36 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



Either have a good hedge, or none at all. A 

 poor hedge is unsightly and a nuisance. If by the 

 roadside, and untrimmed or poorly trimmed, it 

 scratches the pedestrian who passes by, and in wet 

 weather it brushes him with its wet branches. If 

 bordering a drive it disgraces the owner instead of 

 honoring him. If I were to sum up this section, I 

 should say that, under ordinary conditions, I should 

 prefer the buckthorn for the general purposes which 

 I have indicated, and as likely to endure all the 

 provocations likely to be inflicted upon it by care- 

 lessness and negligence. 



Note I. It may be necessary to add a note on 

 winter injury to hedges. This will rarely if ever 

 occur where the wood has not been weakened by too 

 late or improper trimming. A very thorough report 

 on hedges injured during the winter of 1898 says: 

 "The neglected hedges, that is, those having one 

 year's growth or more on the old stalks, came out 

 universally alive. On a new purchase of 240 acres 

 I had some three miles of untrimmed hedge, a con- 

 siderable part of which had been neglected for some 

 years. We trimmed about 100 rods in January, just 

 before the noted cold spell; this was badly injured. 

 The remainder was trimmed after March ist, and 

 made a fine new growth. Ninety per cent of our 

 hedges throughout this section are dead, and this 

 much is certain, that the hedge not trimmed during 

 the winter or just previous to the winter is all right." 

 From personal observation I am satisfied that winter- 

 killing may be in all cases traced to enfeeblement of 

 the plants by improper trimming. 



Note 2. Kerosene emulsion, for spraying 



