FARM FENCING. 37 



Hedge Fences have been on trial for thirty or forty 

 years, but are least in favor with the farmers who are best ac- 

 quainted with them. When I meet a man who is enthusiastic 

 in advocating the planting of hedge, I feel quite sure that he is 

 a novice in the business, and that should I meet him ten years 

 later I should find that his ardor had cooled considerably. I do 

 not speak from theory on this matter, for I have had the constant 

 care of from half a mile to a mile of hedge for over thirty years, 

 and there is scarcely a farm in my neighborhood but has more or 

 less of it. 



There are locations where hedge is the cheapest fence that 

 the farmer can have, and where it will give excellent satisfac- 

 tion. For example, along the border of a permanent pasture, 

 where the shade will do no harm, and you do not care if the 

 view is interrupted, you can start a hedge, and need give it no 

 care after it is large enough to turn cattle for a long term of 

 years. In such a location I have known hedges to make a per- 

 fect cattle fence without any expense beyond planting and a lit- 

 tle care for the first two years, and in twenty years they had 

 grown large enough so that from six to twelve posts could be cut 

 to the rod, and these posts are not excelled in durability by any 

 timber in the world. 



There is no trouble whatever in making a hedge that will 

 turn cattle, and the cost is small. For a cattle fence I would set 

 the plants eighteen inches apart. This will require eleven plants 

 to the rod, costing about three cents. The cost of preparing 

 the hedge row and setting out the plants will vary somewhat, 

 but should not exceed five cents a rod, and the entire cost of a 

 hedge four years old should not exceed thirty cents a rod, unless 

 you must build a fence to protect it from the stock while grow- 

 ing it. The best way to prepare a hedge row is to plant it in 

 potatoes the previous year. If the row crosses a poor spot, it is 

 well to manure it. The hedge should be thoroughly cultivated 

 for two years after planting, and should not be cut back till 

 two or three years old ; then cut to the ground, and let it make 

 a new start, and it will grow dense enough to make a good cattle 

 fence. Instead of cutting back, the hedge is often plashed, by 



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