near so beautiful or useful, as 

 when the plants of a hedge keep pace in their growth. The 

 Black-thorn or Sloe is also frequently planted for hedges, 

 and is a strong durable plant for that purpose, especially as 

 it is so strongly armed with thorns, that cattle seldom care 

 to browse upon it : but where this is planted, the best way is, 

 to raise the plant from the stones of the fruit ; for all those 

 which are taken from the roots of old trees, spawn and put 

 out suckers in such plenty from their roots, as to spread 

 over, and fill the neighbouring ground to a considerable 

 distance on each side of the hedges ; and this plenty of 

 suckers drawing away the nourishment from the old plants 

 of the hedge, they never grow so well as where there are 

 few or no suckers produced ; which the plants propagated 

 from stones seldom send forth, or at least but sparingly, and 

 therefore they are easily removed. The best method of rais- 

 ing these hedges is, to sow the stones in the place where 

 the hedge is intended, when it can be conveniently done, 

 for then the plants will make much greater progress than 

 those which are transplanted : but the objection to this 

 method will arise from the difficulty of securing the young 

 plants from the cattle ; yet this can have little force, when 

 it must be considered, that if the hedge be planted it must 

 be fenced for some years, to prevent the cattle from destroy- 

 ing the sets ; therefore the same fence will do for it when 

 sown, nor will it require a fence much longer than the 

 other, for the plants which stand unremoved, will make 

 a better fence in seven years, than that which is trans- 

 planted when the plants be of three or four years' growth. 

 The stones of this fruit should be sown early in January, if 

 the weather will permit; but when they are kept out of the 

 ground longer, it will be proper to mix them with sand, and 

 keep them in a cool place. The bushes of the Black-thorn 

 are by much the best of any for making of dead hedges, 

 being more lasting, and having so many thorns, that neither 

 the cattle nor the hedge-breakers will care to meddle with 

 it. They are also the best to be used for underground 

 drains, for the draining of land ; for they will remain sound 

 a long time, after the air is excluded from them. The Holly 

 is sometimes planted for hedges, and is a very strong and 

 durable fence; but where it is exposed there will be great 

 care necessary to prevent it from being destroyed. It is by 

 far the most beautiful plant that is used for hedges, and beint; 

 an evergreen, will afford much better shelter in winter than 

 any other kind of hedge, especially as the leaves are armed 

 with thorns, which prevent the cattle from browsing on it. 

 This plant however is of slow growth, so that hedges planted 

 with it require to be fenced a much longer time than most 

 others. This defect will exclude it from general use: yet in 

 such grounds as lie contiguous to or in sight of gentlemen's 

 houses, hedges of Holly will have a very pleasing effect, 

 especially where they are well kept, as they will preserve 

 thoir beauty at all seasons ; and in the spring of the year, when 

 the sharp winds render it unpleasant to walk abroad, these 

 hedges will afford a good shelter for keeping off the cold 

 winds. The surest method of raising a Holly hedge is, by 

 sowing the berries in the place where they are to stand ; but 

 these berries should be buried in the eround a whole year 

 before they are sown ; by which method they will be pre- 

 pared to grow in the following- spring. The way of doing this 

 is, to gather the berries about Christmas, which is the time 

 they are usually ripe, and put them into large flower-pots, 

 mixing some sand with them ; then dig holes in the ground, 

 into which the pots must be sunk, covering them over with 



