. LIVE FENCES. II 



weeded and cultivated all summer. They sprouted 

 slowly and very irregularly. But these were plants 

 purchased. Those I grew were much quicker and 

 more uniform. By the end of July nearly every 

 plant was growing. In one instance, by count, I 

 found but two out of two hundred and eighty failed. 



Subsequent Treatment. In the autumn, the 

 plants treated as above stated had grown, in single 

 stems, from three to six feet high, depending on the 

 earlier or later start. The stems were quite thick. 



These I laid down without cutting, nicking or 

 breaking, by simply bending them nearly flat to the 

 ground and weaving them as one would osiers in 

 wicker work. There is little elasticity but great 

 toughness in the wood, and the thorns secure them 

 in place, when bent and woven, without tying or any 

 other sort of fastening. 



The next year the hedge started with an average 

 hight of six inches from the ground, or the stems 

 thus lying laterally along the ground. The leaf buds 

 sent up shoots similar to those of the first year, but 

 thicker and higher; many grew eight feet. The 

 ground was cultivated with a hoe and weeded. In 

 the autumn these stems were again laid down, with- 

 out nicking, breaking or cutting. This made a 

 hedge of lateral stems about eighteen inches from 

 the ground. 



The next summer the shoots grew, the upright 

 ones much more vigorously than the laterals. When 

 the upright shoots reached three feet or more I cut 

 the tops with a sickle at the hight I determined. 

 This was repeated at intervals, whenever there were 

 a few inches above the line determined, from time 



