272 THE NURSERY. [MARCH 



Having your plants in readiness and dressed in this manner, lay 

 them by the heels in the earth, to be taken up as wanted, lest their 

 roots should become dry and be injured thereby. Then proceed to 

 form your ditch, which should be four feet wide at least at top, nar- 

 rowing with a gentle slope on each side towards the bottom, to the 

 perpendicular depth of two feet and a half, where it should be one 

 foot wide. The more your ground is subject to slip by heavy rains, 

 the greater slope must be given to the bank side. 



Begin by cutting the surface sod of the ditch into squares of con- 

 venient size, and about three inches deep, having previously lined 

 out and cut both sides with a spade, sloping inwards as above inti- 

 mated, and lay a row of them with the grassy surface under, six 

 inches inward from the edge on the bank side ; lay on top of this 

 row of sods, two inches of the loose and mellow earth, that is, the 

 best the ditch affords, and also a quantity of it behind them, for 

 about eighteen inches or two feet, breaking it very fine with the 

 spade ; on this lay your quicks nearly in a horizontal manner, their 

 tops being a little elevated, and at the distance of six inches one 

 from the other, and so far in that three or four inches of their tops 

 may remain uncovered when the ditch is finished. Spread the roots 

 to advantage, and cover them well with the mouldy earth that drop- 

 ped from the surface sod ; this is necessary, in order to give their 

 roots the advantage of the best soil, and should on no account be 

 neglected. Then proceed to finish your ditch and bank, laying the 

 remainder of the surface sods in front of the bank, as you had done 

 with the first row, giving it exactly a similar slope to that of the 

 ditch, and the whole bank such a form as if it was taken up at once 

 out of the ditch and turned upside down. The scarcement left in 

 front throws the bank so far back as not to bear heavily on the side 

 of the ditch to crush it down, and it also will receive and retain a 

 considerable portion of the rain that slides down along the face of 

 the bank, by which means the earth in front will be kept in a more 

 moist state than if no such thing was left. 



Were you to lay in two rows of quicks in the front, the second 

 eight or nine inches above the first, and the plants in each row nine 

 or ten distant, placing those of the upper opposite the intervals of 

 the lower, it would be the most effectual method of making a better 

 and more immediate fence. A very slight paling, on top of the 

 bank, that will defend the quicks for three years, will be sufficient; 

 and if the land in front is not in cultivation, but under stock, a simi- 

 lar fence may be necessary to prevent their going into the ditch, and 

 reaching the plants ; but if you take particular care to keep them 

 constantly wed, for the first two years, which is absolutely necessary 

 or all is lost labor, they will have the less inducement to approach 

 them. 



There are many other methods of making hedge and ditch fences ; 

 but having found, from ample experience, the above to be most suc- 

 cessful, I shall confine myself exclusively to it, lest too much specu- 

 lation might lead people astray, and retard the progress of this im- 

 portant business. 



