DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 15 



grow over two to three feet in hight, if you expect 

 it to keep good form. The tendency is very strong 

 to die out at the bottom, and expand the top limbs. 

 When this is allowed, there are sure to follow gaps 

 in the outline of the foliage. The Osage orange has 

 this one advantage, that it is free of insects, and in 

 the hedge form I have found it to be entirely hardy 

 in central New York. It is not given to suckering 

 unless cut down, when it does incline to be trouble- 

 some by filling the ground. I have no doubt that 

 both the plants will for some time to come be favor- 

 ites with the farmer. He cannot divest himself of 

 the sentiment that whatever he does must have more 

 or less of utility in its purpose. He will undertake 

 to have his hedges of some direct value besides orna- 

 ment. Nevertheless, I advise hedge planters to dis- 

 card both the maclura and the gleditschia, because 

 they are very liable to get out of complete command, 

 and so become merely thorny, irregular and homely 

 nuisances. 



The pyracantha thorn as a hedge plant has the 

 advantage that it is not only capable of resisting 

 cattle and even turning hogs and sheep and fowls, 

 but its growth is compact and so close to the ground 

 that it is easily managed. The southern or red- 

 fruited pyracantha is not quite hardy at the north, 

 while the white-fruited is entirely hardy as far north 

 as New York. I find its foliage blisters somewhat 

 and the ends of the twigs are sometimes killed in 

 central New York. I can hardly conceive a pyra- 

 cantha hedge looking very badly from neglect. 

 When not somewhat blistered by the frost it keeps 

 green all winter. My own plants blossom not unfre- 



