296 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



will speedily occur. The plants are all shortened down 

 before they are set, because the roots thus have less to 

 nourish. A single stem, which, when set, will not stand 

 more than two or three inches above ground, is all that 

 is necessary. This usually sends out three or four strong 

 shoots near the earth, which have as much vigour as the 

 original stem would have possessed, with the advantage 

 of affording three or four stout props to the hedge in- 

 stead of one. A bed being made for the roots to lie in, 

 as much as possible in their natural position, the plants 

 are then laid in their appointed place, and carefully 

 covered in, the earth being well beaten down over them. 

 By this careful management of the roots, a thorn-hedge 

 is sure to succeed, the soil and situation having been 

 well chosen ; but when all the finer fibres are cut away, 

 and even the principal roots greatly maimed, it is to be 

 wondered at that the hedge ever recovers such rough 

 treatment. It has been well observed, that, " when 

 thorns or other hedge-plants are thus severely handled, 

 and their roots and tops so unmercifully cut off, they 

 resemble cuttings more than plants, and must remain 

 a very long time in the earth before they are capable of 

 sending out new roots, or drawing from it a quantity of 

 nourishment adapted to their support. Were nursery- 

 men, and others who raise these plants, to bestow the 

 smallest attention upon the subject, common sense would 

 dictate a very opposite treatment. Men of observation 

 know that in every instance where either trees or her- 

 baceous plants are to be transplanted, the more carefully 

 they are taken out of the ground, the more numerous 

 and entire their roots, and the sooner they are again put 

 into the earth, the less check will they receive, and the 

 quicker and stronger will they afterwards grow. If these 

 observations are just, how faulty and defective must the 

 system we have just now described appear. Indeed, 

 nothing can be more repugnant to nature and common 

 sense than to suppose that when plants of any descrip- 

 tion are removed from the situation in which they are 



