Photo 127. 



Photo 127 shows you the top of a young 

 Norway spruce. The leader has been 

 severed and placed down at the right. If 

 you look at it you count eight or ten 

 little knobs distributed at its sides. These 

 are latent buds. If you clip the top off 

 all these latent buds become excited into 

 activity, and on them, also, will be the 

 latent buds. The more you shear, the 

 more you excite these dornmant branches, 

 Hence the Norway spruce is one of the 

 very best plants for hedges. It is just as 

 ornamental as the arbor-vitse and possesses 

 the great advantage of strength. The 

 hedge that you see in photo 129 is of this 

 kind, and its strength is such that you 

 can lay a common fence board on it and 

 walk on it with pleasure. The hedge is 

 about 24 years old. In photo 128, to the 

 left, you see one of these same trees. 

 Three tiers of branches were taken out 

 and the bottom ones were trimmed into a 

 globular form. Up from the middle of 

 this the main trunk is allowed to grow. 

 There is quite a number of these in a row 

 relieved by a variety of other designs 

 arbor-vitse and others. The hedge in 

 photo 130 is of Norway spruce. That has 

 been started rightly, low down, so that it 

 can be controlled. The plants in that 

 hedge and the ones in 131 came in the 

 same box in 1886. This shows what 

 dwarfing can be done by clipping. If you 

 were to cut down the plants in the hedge 

 shown in photo 131, half way, the top 

 would thicken, but it would never fill out 

 well below. The only way to get it thick 

 at the base is to start low, as shown in 

 photo 130, when the plants are young. 

 After the lower branches have been 

 brought out, if you keep the hedge 

 rounded over, you can gradually bring it 

 higher and still maintain the density at 

 the base of the sides. 



All evergreens are partial to high and 

 dry lands. You can do nothing with them 

 in low, soggy soils. If you desire hedges 

 in the latter, use osage orange or honey 

 locust. Before planting a hedge, if the 

 soil is not good, excavate to the depth of 

 Photo 129. 2 feet and replace with good soil, placing 



sods in the bottom if you can procure them. Use small plants, not more than a foot high. 



Keep cultivated. Let no weeds grow. Mulch heavily with manure in the fall; remove 



mulch in the spring. 



60 



Photo 128. 



