66 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



If you keep a dog at all, a collie is the safest, and a 

 spayed female the best of all. I hardly need add 

 that you must keep sharp watch lest about the roots 

 of your hedge be poured brine or any other salty 

 material. (3) You must not leave the heavy snows 

 of winter to do as they will with your hedges. If a 

 heavy snow falls on them, let it be loosened up and 

 tossed off by the use of a rake or a pitchfork or with 

 a long pole. I sometimes use a tool made of a bit of 

 board firmly fastened to the end of a pole. 



It will of course be asked (i) How long 

 will it take to establish a perfect evergreen 

 hedge? All depends on the common sense 

 and care that it receives. An evergreen 

 hedge should look very well, as I have before 

 said, by the third year. It should be in splendid form 

 by the fifth year. (2) How long will an evergreen 

 hedge last? I have hedges of arbor-vitse thirty-five 

 years old, which my friend, Professor Bailey, says 

 are the finest between the Atlantic and the Pacific. 

 My hemlock hedges of the same age are as fresh and 

 as perfect as at ten years of age. 



One of the most important subjects is, where 

 not to have an evergreen hedge. I do not know 

 that it is possible to give any directions, excepting 

 that you study your ground carefully before plant- 

 ing. A hedge, a screen, or a windbreak may be so 

 placed as to throw the drift of snow directly into 

 your drives, or they may be so planted as to divert 

 such lines of drift. This can be accomplished only, 

 as I said, by a previous and careful study of your 

 grounds and the tendency to drifting. Other sug- 

 gestions I prefer to make in the form of sketches. 



