20 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 



the grapes, only with pain of body in addition to 

 that of a disappointed longing. I really feel some 

 remorse in thus plotting against the poor fellows ; 

 but, the worst of it is, they will not be content with 

 fair play : they will have the earliest in the season, 

 and the best as long as the season lasts; and, there- 

 fore, I must, however reluctantly, shut them out 

 altogether. 



46. A hedge five clear feet high may be got in 

 six years from the day of planting. And, now let 

 us see what it has cost to get this fence round my 

 proposed garden, which, as will be seen under the 

 next head, is to be 300 feet long and 150 feet wide, 

 and which is, of course, to have 900 feet length of 

 hedge. The plants are to be a foot apart in the 

 line, and there are to be two lines; consequently, 

 there will be required 1800 plants, or suppose it to 

 be two thousand. I think it will be strange indeed, 

 if those plants cannot be raised and sold, at two 

 years old, for two dollars a thousand. I mean fine 

 stout plants ; for, if your plants be poor, little slen- 

 der things that have never been transplanted, but 

 just pulled up out of the spot where they were 

 sown, your hedge will be a year longer before it 

 come to a fence, and will never, without extraordi- 

 nary care, be so good a hedge ; for, the plants 

 ought all to be as nearly as possible of equal size ; 

 else some get the start of others, subdue them, and 

 keep them down, and this makes an uneven hedge, 

 with weak parts in it. And, when the plants are 

 first pulled up out of the seed-bed, they are too 

 small to enable you clearly to ascertain this ine- 

 quality of size. When the plants are taken out of 

 the seed-bed and transplanted into a nursery, they 

 are assorted by the nursery men, who are used to 

 the business. The strong ones are transplanted 



