34 HEDGES^ WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC. 



five months in the year. But instead of requiring 

 a hand five months a year, it does not require such 

 help for one month even in the most laborious part 

 of the work, and after the third or fourth year it 

 does not require the half of that." Professor Turner 

 was always an enthusiast, and I quote him only as 

 able to show the rosy side of hedge-growing. 



The first cost of a hedge of Osage orange would 

 in most soils be at the present time more than three 

 times the above estimate. Nor is it in the least desir- 

 able to underestimate the real cost of hedging, which 

 is not in the outlay for plants and for planting, but 

 is in the subsequent care and pruning. Professor 

 Turner made his estimates with the understanding 

 that his pruning was to be done with a sickle and 

 rapid slashing. The chief trouble seems to be that 

 the hedge will not allow of delays such as the farmer 

 often feels to be imperative. The season of trim- 

 ming passes by, and the rank growth gets difficult to 

 handle. Then the owner thinks he may as well 

 defer still longer before giving a sharp cut. In a 

 couple of years the hedge is a ferocious, thorny 

 defiance to approach, and the chances are that it will 

 never be reduced to subjection by the owner. Then 

 comes a hard job, and a costly one, of cutting the 

 whole thing down to the ground for a new start. 

 The brush must be burned, and is a bad job to 

 handle. On the whole T think we must let the esti- 

 mates of Professor Turner stand as fairly good for 

 live fences, but of little value for hedges such as we 

 are now discussing. Henry Shaw's estimate of 

 the cost of a deciduous hedge is from twenty- 

 five to fifty cents a rod. As a matter pf fact 



