210 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept. 



THORN HEDGES. -THE OSAGE ORANGE. 

 BY J. DINSMORE, OF KENTUCKY. 



Messrs. Editors: — In the June number of yonr 

 valuable paper you invite correspondents, who have 

 had experience in growing hedges to communicate 

 the results. I have been making experiments for 

 several years, principally with the Osage Orange, 

 with the most flattering prospects of success. — 

 Among the plants I have seen tried for hedging are 

 the Cherokee Rose, the Osage Orange, the Honey 

 Locust, the Hawthorn and the Buckthorn. The 

 former, in the States south of Tennessee, makes an 

 excellent and highly ornamental hedge. I have tried 

 it here, but it is too tender for this latitude. In Lou- 

 isiana it forms a hedge, which is impassable to the 

 wildest animal, but the planters complain that it af- 

 fords a harbor for multitudes of rats, snakes and 

 wasps. The objection to the Honey Locust is that 

 it is of too large a growth and difficult to be kept 

 down. The Hawthorn is devoured by insects, and 

 soon perishes. 



The Osage Orange I consider the beau ideal of 

 hedge plants. It is a native of Louisiana, and is 

 stated to be hardy at Boston, and will undoubtedly 

 succeed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Lakes. In 

 my opinion it would be difficult to estimate the value 

 of this plant to the United States too highly. Eng- 

 lishmen have confessed to me, that they have no 

 plant in Europe to be compared to this, for hedging 

 purposes. I know of no plant, excepting the willow, 

 that is more easily propagated. A piece of the root 



3 or 4 inches long planted in a bed, with the top a 

 little below the surface, will produce a plant, in one 

 season, from 2 to 6 feet high. 



There is some difficulty in growing plants from the 

 dry seeds, without preparation. If planted dry, not 

 one in twenty w T ill grow. When taken fresh from 

 the half decayed ball or fruit they will grow as readi- 

 ly as peas. If dry, soak them a few hours in milk- 

 warm water; pour off the water and stir in fresh ash- 

 es, and let them remain moist three or four days. — 

 Then sow in drills an inch deep in rich and well pre- 

 pared ground, and when the plants appear keep them 

 clear from weeds. I find it is better to let them re- 

 main two years in the nursery. They then grow off 

 vigorously, and give a good^upply of roots for plant- 

 ing. When you w T ish to plant in hedge, cut off the 

 top two inches above the ground, take up the plants, 

 cut off the principal roots, leaving the main tap root 

 8 inches long. Plant in two rows from 6 to 12 inch- 

 es apart, and keep the ground clean. The spring fol- 

 lowing, cut down the plants to 6 inches. The sec- 

 ond year leave them a foot high and leave a portion 

 of the largest shoots to be interlocked with each oth- 

 er. The third year leave them 2 feet, and the fourth 



4 feet high. After this you may regulate the height 

 to suit your fancy. The hedge will then present a 

 dense mass of shoots covered with thorns, almost as 

 sharp as needles, and averaging a thorn for every 

 inch in length of the branches. 



I have not observed that any insect preys on this 

 plant, but Dr. White, of Ohio, informed me that the 

 largest cocoons he had ever seen were from silk 

 worms fed on its leaves. I have supposed, that its 

 exemption from injury by insects was owing to the 

 acrid milky juicp, which the leaves exude. I have \ 

 hedge around my vineyard, a part of which is of four 

 years growth. Not a plant has died out, and it pre- 

 sents an impenetrable mass of branches, thorns and 

 glossy leaves, which is truly beautiful. It will af- 



ford a most efficient protection to a fruit garden or 

 vineyard, and I cannot conceive a more embarrassing 

 situation for a vagabond, than attempting to pass 

 through such a hedge with a fierce dog at his heels. 

 It is probable that the tops of the plants would be 

 killed by the frost in New York the first winter, but 

 that would do no permanent injury. The wood of 

 the Osage Orange is exceedingly strong, elastic and 

 durable, and is used by the Indians of the West for 

 bow r s, whence the French name of Bois d'Arc by 

 which it is known on Red River. J. D. — Boone 

 County, Ky., July, 1849. 



"POSTS INVERTED/' 



Not long since in conversation with a gentleman 

 on this subject I stated some facts which he said he 

 would not believe, even if he should see them him- 

 self; that there was no reason, no philosophy in the 

 thing, Stc; nor would he listen to any attempt at 

 an explanation. Yet this man boasted of being a 

 philosopher 1 



First, the facts. I have seen hemlock stakes set 

 in the ground, some in their natural and some in an 

 inverted position. After a few years the inverted 

 ones were found to have decayed on the outside, 

 while the central part was sound and dry, even below 

 the surface of the ground. Of the others, not only 

 had the part that entered the ground decayed entirely, 

 but the end was hollow several inches above; the 

 central part having " rotted out.'' Again : a gen- 

 tleman on whose word I can rely, told me, that he 

 had seen old trees lying on a black ash swamp, some 

 with the root or lower end in water — others with 

 the top or upper end, where they had lain for years. 

 On chopping the same for fuel, the former were 

 found to be saturated with water and partially decayed 

 above the ordinary water level; the latter were sound 

 and comparatively dry, even below the surface of the 

 water. 



Second, the philosophy; the theory. It is a well 

 established fact in vegetable physiology, that the sap 

 of a tree in ascending from the root to the branches, 

 passes up through the alburnum, or sap wood, (and 

 the whole body, or stem, of the tree has been such, 

 each concentric portion in such succession,) and 

 having undergone the digestive process in the leaves, 

 returns between the wood and the bark of the tree, 

 depositing in its course the substance called cambium, 

 or the new wood. Hence the theory explains the 

 facts. The moisture passes naturally in the direc- 

 tion of the sap. Down East, July, 1849. H. 



Burning Straw in the Field. — If the soil con- 

 tains already a superabundance of vegetable matter, 

 no advantage is gained by spreading the straw over 

 the field, except for the mineral elements it contains. 

 If the straw, therefore, should be burned, and the 

 ashes spread evenly over the field, the soil would 

 sustain no real loss from the absence of the other 

 elements it contained, and the next crop would be 

 equally good as if the straw had been mixed with 

 the soil; for all that portion of the straw, (or the 

 elements that composed it,) that escaped into the 

 atmosphere during the combustion, will be derived 

 again from the same source by the growing crop. 

 As there are, however, portions of every farm that 

 would be benefitted by the addition of the straw, the 

 practice of burning it may, under any circumstances, 

 be considered at least injudicious. h. 



