DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 35 



our ornamental and semi-ornamental hedges will 

 cost double that. 



(12) Devices. The use of wire with hedges 

 is a combination of considerable value under certain 

 conditions. It serves to make an ornamental hedge 

 able to hold back an animal that happens to break 

 loose. I have found it equally useful against inter- 

 lopers and fruit thieves. The wire may be entirely 

 concealed by skillful interweaving through the 

 branches of the hedge. I have known of such a 

 hedge, when somewhat dilapidated, being used as a 

 background or trellis for climbing roses. These 

 almost entirely covered the original hedge and 

 became an object of remarkable beauty. 



We are not shut out entirely from devices for 

 wet land. I never saw a willow hedge of much use 

 except where it ran along by wet places. Yet a close 

 grove of willows makes a splendid protection against 

 the northwest. Let such a hedge pass on into the 

 form of a windbreak, and then front it with a row 

 of red bark dogwood, a bush which remarkably 

 enjoys itself in marshy ground. Plant it freely and 

 you will say that of all hedges in winter it is the most 

 beautiful. As the leaves fall in autumn the bark 

 turns a beautiful crimson, and retains a warm glow 

 throughout the winter. Nothing in the shrubbery 

 equals it for contrast with the unbroken white of the 

 snow. A single bush will grow only to a hight of 

 ten feet, and fifteen feet in diameter. It does not, 

 therefore, need any severe cutting or pruning. For 

 a moist swale it is just the thing, but it will grow 

 finely on a dry knoll, only much more slowly, and 

 not to above half the size. 



