i>8 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



thus the hedge will go on getting higher .and 

 higher, and wider and wider and wider, till you 

 have it at the height and thickness that you wish ; 

 and when it arrives at that point, there you may 

 keep it. Ten feet high y and Jive feet through 

 at bottom^ is what I should choose ; because then 

 I havey*t7zce, shelter^ and shade ; but, in the way 

 offence, five feet high will keep the boldest boy 

 off from trees loaded with fine ripe peaches, or 

 from a patch of ripe water-melons ; and, if it will 

 do that) nothing further need be said upon the 

 subject ! The height is not great ; but, unless the 

 assailant have wings, he must be content with 

 feasting his eyes ; for, if he attempt to climb the 

 hedge, his hands and arms and legs are full of 

 thorns in a moment; and he retreats as the fox 

 did from the grapes, only with pain of body in 

 addition to that of a disappointed longing. - 1 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, therefore, I must, however 

 reluctantly, shut them out altogether. 



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

 si x 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 un- 

 der 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 tivv thousand. I think it will 

 be strange indeed, if those plants cannot be raised 



