HEDGE. 



HEDGE. 



plants, sown or planted in a line, and cut or 

 clipped in such a manner as to form a compact 

 mass of any degree of width or height that may 

 be required, either for the purpose of shelter, 

 separation, or defence. The fences most ge- 

 nerally used in agriculture are made of the 

 whitethorn, because it has spiny branches, and 

 forms a strong defence against cattle. Fences 

 for the purposes of shelter and separation are 

 chiefly used in gardening, and for the most 

 part are formed of evergreen shrubs, such as 

 the holly, yew, box, &c. ; or sub-evergreens, 

 such as the privet; of flowering shrubs, such 

 as the Cydoma japonica ; or of deciduous shrubs 

 or trees, with persistent leaves, such as the 

 hornbeam and beech. 



In the management of hedges of every de- 

 scription, an important point is to keep them 

 thick, and impervious to wind or animals, near 

 the ground ; for which purpose the section of 

 the hedge requires to be made broader at the 

 base than at the top, in order that the exterior 

 leaves in every part of the hedge may enjoy 

 in an equal degree the influence of light, air, 

 and perpendicular rains. Mr. Stephens (Quart. 

 Journ. of j$gi: vol. i. p. 574) gives some very 

 detailed instructions "On the Planting and 

 Management of Thorn Hedges;" but as these 

 extend over upwards of 50 pages, we can only 

 recommend the farmer, who needs information 

 as to the formation of quickset hedges, to con- 

 sult the above article ; Mr. Blakie's little work 

 On Hedges ; and some essays on raising and 

 managing hedges in the Trans. High. Soc. vol. 

 iv. p. 353, to 378, by Messrs. Montgomery, 

 Grigor, and Manson. In the same volume, p. 

 336, there is an essay on the cultivation of the 

 common elder (Sanibucus nigra) for hedges. 

 Sir John Sinclair also recommends the tala 

 plant as a substitute for thorn in hedges. 

 (Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. ii. p. 408.) It is a 

 small prickly shrub, growing wild in various 

 parts of South America, and which has been 

 extensively used for fences by the Scotch 

 farmers who have settled near Buenos Ayres. 

 An " Old Hedger," in the Quart. Juurn. of Jlgr. 

 vol. v. p. 505, also gives the result of his ex- 

 perience and practice in hedge-making. The 

 late Francis Blakie of Holkham saw the im- 

 portance of the farmer paying more attention 

 than is customary with him to the plantation 

 of fences, and the management of hedgerow 

 timber ; and in his excellent little work on this 

 subject, he told him (and his experience was 

 of perhaps the most difficult of all soils upon 

 which to rear good hedgerows), " There may 

 be some difference in opinion as to the best 

 method of planting and rearing quickset (white- 

 thorn) hedges, but I think there can be none in 

 respect to the propriety of thoroughly cleaning 

 and preparing the ground in the first instance; 

 and all experienced men will agree, that it is 

 not advisable to plant a new hedge upon the 

 same spot where an old one had been recently 

 grubbed up, unless under unavoidable circum- 

 stances, such as boundary fences, &c. ; in that 

 case the ground should be well loosened, fal- 

 lowed for a year or two, and have fresh earth 

 or compost added. The better the ground is 

 prepared, the sooner will the hedge arrive at 

 maturity, and the longer will be its duration. 

 610 



The practice in this country (Norfolk), even on 

 our lightest soils, is to put the quicksets (here 

 called layers) horizontally into the side of the 

 bank, raised from a four or five feet wide ditch, 

 of a proportionate depth ; and I have never 

 seen whitethorn hedges raised quicker or better 

 than in this country, and all upon that prin- 

 ciple. I must, however, acknowledge, that 

 I although the Norfolk farmers very generally 

 excel in raising hedges, they but too frequently 

 err in the future management of them ; youth 

 is succeeded by infirmities ; there is no prime 

 oflife." 



There is another error which frequently oc- 

 curs where quicksets are planted on the sides 

 of banks ; that is, in not varying the height of 

 the line of quick in the bank according to the 

 nature of the sides. On the management of 

 hedgerow timber, the directions of Blakie are 

 equally excellent. He says, " It is not necessary 

 for me to particularize all the varieties of 

 forest trees usually planted in hedgerows. It 

 is sufficient, in exemplification, to say, beech, 

 ash, and firs are not only ruinous to fences, 

 but are also otherwise injurious to farmers ; 

 while oaks, narrow-leaved elm, and black 

 Italian poplars do comparatively little injury; 

 and as to the age of plants, it surely must be 

 obvious that a thrifty transplanted nursery tree 

 of three years' growth is more likely to suc- 

 ceed, when properly planted in a hedgerow, 

 than a puny yearling drawn out of a seed-bed, 

 with its root like a piece of whipcord; or a 

 tender sapling, of six or seven years' growth, 

 drawn out of a thick wood, whence it had not 

 been previously transplanted. 



" In planting, the usual practice is to lay the 

 roots of the forest-tree plants horizontally into 

 the bank along with the whitethorns, and to 

 cut their heads or tops off* close to the ground, 

 in the same manner as the thorns ; a moment's 

 reflection will show the absurdity of this prac- 

 tice. A surface-rooted plant, like the white- 

 thorn, will thrive if laid into the bank horizon- 

 tally, or nearly so ; but a deep-rooted plant, 

 such as the oak, is not likely to thrive if treat- 

 ed in that manner. The roots of oaks strike 

 deep into the ground ; consequently, the plants 

 should be set perpendicularly, and their heads 

 or tops should on no account be cut off" at the time 

 of planting. But suppose that an oak plant, 

 when laid into the bank horizontally along 

 with the quicksets, does grow, and even pros- 

 pers for a time, which it may do when the ex- 

 tremities of the roots are bent downwards by 

 the pressure of the earth in the bank above, 

 and the plant in consequence finds nourish- 

 ment and support from the earth below ; the 

 top of the plant will then grow up among the 

 row of thorns, and be protected by them until 

 the hedge is cut (which, in process of time, it 

 must be) : the oak plant will then be left ex- 

 posed, and as the stem will have bent upwards, 

 at a sharp angle from the face of the bank, the 

 top of the tree (when agitated by the wind) will 

 act as a powerful leverage, and have the effect 

 of twisting and breaking the crooked roots of 

 the plant in the bank. 



" These remarks are, in some degree, appli- 

 cable to all forest trees planted in hedgerows, 

 but more particularly to deep-rooted ones. 



