]^^EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Vol. IH. 



PUBLISHKl) CV WILLIAM NICHOLS, ROGERS' BUILDINGS, CONGRESS STREE'I', BOSTO^f.— THOMAS G. KKSSENULN, EUIIOR. 



No. 5: 



SATUilDAY, AUGUST 28, 1824. 



From jMemoirs ol the Bo-ird of Agiiculture of the State 

 of New-York, Vol. II. page llil. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF LIVE FENCES. 

 [By George Tibdits, of Rtnssallaer.] 

 To Jesse B:iel, Esq. 



Dear Sm, — 1 have no better apc.log3' lo make, 

 than that of forgeifiilnef:-, and ntimeious indi- 

 vuluiil avocalioiis, for not sooner attending to 

 the very polite invitation of tlie Albany Agri- 

 cultural Society, requesting me " to favour them 

 with a concise communication upon the cultiva- 

 tion of live fences." 



The attempts whicli I hnve made at cnltival- 

 ing live fences, have been almost exclusively 

 confined to the different varieties of thorn ; those 

 common to our own country ; the cockspur thorn 

 of Maryland ; and a short piece of the English 

 ^vhite thorn ; a part of them with ditches, but 

 the larger proportion without ; and I give the 

 preference to those without ditches, where the 

 ground is not wet. 



My experiments have convinced me, that it 

 is useless to attempt making a thorn fence upon 

 a dry, loose, sandy soil, like our pine plain , or 

 on loose, dry, sand gravel soil. These soils are 

 not congenial to the growth of thorns ; we nev- 

 er see any of our natural thorns growing wild 

 upon them. Thorns are very liable to be 

 thrown out of ground when young, by frost, if 

 set in a damp, cold, spongy, clay soil ; swamps 

 arc too wet for them, and on these kinds of 

 ground, ditches are necessary. Thorns do well 

 upon any of the varieties of loam 

 rich loam, inclining to clay they do besi. 

 Process of raising the plants. 



Gather the haws at any time in the fall, when 

 ripe,- lay them in an oblong heap, or ridge in 

 the nursery or garden, mixed with a little 

 earth ; turn this heap in the spring following, 

 and several times more in the course of the 

 summer and succeeding fall, that they may have 

 an equal exposure to the weather and frost ; 

 and as soon as the frost is out of the ground the 

 succeeding spring, (having laid in the heap 

 over two winters and one summer,) strew them 

 evenly with a spade upon a bed or beds, which 

 shall have been previously spaded and raked 

 smooth for that purpose. It is better to sow 

 them thick ; half a bushel of haws, when green, 

 may be a suitable quantity for a bed four by 

 I'oiHteen feet ; cover them, not to exceed a 

 quarter of an inch, and this is done best with a 

 corn riddle, as the earth can be sifted over 

 them more evenly than by a spade, or in any 

 other way. They will come up directly ; keep 

 them free from grass and weeds. They may 

 be expected to grow to the height of two or 

 three feet the first year, (if the land is good, 

 which it ought to be,) and the most of them 

 will be large enough to plant in the hedge in 

 the fall or succeeding spring, and the spring, 

 for planting them, is to be preferred. The 

 small plants may be re-set in the nursery and 

 taken up in the fall or succeeding spring to sup- 

 ply vacancies in the lines of hedges set out the 

 spring before, or set in new lines offences. 



It is indispensable, that plants put in live 

 •fences, whether with or without a ditch, should 



bekept free from weeds and grass for at lea st 

 the three first years, otherwise they become 

 stunted, mildewed, and die, or have a very un- 

 equal and slow growth, and never make toler- 

 able fences, They are also to be protected 

 against cattle of all kinds ; cattle, horses, and 

 sheep, would bite ofl" and tread them down ; 

 hogs would root them up. They must, there- 

 fore, have a fence upon both sides of some 

 kind, sufficiently strong and tight, however, to 

 ' exclude animals of all kinds until they become 

 1 a strong fence of themselves, which may re- 

 quire from six to ten years. 



To save the expense of these two fences, it 

 is well worth the consideration of the person 

 disposed to cultivate live fences, whether he 

 will not dispense with turning cattle or hogs 

 into a field which he intends to enclose with a 

 live fence, around which there may be stand- 

 ing a dead fence, which may last until his live 

 fence is grown. If this should be his determin- 

 ation, he will the year preceding that in which 

 he plants his thorns, cultivate a piece of land 

 eight feet broad, or thereabouts, around on the 

 inside of the old fence, with potatoes, and with 

 manure make it as nearly equally rich in every 

 part as practicable, that the thorns may grow 

 equally fast, and be equally strong. 



As .soon as convenient, in the spring, plough 

 and harrow this bind again, then strike a deep 

 furrow where it is intended the live fence shall 

 stand, which ought to be in the centre, in order 

 that the grass and weeds may be kept down, 

 w]th the assistance of the plough and one horse 

 harrow; clear out this furrow with the spade, 

 .aid by a line set for that purpose, make one 

 side or edge straight and even; take up the 

 plants from the nursery, cut off the top so as to 

 leave of the plant grovving above ground about 

 five inches; clear the root of its lateral branch 

 es, cat off the tap root, leaving it eight or nine 

 inches Ion"'; the whole plant, top and root, will 

 be aliout fourlecn inches long ; lay or set the 

 plai'.t in the furrow, leaning on the side which 

 has been made straight and even by the line, so 

 that a little more than the root shall be cover- 

 ed when the dirt is hauled in ; put the plants 

 five inches apart in the row, haul in the din 

 with a spade or hoe, and tiead it down, taking 

 care that the plants remain in their places at 

 five inches apart in the row, and the tops all 

 standing in a line as straight as possible. And, 

 thereafter, with the plough, one-horse harrow, 

 and hoe, for the three succeeding years at least, 

 kf ep the plants free from grass and weeds, and 

 raise the land somewhat towards the plants. 



The plants may be taken up, in the nursery, 

 at any leisure time in the fall, after the leaves 

 drop, or early in the spring, before they leave 

 oi\t again, and as they are trimmed they should 

 be laid in the trench, co\ered with dirt, and 

 trodden down. They will remain perfectly 

 safe and green, until taken up to set in hedges; 

 and it is advisable, if convenient, that they be 

 placed in trenches along the parcel of land pre- 

 pared for setting the hedge, near where they 

 are to be set, and from which they can be taken 

 as they are wanted to set. 



Plants, when set in hedges, should all of 

 them he as nearly of the same size as possildi', 

 and if there is any difrer'jncc, let the larger be 

 set by themselves, and the less by themselves, 

 and not ailerna' ly a small and a large one, for 

 if so placed, the less are stunted or destroyed 

 by Ihe large, and the hedge becomes open or ol' 

 unequal strength. If the land is good, the plants 

 may be expected to grow ths first year from 

 two to three feet. The line should be exairi- 

 ined the succeeding spring, ?nd where any of 

 the plants are dead, their place should be sup- 

 plied with the largest and thriftiest plants from 

 the nursery ; and in chree or four years, the 

 plants will have grown to the height of seven 

 to ten feet, provided they are not cropped or cut 

 off. From reading, and advice of [larsons who 

 I supposed understood this business much bel- 

 ter than I did, I let mine run up to this height 

 without cropping, and then performed upon 

 them an operation called splashing. This is 

 done by cutting off about every other plant six 

 inches from the ground, trimming oiT with a 

 bill-book all the limbs from the remainder of 

 the plants, making stakes from a part of those 

 cut out, sticking those stakes at about two feet 

 from each other along the line ; cut the plants 

 left standing a little on one side, six inches 

 from the ground also, wind them in between 

 Ihe stakes, in a reclining position, and so Ihat 

 the tops may be about four feet from the 

 ground; then by two v\ithes, made also of the 

 plant? which had been cut out and run along 

 the tops of the stakes, the whole is secured to- 

 gether and held stedfasi in their places. 



The plant; sprouted up again from the bot- 

 tom, and those bent among the stakes sent out 

 numerous lateral branches, and after two years, 

 the most of them tjecame a sufhcient fence 

 against cattle, horses, and sheep, but not a safe 

 fence against hogs. After splashing, to prevent 

 them from running up and becoming thin at 

 bottom, the top is to be trimmed every year, 

 which may be done in the month of August, 

 with a pair of hedge shears, or in the fall, alter 

 Ihe leaves drop, but if left for several years, 

 this work is more easily done with a bill-hook. 



A man will splash ten to fourteen rods in a 

 day, and will trim off the tops of at least fifty 

 in a day, if it is done every year, but if left for 

 several years, until the plants become large, it 

 will take him much longer. 



1 am of opinion, however, that I might have 

 been saved the expense of splashing altogether, 

 by running over the hedges every year with a 

 pair of hedge shears, and cutting them off flat 

 at top the first year, within about six inches of 

 the ground, and in every succeeding year, leav- 

 ing not more than six to nine inches of the last 

 year's growth ; and Ihat the hedges would have 

 been equally good, if not letter, and would have 

 iieen at maturity as .«oon as by the method pur- 

 sued. 



Green sward land is to be preferred in con- 

 structing live fences, with ditches ; the ditch 

 should be four feet broad at top, one foot at 

 bottom, and two and a half deep. A line, four 

 rods long, is laid down in the direction of the 



