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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



March 2, 1S31. 



.© © sa sa w sr a® ii ^ a © ST 3 ( 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND tARMER. 



LIVE FENCES. 

 Mr Fessenden — If yoii deem the following 

 observations and extract on the subject of live 

 fences deserving a place in your highly valuable 

 paper, they are at your service. 



I noticed a short time since at Brockline a hedge 

 of the Thrpe Thorned Acacia of the extent of 

 100 rods, set 6 or 7 years since at the mansion 

 lately the residence of John Tappan, Esq. of your 

 city. This hedge has liccn annually pruned top 

 and sides, and promises I think to become ere long 

 a fijnee the most beautiful if not the most for- 

 midable of its kind. 



This most hardy and thrifty tree is a species of 

 the sensitive. Its beautiful pinnated leaves, regu- 

 larly and daily contract and shut up at about the 

 going down of the sun. This plant is neither 

 devomed by the destructive worm, nor does it like 

 most other species of the Locust throw up innu- 

 merable suckers from its root. Its numerous and 

 branching thorns — growing sometimes more than 

 a foot in length, have occasioned its being some- 

 times called by way of distinction the < Horrid 

 Acacia.' 



The Red Cedar, although not armed with 

 dreadful thorns as is the thrpe-thorned acacia, yet 

 1 think bids fair to prove a valuable material for 

 live fences. Its extreme hardiness, its beauty 

 when considered as an evergreen, and its wood, 

 bark and foliage being at the same time so offen- 

 sive to both animals and insects, that neither have 

 ever been known to devour them. The gentleman 

 above named informs me of a hedge of the Red 

 Cedar of considerable extent which he has oftimes 

 noticed at the Insane Hospital near the city of 

 New York. So perfect had this hedge been ren- 

 dered by shearing- — and so dense its surface, that 

 it seemed scarce possible to discern a space where 

 even a hand coidd be forced through its compact 

 exterior. 



At Mount Vernon, we are informed by the Rev. 

 Mr Colman, are Tery extensive and beautiful hedges 

 of the Red Cedar. — These I understand by him 

 are set in a single row. Judge Taylor has also 

 from his own experience highly recommended 

 hedges of Red Cedar. 



One point with regard to hedges seems now to 

 be pretty generally admitted, that in our climate a 

 hedge will not succeed so well on the summit or 

 outer angle of a bank of earth as on the level .sur- 

 face ; on the outer angles of earth-banks the 

 droughts to which we are sometimes liable and a 

 too powerful suir are destructively injurious. 



I send you, Mr Editor, an extract on the subject 

 of hedges from a writer of the 18th century; it 

 is Lord Kaimes a writer well known as an eminent- 

 ly practical man. His mode of training and 

 forming the hedge, as I have never seen it prac- 

 tised, 1 thence conclude is not generally known 

 among us; yet, to my mind, there is no system that 

 I have ever heard of, which has ever been devised, 

 which promises to equal that which is here de- 

 scribed for forming a strong and permanent hedge. 

 Let the material consist of whatever tree it may, 

 whether the White Thorn — the Acacia — the Vir- 

 ginia Thorn or the Cedar, the same system of 

 management seems alike adapted to them all. 



In training hedges (says Lord Kaimes) I have 

 had the experience of three hedges trained twelve 

 years as follows : 



The first ha.s been annually pruned, top and 

 sides. 



The sides of the second have been pruned, but 

 the top left entire. 



The third was allowed to grow without any 

 pruning. 



The first is at present about four feet broad and 

 tliick from top to bottom ; but weak in its stems 

 and unable to resist any horned beast. 



The second is strong in its stems, and close from 

 top to bottom. 



The third is also strong in its stems, but for two 

 feet up bare of lateral branches, which have been 

 destroyed by the overshadowing of those above, de- 

 priving them both of rain and air. That the se- 

 cond is the best method is ascertained by experi- 

 ence ; and that it ought to be so, will be evident 

 from analrgy : in the natural growth of a tree its 

 trunk is proportioned to its height : lop off its head 

 and it spreads laterally and becomes a bush, with- 

 out rising in height or swelling in the trunk. 



Hence the following method of training up a 

 hedge which is to allow the thorns to grow with- 

 out applying a knife to their tops, till their steins 

 be five or six inches in circumference. In gooil 

 soil with careful weeding they will be of that size 

 in tenor twelve years, and be fifteen feet high or 

 upwards. The laterals only must [meanwhile] be 

 attended to. Those next the ground must be 

 pruned within two feet of the stem, those above 

 must be made shorterand shorter, in proportion to 

 their distance from the ground ; and at five feet 

 high they must be cut close to the stem, leaving 

 all above full freedom of growth. By this dressing 

 the hedge takes on the appearance of a very steep 

 roof; and it ought to be kept in that form by 

 I)riming. This form gives free access to rain, sun 

 and air ; every twig has its share and the whole 

 is preserved in vigor. 



When the stems have arrived at their proper 

 bulk, they are cut over [cut off] at five feet from 

 the ground, where the lateral branches end ; this 

 answers two excellent purposes, the first is, to 

 strengthen the hedge, thesap that formerly ascended 

 to the top being now distributed among the 

 branches. The next is that a tall hedge stag- 

 nates the air, and poisons both corn and grass 

 near it. 



A hedge trained up in this manner is impenetra- 

 ble even by a bull ; he may press in the lateral 

 branches, but the stems stand firm. For an instant 

 proof that this method will answer, observe the 

 thorns that from sjiace to space arc allowed to 

 grow up above their fellows in forin of a hedge 

 row. These thorns though growing in the mid- 

 dle of a bushy hedge Iiave stems far larger than 

 the rest. Besides the strength of such a hedge, 

 it is less expensive than a hedge reared in the 

 ordinary way: the weeds are sooner checked and 

 it requires much less pruning. ****** 



* * Good thorns, are indeed more essential in 

 this mode of training than in any other; they 

 ought to be the best thorns that can be procured — 

 all of an equal size and equally vigorous, that 

 they may not overleap one another. 



The thorn is a tree of long life, and a hedge 

 raised and dressed in the way here described woidd 

 continue a firm hedge for perhaps five hundred 

 years. 



Respectfully, your most obedient servant, 



WILLIAM KENRICK. 

 J^ewion, Feb. IG, 1831. 



DESCRIPTiON or THE FIGURES. 



Fig. a — Moilu of pruning the hedge till (he stems be^' 

 come 5 or 6 inclies in circumference and at least 15 feet 

 in height. 



Fig. b, represents the hedge when completed and top- 

 ped. — It is now 4 feet wide at bottom and 5 feel high, in 

 the form of a steep roof; in this form it must always be 

 preserved. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



INSECTS IN CATTLE. 



Mr Fesse.vden — Some of ray young cattle 

 have small swellings under the skin near the back, 

 containing worms which can in some instances be 

 forced out by pressure of the thumbs and fore- 

 fingers of both hands, through a small orifice on 

 the most prominent part of the swelling; and are 

 white, with a black or brown point at the head, 

 and are about three fourths of an inch long, and 

 nearly the same in the greatest circumference. 



This is a common occurrence among young cat- 

 tle in the spring of the yeai ; and by our old 

 farmers are called cattle worms, who notice them 

 but little, saying they will all come out by pasture 

 time. They are however a serious evil to the 

 animals. 



If you, or any of your numerous and intelligent 

 correspondents, can and will inform the pubhc 

 through the medium of your valuable paper the 

 cause of their origin, and how that can be pre- 

 vented, and the best method of extirpating tiiero 

 at this season, when so full grown, you will con- 

 fer a great favor on that public, and many herds- 

 men in Essex North. 



Remarks by the Editor. — The insect above al- 

 luded to belongs to the same genus with the bott 

 in the horse, and is called by naturalists Oestims 

 bovis, or ox bolt. It is thus described under ths 

 article ' Botts' in Rees' Cyclopedia. 



' When young, the larva is smooth, white, and lu; 

 transparent; as it enlarges it becomes browner; 

 and about the time it is full grown, it is totally of a 

 deep brown color, having numerous dots on its 

 surface, disposed in transverse interrupted lines 



