DEAD-FENCES. 307 



pearance. It should be remembered, in pruning a hedire, 

 that the shape tending towards a pyramid is more dur- 

 able than the broad flat top sometimes given to hedges. 



When at last the hedge becomes aged, and begins to 

 grow thin at the roots, and to show feebleness of growth, 

 it must be cut down to within a few inches of the 

 ground, and the ditch and mound made up as at first. 

 But if the hedge had been originally planted on the 

 common surface of the field, then some protection will 

 be required for the lopped hedge, until it has sent out a 

 strong growth of new wood. But it is not necessary to 

 go to the expense of paling, because the thorns cut down 

 furnish themselves material for a good temporary fence. 

 This is called a dead-hedge, and is thus formed. The 

 workman cuts the principal 

 stems into lengths of three 

 or four feet, and makes them 

 up in bundles, mixing with 

 them the smaller twigs and 

 brushwood. These bundles MAD-HEDGE. 



are laid closely along the line of hedge, and each bundle 

 covered with a sod, or a spadeful of earth, and firmly 

 trodden down in its place. 



During the growth of the shoots in the live-hedge, as 

 well as at every other period in the existence of the 

 fence, weeds should be carefully cleared away, not only 

 because their growth deprives the hedge of nourishment, 

 but because they do a great injury to the neighbouring 

 field. However careful the farmer may be in keeping 

 his fields clear of weeds, yet if he suffers them to exist 

 in the hedge-rows, and to perfect their seed, his labour 

 will have been all in vain. Thousands of winged-seeds 

 of thistle, dandelion, groundsel, &c., will be wafted all 

 over the land, and defy the efforts of the weeders. In 

 this respect a farmer often suffers from the slothfulness 

 of his neighbours, and has the mortification of seeing 

 his clean fallows injured by the wind blowing the seeds 

 across them, from the neglected fences of an adjacent 

 x2 



