HEDGES OUT OF THE ORDINARY 



691 



pounds of nuts. The bushes can be spaced five feet or 

 so apart for hedge purposes. Even if this close plant- 

 ing cut the estimated production in half, no great number 

 of bushes would be required to produce as many filberts 

 as one family could possibly eat. 



The filbert is one of our handsomest plants. The leaf 

 is beautifully moulded, while the graceful catkins and ro- 

 sette-like involucres that contain the nuts make the bush 

 altogether artistic and desirable. The plant can be trained 

 to grow like a little tree, but for hedge purposes it is 

 better to make it grow bushy. It can be kept low by 

 pruning, and pruning encourages the formation of fruit 

 spurs. The native and the European varieties should 

 never be planted together. The native plants sometimes 

 suflfer slightly from a disease that shortly kills the for- 

 eign varieties if it attacks them. Hence it is advisable 

 never to plant them together. 



The list of unusual hedge material by no means ends 

 with the plants named. The gooseberry, for those who 

 like that fruit, is every whit as desirable for hedges as 

 currants are. Like the barberry, the gooseberry is armed 

 with thorns, that help to repel marauders. The fruits are 

 highly artistic, and even in winter the bare bushes are 



attractive. Gooseberries can be propagated like currants. 

 For mass plantings in odd corners any one of these three 

 plants is entirely suitable. 



A division line hedge of blackberries will prove to be a 

 joyful surprise to those who plant one. Set rather closely, 

 kept within bounds by pruning, and fastened to a trel- 

 lis of parallel wires, the blackberry forms a hedge that 

 is truly a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is doubt- 

 ful if nature has provided a plant that can give man more 

 real enjoyment than the blackberry. In spring, when the 

 buds are swelling, the air is heavy with a wonderful per- 

 fume that increases as the blooms open. Unless it be the 

 perfume of the wild grape, there is hardly an odor in 

 nature so alluring. The blossoms themselves are a showy 

 sight. Then come the tiny, green berries that grad- 

 ually expand, turn red, and finally become a shiny black. 

 The beauty of the blackberry does not end with the ma- 

 turing of the fruit. In fall the leaves turn such a won- 

 derful bronze red that a blackberry branch is a thing of 

 rare beauty. It can scarcely be equalled as a background 

 for cut flowers. 



Dwarf fruit trees are also available for use in hedge 

 making. Perhaps the pear is as desirable for this pur- 



THE BEGINNINGS OF A FINE FRUIT HEDGE 

 bhowing clearly the method used in training the young fruit trees. These are young dwarf apples being trained into a hedge 

 The pliant young shoots will be fastened to the espalier wall so as to force them to grow in a vertical plane. 



