EXPERniEXTS WITH HEDGES 5 



(dormant) pruning, especially with ra])i(l-gro\\ ing deciduous species, such as 

 privet, acanthopanax, etc. This suninier shearing should he given immediately 

 after the plants have made their first strong growth. The time will usually 

 fall in late May and seldom later tJian the lirst week in Jime. 



k After a hedge has reached tiie stature prescrihed for it, pruning aims 

 to keep it within its limits and also to maintain the plants in a healthy grow- 

 ing condition. To accomplish these purposes it will be necessary to watch 

 carefully the behavior of the plants and to remember that summer shea ring- 

 tends to check growth and weaken the plants, whereas dormant pruning is 

 more inclined to favor wood production. Summer pruning can thus be prac- 

 ticed on a hedge which is thrifty, but one w Inch shows signs of debility should 

 be cut l)ack in winter and left to grow freely in siuumer. 



5. Signs of decrepitude, decay, disease or achancing age are apt to ap- 

 pear in any old hedge. These may be due to drought, lack of fertilizers or 

 attacks of insects; and all such cases will presumably receive appropriate 

 remedy. From the standj^oint of pruning, however, the practice should be to 

 cut back rather heavily in ?>bruary, ]>erhaj)s cutting back into wood three or 

 four years old, thus possibly marring the outline of the hedge for the time, 

 the object being to stinudate a new growth in the old plants. 



6. In extreme cases it will be good practice to renew the hedge com- 

 pletely by cutting back to the ground or near it, thus making an entirely new 

 beginning with the old plants. This plan has been carried out successfully 

 with several species, including privets, Tlnmberg spirea, buckthorn, willow, 

 Tatarian honeysuckle and some others. 



Renewals 



It may be well to remark further that no hedge should be regarded as 

 quite immortal. The treatment which it receives is highly artificial and some- 

 what drastic, so that there need be no wonder if after 10 or 20 or 40 years 

 the hedge becomes so ragged that it may better be abandoned. There are 

 times when good sense would advise digging out an old hedge, root and stem, 

 cleaning the ground, fallowing for a year or more, and making a new start 

 with fresh yoimg plants, perhaps of some other species. 



Even more frequently the emergency arises in which a section of a hedge 

 requires replanting. A few plants are destroyed by insects or by a rimaway 

 automobile, or by fire or by winterkilling. These dead plants may be removed, 

 the ground redug and freshened as much as possible, perhaps the old exhaust- 

 ed soil removed and replaced with fresh loam, new ^ilants set in and forced 

 to their best growth by special care. Under favorable conditions such rej^airs 

 may achieve quite satisfactory results without more than t\\o or three years' 

 waiting. 



Shaping the Hedge 



Along with jinuiing comes the ])rol)lem of ,slia])ing the hedge. This is 

 particularly imjiortant during the early years, but never ceases to ha\e a 

 considerable influence on residts. 



In general it may he pointed out that the amateur is a})t to make his 

 hedges too thin and narrow. He thinks of the hedge as a wall between him 

 and the outside world and, drawing his analogy from the house in which he 



