On Hedge Pruning, 79 



they are below ; it is obvious that such hedges can 

 neither look well, nor be useful. — The season at which 

 they are trimmed is, in many instances, an improper 

 one, for in place of choosing that time when the plants 

 are least in danger of suffering from an effusion of their 

 juices, which is either at a late period in the autumn, 

 or very early in the spring, the pruning is given in the 

 summer season, when vegetation is in its prime, and 

 the plan4:s are full of juices ; the check and injury they 

 must receive from having the whole of their extremi- 

 ties cut off at that period, may well be conceived. 



In speaking of the treatment of hedge plants before 

 they are put into the ground, notice has been taken of 

 the necessity of preserving the roots as much as pos- 

 sible ; and at the same time shortening the tops : this 

 last operation has two good effects ; for by curtailing 

 the top and branches, the roots have ^ess to nourish ; 

 and by leaving only two or three inches of the top above 

 ground, in place of growing up with a single stem, it 

 sends out two or three ; and as these strike out from 

 the plant so near the earth, each of them has the same 

 effect, and strengthens the hedge as much as the ori- 

 ginal stem would have done by itself, with this addi- 

 tion, that in place of one prop or support, the hedge 

 will have three or four. After this first pruning, how- 

 ever, no hedge should be touched, or at least very 

 gendy, for some years ; from an inattention to this 

 circumstance, and the injudicious application of the 

 knife or shears, at an early period, many young hedges 

 are rendered useless, which, under different treatment, 

 would have made excellent fences, with one half the 

 trouble that was required to destroy them. The prac- 



