166 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



grows thriftily about San Jose, where it can be irrigated, but 

 hedges are liable to much damage from gophers, which are 

 fond of the roots; and if a hole is made, it is difficult to get 

 young plants to grow, the older ones choking them down. 

 After the third year irrigation is not necessary. In dry land, 

 where water is not abundant for irrigation, the hedges do not 

 grow up regularly. In the general opinion of farmers, osage- 

 orange hedges will not pay, even in the land best suited for 

 them : the labor of planting the seed, transplanting the sprouti^, 

 irrigating, replanting, and trimming for three years, costs more 

 than a board-fence, which is useful from the first day, and is in 

 no danger from gophers, whereas the hedge is useless for three 

 years, and is in constant danger. 



The willow-hedo;e is the most common fence in Los Anoreles 

 county, and is a prominent feature of the scenery near the 

 towns. The fence is made with cuttings, the larger the better ; 

 the largest are three inches in diameter and eight feet long. 

 These are planted perpendicularly three feet deej) and nine 

 inches apart, and then irrigated freely, when nearly all will 

 grow. If larger cuttings cannot be had, small ones, half an 

 inch thick and two feet long, are taken, and only an inch or 

 two is left above-ground. If the cuttings are of the largest 

 size, the fence is good in the second year ; if small, four or 

 five years may be required to make a tight fence. Twigs and 

 poles are woven horizontally through the hedge. In the course 

 of eight or ten years, the willows grow to be trees, with trunks 

 five or six inches in diameter, and with dense tops from fifteen 

 to thirty feet high. They thus not only shut out trespassing 

 animals, but furnish a large amount of firewood, an item of no 

 small importance in the woodless plains of the south, and throw 

 a pleasant shade over the roads which they line. The willow- 

 fonce requires frequent irrigation, for its growth will usually 

 depend upon the amount of water supplied to it. 



The cactus was used extensively for fences at the old mis- 

 i^ions, and some fields are still enclosed with it. The plant is 

 merely thrown upon the ground, where it takes root, no matter 



