302 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



beech or oak : an intermixture of various trees may be 

 also made, and has a pleasing effect. 



In low and marshy places where the hawthorn can- 

 not be planted with success, very tolerable fences are 

 made of alder and willow, which grow rapidly in such 

 situations ; and from the pliant nature of their branches, 

 can be easily twisted and interlaced. In drier ground 

 the furze or gorse may be cultivated, and will make an 

 excellent hedge for a time ; but it is not durable, being 

 very apt to be destroyed by frost. Careful pruning is 

 said, however, to prolong its existence to a considerable 

 extent. 



In Northern Germany the hornbeam is used as a field- 

 fence, and with very good effect, according to one of 

 our writers on husbandry. " No fence of a solid per- 

 manent kind pleases me so much as the hornbeam- 

 hedges of Westphalia and other parts of North Germany. 

 When the German husbandman erects a fence of this 

 nature, he throws up a parapet of earth with a ditch 

 on each side, and plants his hornbeam-sets, raised from 

 layers, in such a manner that every two plants may be 

 brought to intersect each other in the form of a St. 

 Andrew's cross. In the part where the two plants 

 cross each other he gently scrapes off the bark, and 

 binds them with straw thwart-wise. Here the two 

 plants consolidate into a sort of indissoluble knot, and 

 push from thence horizontal slanting roots, which form 

 a sort of living palisado, or chevaux-de-frise ; so that 

 such a protection may be called a rural fortification. 

 These hedges being pruned annually, and with discre- 

 tion, will in a few years render the fence impenetrable 

 in every part. It is not uncommon in Germany to 

 see the sides of high roads thus guarded for ten miles 

 together." * 



Common holly makes a beautiful and formidable 

 fence, and would be one of the most desirable could 

 it be easily cultivated. But it is exceedingly slow of 

 * HAKTE. 



