120 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



March 



For the New England Farmer. 



HEDGES. 



BY HENHY F. FREXCII. 



A correspondent some time ago inquired of me, 

 through the Farmer, as to what is the best plant 

 for hedges. My decided opinion is, that for an or 

 namental hedge, for this cold climate — thermome 

 ter to-day ten below zero at noon — the Privet is 

 the best. I have the buckthorn and triple thorn 

 apacia, or Hovey locust, some forty rods in extent, 

 on my place here. The buckthorn is very hardy 

 and very handsome, and keeps its leaves about as 

 long as the apple tree, and on the whole, is quite 

 satisfactory. Without a wire or two through it, it 

 is not strong enough to resist a cow that is igno- 

 rant of its being a fence. The acacia makes a 

 strong fence, but it is a coarse, rank grower, diffi- 

 cult to be kept down in shape, puts on its foliage 

 about the time the ladies adopt^ th,eir summer 

 bonnets, and takes it off before the fall fashions 

 commence. In other words, it is the last plant to 

 leaf out, and the first to leave off its leaves. Like 

 the Irishman's moon, which he said never shone in 

 dark nights when you need it most, it only looks 

 beautiful when there is beauty everywhere. The 

 privet, though not strictly an evergreen, is the next 

 thing to it. Its leaves come early, and they keep 

 on and keep green till the snow flies, and through 

 the winter the naked limbs are rarely exposed, and 

 if there is deep snow, the spring will find the lower 

 limbs still green. It is hardy, a very rapid grower, 

 is inclined to grow thick and shrubby, and so 

 bears cutting into exact shape as you desire, and 

 on the whole, though not strong enough to stop 

 cattle, without the support of a rail or wire, is the 

 prettiest thing for an ornamental hedge that has 

 come to my notice. 



How any man of common sense can be Itfl to 

 put up white pine embroidered front fences in the 

 country, where he may have a privet hedge at one- 

 tenth the cost, passes ray comprehension, Mr. 

 Hall, of Bradford, has the plants, and they grow- 

 readily from cuttings- n. F. r. 



Exder, JST. IL, Dec. 18> I80G. 



Fur tha New England Farmer, 



PATENT 0]?FICE REPORTS. 



The Agricultural Ilajjorts which have emanated 

 from the Patent Office for 18-3-5, contain many sug- 

 gestions of great interest. The report upon seeds^ 

 roots and cuttings was made by that indefatigable 

 writer, D. I. Browne, of the Patent Office, and must 

 have required a great amount of labor, and the 

 collection of a vast many reports and communica- 

 tions from ministers, consuls, presidents and travel- 

 lers from various parts of the globe. This report 

 relates chiefly to foreign plants and trees, which the 

 writer believes may be introduced and naturalized 

 in some one or several sections of the United States. 

 In this list are included the Sorghum saccharaium, 



or Chinese sugar cane, the Chinese yam, or Di- 

 oscorea batatas, the earth almond, the Persian wal- 

 nut, the common almond, the cork tree, the prune, 

 the Persian and currant grape vines, the licorice, 

 the opium poppy, the vanilla, the ginger plant, the 

 orris root, tlie palmated rhubarb, the castor oil 

 plant, assafoetida plant, the cardamom, the water nut, 

 the lotus, the guinea grass, the tussack grass, the 

 cochineal plant, the madder, the tea plant, the 

 boxwood tree, the sweet acorned oak, the gall nut 

 oak, the date tree, the tamarind tree, the olibanura 

 or frankincense tree, the balsam of Gilead, the aca- 

 cia, or gum Arabic tree, the quassia plant, the 

 senna, and several others. Many of these articles 

 are annually imported into this country to a large 

 amount, and if they can be produced within our 

 own limits, of equally good quality, it is certainly 

 an object worthy the attention of our government. 

 Our manufacturers are now paying a million of 

 dollars every year for madder, which can undoubt- 

 edly be raised at home. Our people are paying 

 $60,000 for ginger, and $400,000 for opium, and 

 $284,000 for cork, and $250,000 for almonds, 

 and for each and all of these plants there is no better 

 soil or climate in the world than can be found in 

 our own borders. How much better and safer is 

 the policy of introducing the plants and produc- 

 tions of other countries and soils into our own 

 than is that of the annexation of every country 

 that joins us! K. 



For the New England Fanner. 



ESSEX COUNTY TRAlfSACTIO^S. 



Mr. Editor : — The last number of your valua- 

 ble paper contains a notice of my Supplement to 

 the lieport on Farms, contained in the forth coming 

 volume of the Essex County Transactions for 1856. 

 The writer complains that I have withheld "the 

 names of those who made the experiments" v.-ith fer- 

 tilizers, and remarks that "much of the interest of 

 the subject is impaired." 



Now, Mr. Editor, the writer must have taken 

 but a very hasty glance, indeed, at my report ; for 

 he has overlooked both the reason of the omission, 

 and the remedy for it. The reason was, that the 

 facts in many cases could not be obtained without 

 a pledge that names should not be published. The 

 remedy was, that by calling on the secretaryj-^the 

 name of every person whose experiments are re- 

 corded could be learned at once. After consulta- 

 tion with one of the leading officers of the society, 

 it was decided that this course should be tried, at 

 least; for surely, if it is an object with any gentle- 

 man to verify the facts in a given case, or in all 

 cases, nothing could be easier than to obtain the 

 key which would unlock the Avhole. 



"But," says the writer, "if we know the operator 

 to possess a clear head, and unwavering veracity, 

 we give full credit to what he does." Now, sir, 

 even supposing your correspondent to reside in 

 this county, could he be possibly supposed to know 

 every farmer here, and whether "he possessed a 

 clear head" or not, "unwavering veracity" or not ? 

 Are important experiments, carefully and coolly 

 made, to go for nothing, merely because the opera- 

 tor is not known to the readers of our Transactions 

 to possess a "clear head ?" What do nine-tenths 

 of American readers know of Mr. Mechi, tor exain- 

 ple ? Yet who doubts the truth of what he is re- 

 ported to say and do ? Our society has undertak- 



