No. 3. 



English Thorn or Hawthorn. 



93 



thus affected. I hope some of your corres- 

 pondents will give us definite information on 

 this point. I shall confine my remarks to the 

 English thorn, or hawthorn. Hedges made 

 of this thorn are, in England, the only fences 

 against the largest cattle, and in lact are 

 there the only ones required, as no cattle can 

 break pa-sture when enclosed by one in good 

 order and at a proper growth. I shall at once 

 proceed to the point, and state my opinion as 

 to the mode of obtaining such a fence. The 

 haws or berries must be gathered, when ripe, 

 and buried in the ground for a season, and 

 the next autumn or fall sown in a vacant lot. 

 It is best to plant them in beds, leaving paths 

 between each, as some persons do straw- 

 berries, that they may the more conveniently 

 be kept clean, which must be carefully at- 

 tended to. When the quick or young thorn 

 has become of sufficient size for planting, 

 which does not happen until of two years 

 growth, it should be carefully taken up and 

 assorted, and all small and unhealthy shoots 

 laid aside, so that all gaps may be avoided 

 from the cause of their failure. The prefer- 

 able plan is to plant it in a single row, and 

 much thicker than usually planted, say three 

 inches apart, for the same quantity of quick 

 planted in a single row is far preferable to 

 that quantity planted in two rows. A trench 

 or ditch should be made in the fresh soil, and 

 the roots of the quick laid carefully in, being 

 disentangled and unbent, when the earth 

 should be replaced again, after which it should 

 be cut carefully off within an inch or two of 

 the ground. The following summer it should 

 be kept perfectly clean, and at the end of the 

 year cut down within about six inches of the 

 ground, and again the next year within twelve 

 or fidecn inches, in order to make it branch 

 well and thicken. At the time of cleaning 

 in the fall, the moulds should be put a iew 

 inches higher up the stem, which, with the 

 assistance of cutting, will make the roots 

 branch out for the better support of the plant. 

 The only attention it will now require is to 

 shorten it a little the following season, and 

 when required, afterwards, to keep it clean 

 and the cattle from biting it, which is exceed- 

 ingly injurious to young quick ; and as they 

 are particularly fond of it, especially sheep, 

 caution must be taken to avoid it, and a few 

 years from this time, no farmer will have 

 cause to regret his former trouble. 



I do not think it a good plan to cut quicks 

 in the formal manner that they usually are, 

 making them smooth at the top and sides 

 by cuttinij every piece of the same length, 

 as it appears a direct injury to tlietn in a hot 

 season ; and I have noticed particularly that 

 those quicks that are thus cut die when others 

 do not. It is required, however, they should 

 be trimmed at the sides, and headed when 



they grow loo luxuriantly, so that they do not 

 receive injury from the miow lodging upon 

 them and breaking th(;m down, which, if it 

 does when spring arrives, the broken pieces 

 should be cut away. This process is best 

 performed with a hatchet or strong sword. 

 When the hedge becomes thin at the bottom 

 afler ten or twelve years growth, it should be 

 cut down, leaving it about four feet high ; 

 and tiie side branches also should be well 

 trimmed off that which is left standing within 

 a few inches of the stem. Should not tlie stems 

 stand any great distance apart, on account 

 of portions having failed to grow, it will not 

 require laying or tying down, which is of 

 course an injury to the shoots thus cut to be 

 bent. Even at this height, without laying, no 

 ordinary cattle will break pasture, as it presents 

 to them, as it were, a thick paled fence, which, 

 in the course of another year, will be perfectly 

 impregnable by them. When the quick has 

 grown some eight years more from this 

 latter cutting, it probably will becom.e thin 

 at the bottom, and may present signs of dying 

 below, when it should be cut entirely down 

 within eight or ten inches of the ground, 

 moulded up again, and the cattle kept from 

 it for a few years, when, at the expiration of 

 four or five years, an excellent fence will 

 again be produced. The farmer should ar- 

 range so that he cuts his fence down when 

 he first ploughs up his clover layers, as then 

 for the next four years he will not require to 

 put cattle in his field, they being in corn and 

 grain crops, at the end of which time he will 

 have an excellent fence. We perceive then 

 that for our first outlay of sowing the berries, 

 and planting the quick and attending to it, 

 which, if farmers will calculate, (for I think 

 it not worth while making any special one 

 here, as the expense would vary, according 

 to circumstances,) will not be greater Ihan 

 buying railings, and making and repairing 

 the fence. VVe get a fence as good as any 

 rail fence, and better in point of saving, as 

 there is no secondary expense in renewing, 

 compared to the purchase of rails, it being a 

 permanent one. Should any parts of it fail, 

 the moulds must be well moved over before 

 replanting, as quick will not grow in an old 

 rooted bank or soil without being previously 

 so moved over and cleaned. It is best not to 

 plant any other variety of thorn or plants in 

 the same hedge row, as they never succeed 

 so well mixed ; and should the soil be very 

 wet, a small ditch and bank must be made 

 and the hedge placed upon the bank; upon 

 which subject, and others I may think of use, 

 I may communicate to you further respecting. 

 Those of my friends who doubt the practica- 

 bility of the English thorn being cultivated 

 in this country, have only to visit John 

 Rudolph's farm, a short distance from the 



