0?i Hedges. 381 



eligible as single rows, having each plant six inches 

 apart. 



Mr. Neill obligingly went through the whole pro- 

 cess of making a sample of a hedge, according to the 

 directions given by him in the present volume. A 

 few particulars which he has omitted to detail, and 

 some other facts respecting his hedges, shall now be 

 noticed. 



The stones are not laid edge to edge, but are lap- 

 ped, or ride one another a little : and in the progress 

 of the wall he takes care to keep the earth closely pack- 

 ed behind it, as by throwing it in loosely it sinks, and 

 causes the stones to lean too much back from the 

 hedge. After the plants are laid and covered with 

 earth, and the first row of stones is placed upon it, no 

 more earth is used for the upper rows than is sufficient 

 to fill up their inequalities, and cause them to lay 

 regularly. If more were used, it would of course 

 freeze in winter, and when thawed in the spring, the 

 stones, by being forced out, would destroy the wall, 

 which it is of consequence to pr"^serve. 



Mr. Neill says it is important to state, that a wall of 

 three and a half feet in height, ought not to lean back 

 more than three or four inches from the perpendicular. 

 The age of the oldest hedge of Mr. Neill is six years, 

 and is eight feet high. 



Independently of other considerations, one point in 

 which the superiority of Mr. Neill's plan is evident, 

 consists in the lower or first rows of stone preventing 

 the growth of weeds among the thorn plants, which 

 often retard the progress of thorn hedges, whether 

 planted on a plain surface or on a bank ; and as the la- 



